Inspired by IT Revolution’s book entitled A Seat at the Table: IT Leadership in an Age of Agility, I’ve been ruminating on my own journey finding my place at the management table this past year. Schwartz writes of CIOs finding their seat at the C-suite table, and how we must go beyond thinking of IT a siloed service provider, which includes rethinking the roles across the organization from CFOs, CDOs and the like. The movement to the management table is similar, instead of focusing on delivering a primary task (as a product lead on a team), it’s about rethinking the approach to work and the relationships with the rest of the organization and beyond. The following are the lessons I’ve been learning along the way as a new manager.
Knowing what you don’t know
While our management paradigm is shifting, exemplified by the growing recognition of characteristics such as humility and perhaps best personified through the movement of servant leadership (this merits its own discussion), our culture remains focused on the display of strength. We look up to leaders who seem to have and know it all, and we are not encouraged often as leaders to admit we do not know something. Even if we don’t know something, we are encouraged “to fake it until we make it”. This type of approach is not one that I want to emulate. It’s only been a year and a half that I’ve been immersed in this digital space and I know I have so much more to learn. I do my homework — I constantly seek to increase my knowledge in areas through continuous learning and I also ask questions and for help from experts all around me. Yet, there have been many times where I’ve wondered if people think less of me because of my approach. This is further exacerbated by being a woman, as a visible minority and as someone under 40 and who looks like they’re 21 (the inequality gap between men and women in senior management is real, check out this recent study by StatsCan on Canada’s 1%). Showing up at management tables wearing these labels can be difficult, and showing any additional weakness, perceived or real, sometimes feels like a deal breaker. Still I firmly believe that knowing what you don’t know and starting from the perspective that I don’t have all (or any of the answers) provides a fresh starting point as we look to tackle complex challenges. It also empowers all those who work on it together and the success or failure of what we do is then shared, as it should be. Cultivating this quality of humility requires us to innately recognize that there is value in everyone and that labels are just labels that don’t have to define anyone. Let someone’s work and character stand out on their own merits, starting with our own.
Ask for help
One of the first thing I did as I entered the management space was to refresh my support network upon which I can draw on in times of good and bad. This includes my peer network who are on the same journey, establishing the necessary regular touch points with those in my immediate organization. This includes drawing upon the external professional development networks which I’ve taken time to cultivate through the years such as IPAC on which I am a board director. Yet I also knew that this time I needed additional support from those who are more seasoned than I. I am so grateful in this regard that when I sought for a mentor, I was successful and I now have a seasoned executive, a former CIO, who has agreed to have weekly touch points with me. I look forward to these chats every week and when I think that there won’t be anything to talk about it, it is always filled to the brim and I leave with both concrete things to do and big thoughts to chew upon. You can read and listen to all the management resources (and I do), but there is no replacement for network support and mentoring. For any kind of coaching and/or mentoring relationship to be fruitful, you have to be open, honest and vulnerable. As adults, this is a difficult thing to do and as managers, even harder because of our perceived expectations. But my experience is that the ability to ask for and receive help is what differentiates average managers from great ones.
Take care of yourself and your people
This week I had a first meet and greet with a fellow manager in the organization who joined fairly recently, and we remarked at how we have both worked in previous jobs where decisions could result in life and death. For her, it was regarding war zone situations as part of National Defence and for me, humanitarian crisis as part of refugee policy. While there are extreme examples like these, for most of us, the decisions we make in our work as managers will not result in life or death, but can make a world of a difference in the mental wellness of our staff. Professional burnout is a real threat, and earlier this year the World Health Organization officially categorized professional burnout as an occupational phenomenon. As much as our work and jobs are important, more important is the wellness of our people. As managers how we model or “walk the talk” is much more powerful than anything we may say — and I know I still have ways to go in this regard. I recognize that I am what Nancy Rothbard calls an engaged workaholic. I am also an integrator — I love what I do and integrate work into all aspects of my life (and vice versa). Yet I recognize that even I need to unplug regularly, and I’ve recently set up additional systems in my life to help. For example, I’ve set up off hours in my applications where I completely turn off and in a heroic act, I even deleted the apps together during my recent holiday so that I would not have any temptation. If we don’t have the awareness of these ourselves and our work tendencies (do you integrate or do you separate, etc.), we can’t expect that of our staff. Creating awareness and space to explore our tendencies/profiles/styles is important on a team. There are a plethora of tools, assessments and psychometric tests, as a start, my team we have been sharing our work profiles (or a manual on how to work with me — here is my profile) as a first step in creating this space, recognizing that it is a continual conversation.
In short, my foray into management has been an immense learning experience to date. On most days, I’m in comfortable discomfort, which I think is a good place to be. I’ve gathered a growing list of resources I’m drawing upon, and would love to know yours.
