From the Ask Tom Mailbag:

Question:
I have an IT person, very skilled in technology, but seemingly unable to look beyond next week. He is brilliant at solving network issues, working around this problem and solving that issue. But his backlog of projects is growing. It appears he is unable to prioritize or track progress on any project longer than one or two days. We have temporarily assigned him to report to one of our senior managers, she’s very organized, to try to keep him focused. Together, they have created tracking spreadsheets, and meet once a week to update the status on projects. But the more time goes by, the more out of control things get. The value we deliver to our clients depends on our technology, so this truly has my attention.

Response:
If this role was simply to keep your computer network afloat, wouldn’t be a big deal, but you describe this as mission critical. You describe requirements for two distinct roles. One role is technical, directly performing task assignments (direct output), and one role making decisions about priorities, sequence and allocation of resources. You might find both in the same person (if you had the budget), but that is not the case. You have two individuals, which you describe as competent.

Here’s the rub. Who is the manager of the IT person. Like many companies, computers and their networks are so mystical that IT personnel are allowed to roam free, with only vague accountability. The evidence of vague accountability, is that they often have no appropriate manager.

You described that you have a senior manager available, AND you will have to determine their interest in being the manager of the IT person, but here is the difference. Your move is to shift accountability to this senior manager. It is not a matter of the IT person reporting to this senior manager, but this senior manager being accountable for the direct output of the IT person.

This subtle shift in accountability makes all the difference. You see, I don’t know if they need to meet once a week or twice a day. That’s not my decision. That is a decision for the senior manager. And the senior manager will only make the right decision with the understanding that she is accountable for the output of the IT person. This is a game changer.