The world is littered with failed construction supervisors who used to be perfectly good carpenters.

First-time managers are a challenge to work for.

They are people who got promoted by doing a non-management job well, and they probably have little experience in their new role.

We have all seen the bright, shiny and super competent accountant, carpenter or widget-maker that was well liked by Management and was rewarded by being promoted to a supervisory position.

In last week’s blog post we discussed how being the boss wasn’t all sunshine and roses. It is even worse for the first time boss. World peace doesn’t break out nor do cats start sleeping with dogs just because you are in charge.

Read the Blog: 4 lonely truths of being the Boss

I am currently working with a client who is a technically and intellectually brilliant. He was promoted to a team leader role and now he is super frustrated with lack of results.

His problem? No one has ever taught him to be a boss, yet here he is, The Boss.

Here are the five secrets he could have used to avoid, the all too common, mistakes that will undermine the new boss fastest.

1. Focusing on people instead of tasks

Before the promotion, your job was come to work every day and do the best job you could do. You were there to get stuff done.

Now your number one job is to help other people contribute to the accomplishment of the organization’s mission and objectives.

Sorry, but you can’t avoid the fact that you will have tasks, too: reports, budgets, planning but these are secondary to helping other people to do their job.

You have to get to know your people to understand what rings their bell, what demotivates them, what is going on at home and how to get the best work from them.

Related: Click here to read more about motivation

2. Transition out of the old and into the new

You can’t do your new job well if you’re still doing your old job.

First, get rid of the stuff from your old position and get over any illusion that you were indispensable to your old team.

Negotiate with your old and new boss to offload your old tasks so you can focus on your new role.

Your old job will be done well. Accept that it won’t be done the way you would do it, but it will be done well … so get over yourself.

3. Partner with your boss

Managing up is a bogus and disrespectful concept. You have to figure out what matters to your boss, and your boss’s boss, and make that stuff matter to you.

I used to ask my Boss what her performance objectives were. Guess what?

Poof and suddenly my work had better contribute to her objectives.

4. Buy yourself time

A client just accepted a position where she is managing three times the number of people she had been. Her management issues didn’t multiply by three; they grew exponentially by a factor of 3.

To get a grip on the scope of what she is facing I coached her to begin to fill only 75% of her time in her calendar. People will want to talk to her and a million things that will fill that ‘free’ 25% of time.

Read about the leadership magic of the number 75

5. Use silence to listening

Listen to the organization. Get people out of the workplace so they are comfortable enough to start talking. Ask open-ended questions then shut up and let people talk.

Remember that one of the most annoying things about any manager — or anyone for that matter — is when they just won’t shut up.

Related: click here to read about using silence in a conversation

You likely have heard of the concept called the Peter Principle: ‘People get promoted one level above the competencies and capabilities’; or, ‘managers rise to the level of their incompetence.’

The Peter Principle is a management concept that proposes that the selection of a candidate for any position is based on their current role & performance rather than their abilities to perform in the intended role. Thus, employees only stop being promoted once they can no longer perform effectively.

Nice Eh!

Promoted and feel good about yourself;

Promoted and feel good about yourself;

Promoted and feel good about yourself;

Promoted and then FAIL!!

I am coaching a brilliant and intelligent person who has recently been promoted to a program manager with four coordinators as direct reports. She has just realized that she is the ham in the sandwich squished between senior managers and her direct reports.

She came to me after hearing my keynote where I described a soup-sandwich and she does not want her career ending up like two pieces of bread soaked in soup. Her promotion has landed her squarely in the middle of competing for business priorities, interests and influence & power. She feels the constant squeeze of pressure from above and below. She has to influence peers, build partnerships and survive small ‘p’ politics every day.

She is perfectly fine being the ham in the sandwich, but she has no intention of turning her career into a soup sandwich.

What the heck is a soup sandwich

How did I help her adjust and set her up to thrive in her new role? I gave her these 6 tools:

1. Slow Down & Think: Organise your day, so you have time to observe what is happening around you. Look for the big picture, patterns in relationships and the trade-offs that people are making to get their work done. These are the reality of the complexities of organizations.  Develop an understanding and empathy for others — but let their busy work get in your way and allow you to lose focus.”

Click here to read how Attila the Hun says Thank You

2. Life is hard, Learn to manage It:  Handling stress, uncertainty and setbacks are part of your work life, and you need to maintain grace & balance while under pressure. If you can’t find balance, these pressures will go home with you and directly impact your home and family life.

3. Don’t Communicate, Listen & Talk: Communication is a core competency, and you will be required to express ideas to a wide range of audiences. But never forget that effective communication is also about listening, asking questions, and aligning words and actions.

