I’d appreciate your perspective in a situation where responsibility and authority don’t line up.
I’m Director of Engineering at a small nonprofit design firm. My peer, a Senior Landscape Architect, has two directs (D and B). On paper, she manages them. In practice, though, both of them work almost entirely on my projects.
This creates an unclear hierarchy: I’m accountable for delivering those projects and for setting the standards that govern the work, but I don’t have authority over the people producing it. Meanwhile, their official manager doesn’t really manage them. She avoids accountability, directly contradicts the standards I’ve been tasked with setting, and at times teaches them the wrong process.
One recent example: I had explicitly told staff to pause on submitting a regulatory form until we resolved errors. Instead, she instructed them to submit it anyway — using my name on the form. The submission went out incorrectly and created reputational risk for me and the organization.
Another example: D has been with the firm for almost a year as a Landscape Architect, but he still can’t independently complete basic tasks needed for my projects. I’ve had to design a structured 10-week training program to teach him the foundational design knowledge he should already have to function at an entry level. Without this intervention, he remains unable to contribute productively.
As a result, I end up fixing work, re-teaching staff, and coaching them intensively. In effect, I’m carrying both my workload and the gap left by her lack of management. I’ve tried regular check-in meetings with her to align, but the same issues persist.
My question is: how should I handle this? They’re not my directs, but their work is critical to my projects, and the hierarchy leaves me accountable without authority.
Thanks for any guidance,
David