A manager (centre) instructs her team. PHOTO | FOTOSEARCH
What you need to know:
Promotions not only come with perks but challenge of managing people.
You have worked hard consistently, exceeding all expectations and the business has decided you are ready for more responsibility. Your leader calls you into their office to break the good news. You have been promoted. You are thinking to yourself, “Finally! My hard work has paid off!” You are elated to have the manager title and a team to lead, not to mention the extra cash and perks that will hit your bank account. You will be leading a team of three namely Jack, John and Jennifer. Life couldn’t be any better could it? You are on your way to flying sky high! Or so you think.
Two months later, you realise that it’s not as rosy as it seemed, and you will indeed earn every additional cent that has hit your bank account.
Let’s have a look at your team. Jack is really slow and nonchalant, going through life without a care in the world.
He does the bare minimum required and is always quickly closing or minimising different applications when you walk past his desk. You asked him to deliver a report and not only did he fail to do so but also waited until the deadline after your prompting to inform you that he needs an additional two weeks to get it done.
Jennifer is fresh from college, eager to learn and has been consistently asking for your time and mentorship to guide her on some technical aspects of her role that she is yet to understand. She seems frustrated and restless lately.
John is the star of your team and you are so relieved that you and he can cover some ground as you pull the others up until he walks over to you with an uneasy smile and breaks the news.
He is resigning! Your stomach churns. Staff retention is one of your key performance indicators and you just lost a star in your team.
Welcome to the world of being a leader. It comes with great responsibility and you need a mind shift. It’s not so much about you and your delivery. It’s more about how effective you are in bringing out the best in your team and enhancing productivity in a way that motivates and inspires. I’ll get you started by sharing a few tips you can begin with:
Understand your team:
Who are they? What are they good at and what are their gaps? This will give you a clearer picture of where your strengths lie as a team and you can maximise on this to drive high performance as you work on the gaps.
Some of these things you will only discover as you spend time with your team. You will also be surprised to learn that very few people are clear about what they are good at and where they need help. As a start, ensure you have one on ones with each team member regularly.
Map out delivery your strategy:
As an individual contributor, there is a chance that your attention may not have been on the bigger picture and you were more focused on particular deliverables that were clearly shared with you by your manager.
Now that you have a team, the expectations are higher, and you need to be really clever about what you execute on.
This means you need to understand the overall strategy of the company and determine what you and your team will focus on that will have the biggest impact to the business.
Be strategic and carefully think this through then map out a plan for you and your team. Assign roles:
Once you have determined your execution plan after understanding the company strategy, look at your team dynamics and make sure you assign roles based on people’s strengths. It doesn’t make sense to send someone who is skilled in analytics and developing reports to delivered to clients and have your star presenter at the desk working on reports.
While some jobs are generic and all need to be done, leverage on your team’s talents wisely when it comes to task allocation. Be strategic.
Consistent and real-time feedback:
This is something that is taken for granted by many leaders. Please do not wait until the end of the year or the review period to start giving feedback.
Make it real time and make sure it is done effectively by having specific examples of the situation and the impact triggered whether constructive or positive.
Remember that good talent value their career and are seeking growth. Desist from being casual about this and prepare well.
Team meetings:
Have well-structured meetings with your team ideally once a week where you can jointly review how well you are doing against your execution plan.
It is a good time to call out and appreciate those who have gone the extra mile during the week.
Remember people want to be recognised and as a human being it feels good to know that people actually notice your contribution. A simple thank you indicating why you are thankful, the impact to the business of the action taken and how the strengths of that person were demonstrated goes a long way.
