Stepping in to a manager’s league requires major paradigm shifts. I have been instigating these shifts through all my blogs in a very subtle way without creating a feel of changeover of your thought processes.
Whoever has been following my blog would have by now understood that adapting to change is inevitable when you wish to move forward in your career and all my blogs talks about some changes in your paradigm. Interestingly, simultaneous changes have to happen at many facets of your personality including majorly your believes, intentions, thoughts, words and actions.
This blog is specifically dedicated to those young and budding managers who has just got a role change and doesn’t know clearly how to start his management career. I am calling up on you to make change in the way you approach your client, team and management.
Remember, your thought process till yesterday was more of an obedient team member who used to think more like a team member who’s concern about your individual problem outweighed than any other issue larger issue in delivery. You probably would have been thinking
1. “Why is client so arrogant and always demanding?”
2. “Why is my manager critical even when I am putting my 100%?”
3. “Having done my part, what is it more that I can do to help the delivery? Is there any one to give me the clarity?”
4. “Why should I be blamed along with the team when delivery goes wrong when I have done my bit and the slippage has happened due to other’s negligence?”
5. Etc.
As a team member, it is quite natural for anyone to think in those lines during the initial stages of his career. But, with the new position that you have got, these thoughts are not apt any more.
So what is the ‘Do the New’?
I will tell you.
Keep the following rules handy.
1. As a manager, you need to empathize with your team on their feelings and concerns. BUT, do not get succumbed. Because you have a higher role to play
a. A role to show them the bigger picture and bigger goals of organization/team and wider horizon of their individual career growth.
b. A role to make them realize that they are currently programmed to think only from a confined limit of a team member and that thinking like that will limit their capacity to test their own strengths. Thereby, unlock a world of hopes, dreams, challenges and most importantly a true manager-team relationship.
c. A role to break the patterns and paradigms of the team and mould them to realize that they are the next set of managers and to be able to reach there, they need to be ready to change their paradigm.
Or to put it bluntly, a role to make them realize that they have only 2 options – Either to stay away from challenges or to face it. Shake them up! Wake them up! Be their humble guide!
2. As a manager, your efficiency in thought processes and action should go to a very high level than ever before.
a. While you were thinking of job only during your working hours, now you can start thinking of your team and strategies even in your dreams.
b. You should start investing more time in planning and delegation leaving your team to focus in their individual deliveries which are very well planned and thought for.
c. Remember delegation and guidance should go hand in hand especially for team members who have not done planned executions before. Many managers make the mistake of just being delegator without showing the team the plan for delivery. This sometimes sadly is also used as an escape mechanism by some people in case of delivery failures without realizing that the ultimate accountability of any delivery lies with the Manager.
3. As a manager your ability to support team during crisis is very important
a. Ability to get in to the resolution ‘without getting in to’ or ‘encouraging’ blame games
b. Ability to delegate jobs in below order during a delivery crisis.
i. Quickly gather team,
ii. Get an update on the current causality,
iii. Plan for remedy,
iv. Temporarily dismantle normal team structure,
v. Put new delivery team structure to handle crisis
vi. Convey the plan to the team
vii. Delegate the works
viii. Track the works to closure
ix. Compliment the team for helping you to complete the delivery
4. You need to develop the skill to be a part of your own team as ‘a manager’ as well as ‘a team member’ at the same time. This is crucial because
a. When u wear team member’s role, team will start relating you as one among them and will openly share their concerns
b. When u wear a manager’s role, you will be able to come out of the team member’s limits and guide them to come out of their issues which they shared with you.
Keep changing the roles as required
So, in short, a true manager is multi-faceted. He doesn’t have a specific individuality and doesn’t hold egos. He is not interested in small talks. Or so to say simply, He doesn’t allow anything in specific to take control over him. He can change like a chameleon to suit himself to the situations. He can move like a fish without getting stuck at any obstacle. He can control his emotions an consciously decide to shout, pacify, empathize, sympathize, advise, negate, accept, reject or just about anything possible through human gestures without any baggage of previous experiences and impressions.
A true manager is highly dispassionate, ethical and takes the purest decisions possible at any point of time. Keep striving to become a true manager because true manager is also a true leader who finds bigger meaning to his life and his own ways to serve society in long run.
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