Happy Swamy

“Congratulations on your promotion! You are now a team leader”

Elated as this might feel initially, sooner than later, you realise, “Dude, what got you here won’t get you there”. 

And then you begin to ponder ,”Why should this happen to a star team performer like me?”

While this reality hits all first time managers, very few read early signs and start working at it. Why is that so?

To understand this better, let’s look at the “what got you here” i.e. from an individual contributor to team leader:

• Doing what is told – you are perfect doer. Following every instruction of your manager to the tee and completing all projects and tasks on time
• Buck stops at you – this strong belief that it’s me or no on else. ‘I am accountable’ and hence the ownership that comes with it
• Self-propelling morale due to consistent achievement – a star performer doesn’t look outside for motivation!
• Being directed – at every step most of the times you are told ‘what to do’ and rarely even the ‘how to do’
• Thinking is not your KRA – Someone else has thought, decided and planned in detail so that you could perform and succeed. Invisible as it may seem, that someone existed (more on that in post on leaders some time soon)

But now all of this is set to change…new ‘jargons’ emerge

• Delegation
• Follow through
• Review
• Coaching
• Facilitation

Delegation is the art of doing everything for the task other than actually doing it…yes read it again…after years I have come to this conclusion (open to contrary views!) that delegation is everything except the actual ‘doing’. Many times we assume that there is clarity about the task in the recipient, he/she has access to necessary resources, understands the interdependencies and has ability to plan the sequential / parallel tasks. That’s where the train starts to derail…presumptions! So play safe, hand hold, guide and delegate alongwith providing clarity on all of the above 

Followthrough or review – mundane, boring, monotonous but ‘the’ most important step of execution. But don’t mistake it to being an opportunity to criticise the people being reviewed instead use it to wisely identify the gaps in the progress vis-a-vis the plan, identify bottlenecks to progress and clear them, provide constructive feedback on the team work, set timeline and milestone for next review and so on

Coaching and facilitation – as managers, we manage…but what exactly do we manage. My personal definition would be – “we manage our people, their aspirations, their expectations, their challenges, their output / deliveries in alignment with the organisation”. Every aspect covered in this definition expects the manager to be a coach, a mentor and a facilitator. Most first time managers, and I know quite a few seasoned managers as well, who conveniently let go of this role and responsibility and always invariably replace this with the taskmaster role. No rules of the game established, no resource allocation, no pathways created, no ‘small win’ celebrations!! This to my mind is the most belittled expectation from the first time manager – how well do they use their personal success mantra, reflect on it and facilitate those behaviours in their team members. A mentor or a facilitator would precisely do that! And trust me it’s not difficult. 

These are top of the list items which will surely ‘get you there’

So jump in, practice and share your success stories.