The world is littered with failed construction supervisors who were once excellent 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 who 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.
I am currently working with a client who is a technically and intellectually brilliant individual. He was promoted to a team leader role, and now he is super frustrated with the lack of results.
His problem is that 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 the fastest.
- Focusing on people instead of tasks
Before the promotion, your job was to 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 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.
- 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, remove the items from your old position and overcome any illusion that you were indispensable to your previous team.
Negotiate with your old and new bosses 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.
- 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?
Po, of and suddenly my work hatoercontributed better to her objectives.
- Buy yourself time
A client has just accepted a position where she will be managing three times the number of people she had been working with previously. 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.
- Use silence to listen.
Listen to the organization. Get people out of the workplace so they are comfortable enough to start talking. Ask open-ended questions, then let people speak without interruption.
Remember that one of the most annoying things about any manager — or anyone for that matter — is when they just won’t shut up.