I get it, because I was once in your shoes. I was a new manager. Young. Energetic. A little arrogant, and a lot ignorant. Promoted because I was the best at what I did, other managers trusted me, and the team needed a leader.
Unfortunately, they didn’t get what they needed. Instead they got a confused and floundering novice, that eventually succumbed to impostor syndrome. I didn’t know what it meant to step into my first management role successfully. And so I stepped out.
I learned from that experience and many years worth of valuable failures and triumphs. Here is a bit of what it takes to be a good leader and avoid some of the common mistakes new managers make.
Mistake 1 – Staying too involved in the work
It is easy to get involved in the work. After all, you likely got promoted because you are good at what you do. So why not stick with your strengths and keep delivering those results, right?
While intuition favors this as a good course of action, it overlooks one simple truth. The reason the team needs a manager in the first place is because they NEED a manager. That means you will need to learn to become less involved in the day to day work of the team. Let the team do their work and begin being a manager.
Instead of doing the work of the team, take a step back from the work and get a grasp of the bigger scope of activity going on. Consider this: In order to accomplish the work and provide value to their customer, the team needs certain things. Labor, materials, and tools come to mind among others. As the manager, become well versed in what the team needs and dedicate your working hours to providing it to them in a consistent and reliable way. If they never lose a moment of value creation because you have provided everything they need, you have succeeded in this part of your role.
If you are too busy doing the work the team should be doing, then no one is providing the team with the things that they need. That leads to failure. Learn what your team needs to succeed, then find a way to get it to them.
Mistake 2 – Going with the flow
The reason the team needs a leader is to LEAD them. They are perfectly capable of wandering aimlessly on their own without you. If your only intent is to wander aimlessly with them, then they don’t need you to be their leader.
So have a vision. What do you want your team to become? A well oiled machine, a breeding ground of innovation, a resting place for the underdeveloped? You decide what vision you have for your team. And be detailed. How do you hope they will act? What do you hope they will say? What do they choose to do, or choose to avoid? What sets them apart from any other team, and what makes them tick?
Then take an honest look at where the team is today vs where you want them to be, and set incremental goals to get them there. Make sure the goals include ways you will develop yourself, your team, as well as the system. By focusing on those three aspects you will make well rounded and much deserved progress towards your vision.
In almost no time at all you will see measurable changes as they begin to transform into the team you have in your vision.
Mistake 3 – Spending time fire fighting
Fire fighting is the biggest energy suck, time drain, and mistake any leader can make. There will ALWAYS be something burning, so if you run around trying to put out the blaze then who is leading the evacuation?
The idea is to get out of the burning building. You can do that by figuring out what is causing the fires in the first place and then make adjustments to avoid them in the future. If a fire is urgent enough that it needs to be fought, then teach the person closest to it how to fight it. Give them the hose so you can get your head up and on the swivel, looking for real solutions.
But I learned that sometimes you just have to let it burn, knowing that eventually it will run out of fuel and with the source of the flame extinguished it will eventually put itself out.
It is exciting to fight fires. It provides a false sense of progress. But it will keep you and your team running in circles chasing the next flare up, keeping you from your vision, and sucking you back into the work (the first two mistakes).
Closing Thoughts
Balancing leadership takes some discipline and time, but sooner than you think it will become second nature and unlike me, you won’t need to jump ship because of imposter syndrome. Instead you can push forward with confidence, becoming the manager and leader your team needs.
Good luck out there,
Rob
