How to not suck in managing people?
Does B.S. in Executive Leadership even exist? I honestly have not heard of any leadership degrees until I googled it today. Sure thing, this is not my first choice in college. But having to go through managing the team and the business me and my partner had started, my role escalated from being a developer, business partner to at the same time, leading our operations at Teembr.
Having no degree that is anything close to leadership is honestly not a hindrance to becoming good at managing people. It definitely required some skills in order to be effective, but did you know that as early as a child, we were already thought of the basics of becoming a leader.
Being in the business for three years and counting, I have learned that managing people is not an easy task. It’s not about perfecting your workflow and expecting that everything will go as plan. I learned it the hard way (and I’m still learning). So let me share with you some of the golden nuggets I got through this experience:
- People don’t have to micromanage
… the way you manage the work is the same for everyone. That is, it has nothing to do any differences in attitudes, perceptions, and behaviours. It’s not about accommodation, gender, ethnicity, generation, or the like. Everyone has the same goal: the work. And focusing on this levels the playing field. Everyone is hired to produce results, and for a manager, this is golden.
This quote is from the book of Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson called Why Managing Sucks and How to Fix It. You have people to do the job, so let them be. Your major concern as a leader is not how they execute the job, but if they do what’s needed to be done or not. I also learned that once you set a concise requirement and a proper expectation, your team will develop this sense of responsibility and accountability because you trust them enough to be the professional you hired in the first place.
2. Observe and adapt
I remember, we have a teammate that is very hard-headed when it comes to workflow changes. There was a time when we have to add another layer of data analysis in our system and he would insist that there’s no need for that. My partner then shared, what if we change the way we talk to him? Instead of “we should do this … because …”, we change it to “what do you think about this …? do you think this … could help?”. I was actually shocked that he responded more effectively and he became self-aware of the goal of our workflow changes.
Most of the time, you’ll hire people that fit the job role that you need. Now, the biggest challenge in working with them is the team’s ability to collaborate with each other and it is our responsibility to know how to communicate to them appropriately to achieve the goal.
3. Being a good leader means being a good teacher
Teaching is another set of skills that you need to learn. Leading and managing is not only about giving them tasks, it’s also about imparting your knowledge and your ability to understand your team at the same time.
You might ask, why do they need mentorship? It’s because every member in your team must grow. And to grow, they will need someone to look up to and follow and bring out the best in them.
I have an experience working as a teacher in an academe and it helped me boost my confidence with people and how I speak to them. Being able to share my knowledge with the team not only help them improve and optimize their work, it also helped us bond together.
Let me leave you with the quote I really admire from John Quincy Adams:
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, YOU ARE A LEADER.
You might want to check out another article I wrote on assessing yourself about how poor of a leader are you. Also, if you have comments and suggestions, don’t hesitate to share your thoughts below! I will appreciate to hear about it.
