First-time leader: 3 Lessons from my first 3 months as a manager
Transitioning from a technical or specialized role for a management position is not always easy. So let me share what I learned so far.
For most of my career I’ve been a specialist — or sometimes a generalist, but always focused on hands-on areas. So I used to analyze and plan strategies for my own field, present the best solutions, bring results based on my technical knowledge and, of course, follow instructions of my leaders. I always owned those positions, being very comfortable with the idea of being responsible for everything related to my job.
That was my situation three months ago. I was currently a specialist. As I had several experiences as a generalist in the past, my colleagues and leaders used to come to me to help solving a lot of different situations. I was used to deal with all members of the team and help each one of them in every way I could — and I got to know all of them pretty well, too.
Then the time came where the things changed and I was promoted to Operations Manager — being responsible for the business strategy, company growth and being the team leader.
So I had to learn not only how to manage this business, as well as being a leader for all the guys that used to be my co-workers.
It had been an amazing experience. I can say that I get to grow and learn every day. But there are some important lessons I’ve learnt that seems even more crucial for a first-time leader. And here I will share these lessons with you — so you can take a shortcut from my wrongs and rights.
Communication Is the Key — also the king, queen and everything else
Probably the first thing you will notice as a manager is that, if you want to succeed, must be able to talk to people.
And I cannot emphasize this enough: learn how to communicate.
Learn how to talk to people, being polite, how to give negative and positive feedback and, of course, how to listen.
Remember that a dialogue is about saying what you need to say and also listening the other part – so you need to work on both skills. Sometimes, people will not be comfortable to share some information with you as you are the leader — like, issues with co-workers, the reason with problems on projects, etc. So learn to listen and read between the lines to ask the right questions when needed.
I particularly believe on having regular 1-to-1 meetings with every team members. As a manager you have a lot of obligations and probably will not get the time to talk to most of the professionals everyday, so find some time to do that frequently — once a week, every 15 days or at least once a month. If you have frequent follow ups you always know what is happening, if there is any issues that you need to control and, of course, be prepare for any future problems and fix them before they explode.
You are not and individual team member anymore
My first instinct when something didn’t go as expected was roll up my sleeves and make it happen. Of course that, sometimes, as a leader, you might have to do some hands-on work — but remember that you are not an individual team member anymore and you have to trust your team and remember that those professionals will get the job done.
When making the change from a specialized role to a management position, it might be rough to accept that people will do things different than you used to to. That is OK. And that they will deliver everything as you used to. You must learn to trust your team and give the appropriate directions for them to succeed — and let them do their job.
When something goes in the wrong direction, it is your job as their leader to find out the best solution to fix it. Make a plan, instruct your team and keep following the development. Bad things happen, but you need to trust yous team — if you do not trust them, you better find out why and fix that, by the way.
As changing the role, you might realize that people are treating you different. If you were friends before or closer colleagues with whom you could joke around, now you are the leader and must be professional. I personally do not believe that friendships should end or people should act differently when a team member becomes the manager, but you will find out that you will have to watch your tone when talking to people — remember that now you are their leader, and you must give guidance, directions, tell them what to do and also criticize when necessary.
Have a plan — and follow it
It doesn’t matter if you are a marketing manager or if you are managing an engineering team in a huge factory: you must have a plan — and stick to it.
As a manager, you don’t manage only people, you are dealing with the department’s success, company goals, product/service improvement and much more. So if you want to succeed, work on having a plan. And make sure that your plan is doable and achievable: as a first-time manager, you might have the impulse of trying to change and improve everything you see, just biting off more than you can chew.
Remember that everything will look nice in a PowerPoint Presentation; but it is not only about planning it, it is also about executing your plan and taking the next step every single day. So after you create your first plan as manager, here are my tips:
- Break into one year plan. Oh so you want to do everything and make your company a huge success? Great! But you will not manage all the transformation and bring success overnight. To ensure you will be able to follow the plan, break it into months — preferably 12 months. Add your goals to a timeline and follow the plan – you will see that it is even more rewarding because you can feel the results coming month by month when you see everything you achieved already.
- Measure. Measure everything. After the internet era, Peter Druke’s rule is even more evident: if you cannot measure you cannot improve. And if you cannot improve, you will not grow. And what is the point of having a business that doesn’t grow? To ensure you can track what is going on with your goals, team, growth and everything else, study and adopt a KPI system. I personally like OKRs – “objective key results”, where you can set your goals and metrics that will show you if you are walking towards your targets.
- Share. The objective here is not only to share with your goals with the team, but also let them know your progress and celebrate when you all successfully achieve the desired results.
Although three months might seem not a long time, it is more than enough time to learn some important lessons about leadership. Now, let’s see what the future holds for the next lessons.