Click Here to Read about Walking the Talk

4. Influence: No manager is an island, and even Tsars and dictators need cooperation to get things done. In today’s matrixed organizations, position or expertise alone isn’t enough. It is important to develop styles to help you get different people with different perspectives on board.

Click here to read more about the Big Bang Theory and Leading

5. Keep Learning: Seeking opportunities to learn and learn quickly. To be good at anything requires some knowledge, skills, and technical know-how. I have become a HUGE proponent of Podcasts and Webinars so I can learn while walking the dog & driving.

6. Be Self-Aware: It is important that you understand your style and strengths. But it is vital to fully understand your weaknesses & shortcomings because these will inevitably prevent you from navigating you’re within your organization.

“We become what we repeatedly do.”
― Sean Covey

This is a checklist of seven simple shifts that can lead to exponential gains.

To gain benefit: print it; post it; and, do at least one action each day.

1. Take the time to say good morning to someone & thank them for coming in

2. Ask someone for their opinion on something & listened to what they have to say

3. Ask someone what is happening in their lives outside of work

4. Tell what is happening in the larger organization to keep people connected to the big picture and the higher purpose of their work

5. Write a personal thank you note to a team member or colleague

6. Make rounds, to stay in touch and talk about your expectations, so your team knows what matters

7. Take time to pursue or read something to enhance your leadership

Attracting people who’ll believe and trust you doesn’t happen overnight. You have to stick with it and continually learn to be a better leader.

Sincere & simple leadership actions draw people’s attention and are the most effective tactic for generating trust and engaging team members.

Click to download ‘7 Simple Shifts – Your Checklist To Being A Better Leader’

Recently I was interviewed for a leadership podcast, and the question that caused me to reflect on a lifetime of leading was: How do you show you care for your employees?

I landed on 6 key actions:

One, the easiest and most important is to connect them to the organization and the mission and the objectives of the organization in a very simple, articulate way.

How: Explain in respectful and appropriate language how each person’s work contributes to the success of the entire team

read more about the Mission

Two, show a high level of trust and confidence in them and in return you will get that back.

How: Explain what’s happening. I think most leaders, not because of ill-will don’t want to worry anybody, so they’re not going to tell the full truth about what’s happening around them.

And one of my consultancy clients were laying off people, because of economic reasons, there wasn’t enough work. But they stopped telling people what was happening and why people the project ended and there was no work.

People saw that the people in charge had stopped communicating and their coworkers just disappear. They began to assume that the company was in big trouble. The company was financially solid, still making a profit, had good sales and lots of potential work in the pipeline.

I coached the president to hold town halls and open the books as much as possible that was happening to give people confidence that the company was solid.

read more about talking to you people in tough times

Three, get off your butt, get out of your office and go see how people are working and ask them what’s going on in their lives, and in their workplace and show a little empathy.

How: Find out what’s going on, fix the little problems, be empathetic with people and that’s as equally simple and as complex as that.

During one of my walk arounds, I learned that a young lady working for me had a chance for a scholarship to go to nurses’ school. She couldn’t afford to travel, so the company paid for a hotel in Vancouver attend the application interview.

I didn’t have to do that, but trust me, that the word got spread that I helped her with this and, suddenly, people thought “If they’re going to do that for her, they’ll help me out,” and morale loyalty and trust goes up.

Four, deal with poor performance. Nothing will demoralize you people quicker than seeing a coworker get away with poor performance.

How: Pull your big boy or girl pants up and deal with poor performance.

No one comes to work wanting to do a bad job, create the desired expectations, provide the resources required for that person to improve, and monitor, mentor and support the behaviours you expect.

You are the Boss and eventually you will have to bring people up to the standard of performance or move them, respectfully, out of the organization.

Learn more about performance agreements

Fifth, have a little class and dignity.

How: People are not stupid or unrealistic, they understand that when times get tough layoffs may have to happen. But that is not license to treat people like so much trash being kicked to the curb.

Even if you have to fire somebody make sure that everyone sees that person being treated fairly and with respect.  That translates onto the shop floor or the rest of the office or the rest of the team, or they go “You know what, they treated that guy okay, so maybe they will look after me.

Finally, do the things no one would miss if you didn’t do it.

How: When I learned that someone on my team had a death in their family, I always send flowers from the organization and the team.

The cost? $30

… $30 for a little bit of caring.

It is those low cost yet important little things that become exponentially important to that person and the rest of your team.

I have a coaching client who was promoted from a specialist engineer to the dizzy heights of team-lead without the company investing in the skills she needed to transition from specialist to leader.

Because her boss and company did not recognize that they were promoting her into a new profession and invest in her accordingly, their accomplishment was to turn a fine and capable engineer into a poor supervisor!

The difference:

• Specialists use their skills and experience to create a product
• Team leaders need management skills, a knack for problem-solving and the ability to plan and manage the work – NOT to do it!

