I got this idea from a couple of books I read this year – Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan; and Fierce Leadership by Susan Scott. Both great books if you like to learn by reading. Here’s my own version of a letter to new managers (also relevant for experienced managers, so keep reading).
Congratulations on becoming a manager. What a great acknowledgment of your capabilities. I know you’ll be both excited and a little nervous about this new role, so let me share with you some information that I think will help you with your new challenge.
You will have a lot to juggle. Your primary goal is to enable to business to thrive, and you do that through others. But let’s focus on you first.
First, reflect on the strengths that got you here. How can you apply those in this new role? And what are you missing, that you either need to learn yourself….or find team members to fill that gap? It’s all about getting the right balance across the team – you can’t be good at everything, but you can focus on your and others’ strengths and build on those. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can single-handedly cause success or prevent failure. You need to surround yourself with people who want success, and love what they do. You and they will be much happier if you are focusing on your strengths.
What tasks do you need to jettison now that you are a manager? You need to free up your time to manage other people now – they are your leverage to achieve more as a team than you could achieve on your own. So giving them your time, to support and challenge them, is crucial. You can’t just add this new responsibility onto everything you did before – reflect on what you need to delegate to others, so that you can focus on building their capacity.
You might be asking how you support and challenge them. Well, it depends on the individual. If they are new to a task, then you may need to give them more instructions. But as they become more skilled, and assuming they are self-motivated, then you can move into coaching….asking them questions that help them to think things through for themselves. They will learn so much more that way. They may not come up with the same answer as you, but if there is no standard process that they need to follow, let them try it out their way. They’ll take much more ownership that way, and feel a greater sense of accomplishment. You’re building independent, critical thinkers, people who can make decisions without needing to refer to you all of the time.
This isn’t a touchy-feely skill. You are still holding them accountable for progress each week. In your weekly meetings, ask them questions that get them to focus on forward motion:
- Last week, you said you planned to do x. How did that go?
- What challenges are you facing? How will you overcome those?
- What are the risks? How are you planning to address those proactively?
- How can I help you?
- What actions will you take next week to move you forward?
How else can you support them? By giving them frequent feedback. FREQUENT. Not once or twice a year. They want to know when they are doing well (just like you do), as much as they want to know what they need to improve (again, just like you do). It’s tough moving into giving feedback, but that is one of the things you are paid for now that you are a manager. You should hold yourself accountable for this.
People learn way more on-the-job than they do on a course. But only if you give them opportunities that stretch them, and give them coaching and feedback along the way.
So we’ve talked a lot about the 1-1 conversations you’ll need to have with your people. Your primary role is to broker hundreds of such conversations; every conversation, every interaction and every piece of work is an opportunity to develop your people such that they can bring their absolute best to work each day. Take it one conversation at a time, and the multiple conversations will build you and others towards brilliance.
Everyone is watching you now. Your actions say much more than your words. So be sure to get your actions aligned with your values. It’s one thing to say you have an open door policy, but if you are always dashing about, late to meetings, showing how busy you are, then people will not approach you. If you want to appear approachable, you need to be there for them, putting everything else aside when they ask for help – or agreeing a mutually beneficial time to get together and then sticking to that time. There are many other ways in which you are now a role model – think about how you want to be seen, and act accordingly. Actions speak louder than words.
On that note, your success depends on the success of the people around you – so do everything you can to make them successful. It’s not enough to say that people are your most important asset, unless you help them to achieve their potential.
It will be hard at times. I hope you have the support that you need from your own manager. But if not, ask for what you need. And surround yourself with other people who can provide you the support you need. Don’t play the victim – take control and find ways to get the help you need. Maybe I sound a bit harsh, but you can only control your own behavior, no-one else’s.
Thinking about your needs, be sure to get the right work-life balance integration. None of us can work long hours without lunch breaks for long periods of time without some kind of break-down. Our bodies – and our minds – cannot cope with such sustained imbalance. I encourage you to lead the way, and show your people that it’s a good thing to leave on time, take a break, get some exercise, spend time with your family. These things rejuvenate us, so that we are raring to go, and way more productive than we would be if we slogged away for hours, days, weeks, years on end. If you’re already on that treadmill, work out how you will jump off; small changes make a big difference.
I could say so much more. But let me end on this note. People feel great when they have autonomy (the ability to direct their own work), mastery (the ability to get better at something that matters) and purpose (contributing to something larger than themselves) (from Drive, by Daniel Pink). You are contributing to the growth of other people – which is a great motivator for you – how are you helping them to be autonomous, master specialised skills, in service of something meaningful?
Good luck, and let me know how I can support you moving forward – what else would you like me to write about here in the blog? Let me know in the comments below.