So, what is a team leader’s skill set?

1 Balancing between leadership and management

These are two separate skills:

Leadership is communicating a common vision of a future state; gaining agreement; then, motivating others in a forward direction.

Management is results driven and getting the work done.

Your job as a good team leader will constantly switch from a leader to a manager as situations require.

2 Be a Team Builder and a Leader

The leader sets the “tone” of the team to lead them through the various team development phases to the point where they begin to perform.

Read about teams

3 Be a Problem Solver

Identify the possible “causes” that lead to the problem, then analyze possible options and alternatives, and determine the best course of action to take.

4 Be a Negotiator and Influencer

Negotiation is working with others to come to a joint agreement. To avoid power struggles, develop influencing skills. Influencing is the ability to get people to do things they may not do otherwise.

5 Be an Excellent Communicator

Being a communicator is a two-way street as. A good way to get a grip on managing the information comes and goes is to ask yourself the following questions: who needs this information? Who gathers and delivers it? When or how often do they need it? And, in what form?

Read about communicating

6 Be Organized

Think of what you need to organize; project documentation, contracts, emails, memo’s, reviews, meetings, etc. It’s almost impossible to stay organized without developing good time management skills.

7 Become a Planner

The skill of planning can’t be underestimated. There are known and logical steps in creating plans. You may well own your team’s plan, but others depend upon your success.

8 Manage Budgets

At the heart of this is the skill is managing the budget, particularly costs. You will need a knowledge of financial systems and accounting principles.

If you are new to team leadership, don’t be overwhelmed by all this. There are well-understood methodologies, tools, guidelines, and procedures to help you on your way to developing the life-skill of leadership.

The first thing you need to do is book time with your boss and ask what their performance objectives are; what does he need you to do to help them be successful; and, then what professional development do you require to be successful.

Read about partnering with your boss

I was speaking to a group of Project Managers recently. Before speaking to any group, I interview a cross-section of attendees to see what they want to get out of my session. To a person, the pre-event interviewees wanted to learn more about leading teams of peers.

As Project Managers, it is a fundamental part of their role to lead teams people of different pay-grades, levels of responsibility, authority and roles to achieve success with whichever project they have been asked to achieve.

That said, we know the ‘iron-fist’ or the ranting & raving like a lunatic leadership styles does not work even when there is a clear line of command. They certainly won’t work when there is a dotted-line or matrixed relationship like a project team.

The only difference between you and your colleagues on that team is that you’re in charge and someone is holding you accountable for the project’s success. To accomplish your goals, you’ll be expected to motivate, facilitate, encourage, communicate effectively, build trust, and resolve conflict with the disparate members of the team.

How?

1. Set a positive foundation click here to read more on relationships 

• Establish a relaxed environment, where everyone is encouraged to share opinions and ideas.
• Ask for input from everyone, and encourage quieter members to speak up.
• Use active listening skills, like paraphrasing and asking questions for clarification.
• Insist on respect for one another and, for tasks taking a lot of time and effort, consider developing a team charter to define your team’s goals and how the team will work.
• Use participative decision-making tools, and try to ensure active involvement and commitment from the team.

2. Empower Team Members

• Leaders who give power to others can be very influential and motivating.
  • Give praise wherever it’s due.

3. Be Flexible click here to read more about courage

• A heavy-handed approach can cause resentment and non-compliance in a team of peers.
• Adapt to the changing environment.
• A flexible leadership style can deal with changing circumstances without compromising your leadership role.
• You need to help your team adjust to changes in direction, circumstance, and priority.
• When you’re open to change, your team will see that, and they’ll be more likely to accept change.

4. Set Goals click here to read more about setting goals

• Having a clear direction is essential.
• If there’s no central direction to follow team members will have their perspectives that could lead your team down very different paths.
• It is much easier to keep people working together effectively if objectives are clear.

5. Support and Protect Your Team

Each team member may have their regular job to do in addition to the team’s specific tasks. This means that commitment to your team may be a secondary priority. As the one who is ultimately accountable, concentrate on getting the support and resources your team needs to do the job well.

Focus on these three key areas:

– Obtain resources – Your team may quickly lose momentum if it encounters resource shortages. If you get your team what it needs – when the team needs it – your status, influence, and ability to motivate can increase significantly.

– Manage stakeholders – Many people outside your team may strongly influence the team’s success. First, you may encounter outside resistance from various sources.

One way to gain the respect of your team is to protect it from negative outside influences so that that team members can produce great work.

– Obtain management feedback – Ensure that management knows what’s going on and that your team knows what management thinks. This can be a delicate balancing act because you don’t want to run back and forth with too much information. Figure out what each side needs to know to remain satisfied, and then provide it.