Leadership Lessons Blog

Managing the Manager--Transition Tips

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You finally received the news you've been waiting for...you've been offered the promotion from Supervisor to Manager.  Now you have a team of supervisors reporting to you.  This team will be looking for leadership, strategy setting, and assistance with employee productivity and accountability. 

You now have to deal with the transition from PEER to BOSS!  Are these the SAME people you used to have coffee with everyday?  Yes they are, but the stakes have changed.

Taking on a management role is challenging and demands that you think differently and act differently in order to be successful.  More challenging is dealing effectively with members of your team that were once peers.  You need to change peer relationships into manager-employee relationships. 

Here are some transition tips to think about:

• Make sure your personal relationships and professional relationships are separate.  You can remain friendly with a former co-worker, but you must make clear that the relationship can't cloud your decision-making or how you assess that employee's performance.  You may need to change the frequency of your interaction with the employee as some may perceive your relationship as threatening.  Perceptions about favoritism are also at risk. 
• Make sure you discuss your role as a manager openly and candidly.  Exercise your right to define expectations, goals and responsibilities.  You may have had the respect of this team as a peer, now you need to earn their respect as a manager.  You don't need to be heavy-handed, but you do need to make sure they now what you expect as it relates to their work responsibilities.
• Make sure everyone is treated fairly and equitably.  Don't play favorites.  Don't be influenced by what you think you knew when you were a peer.  You may not have ALL the information or the background.  Provide feedback and help employees improve in their roles and most importantly, make up your OWN mind about an employee’s contribution. 
• Get HELP!  There is no crime in asking for assistance.  Being a manager and managing other employees in supervisory roles is a different animal.  Use other leaders as mentors.  They have more experience and most likely faced or a facing similar situations.  Don't feel that becoming a manager means you have to have all the answers. 

Making the transition from peer to manager can be a great move for you as you grow in your career.  Like any other skill, management requires practice and training.  Respect the position and respect the employees that now report to you. 

Leadership Lessons from Peter Drucker

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This week's Harvard Business Review played tribute to Peter Drucker, the role model for our current guidelines for leadership greatness.  Current Harvard Business School Professor, Rosabeth Moss Kanter was asked in an interview for the article, What she thought Drucker would make of the recent economic troubles, "His first comment might be 'I told you so,'" she writes in "What Would Peter Drucker say?"  In the article Kanter points out that as early at the 1980's Drucker warned that companies would pay a price for allowing executive pay to get out of control and creating compensation systems that encouraged manager to take excessive risks and focus too much on the short term.   

Drucker was a man of vision whose predictions about the auto industry collapse, competition from global markets challenging U.S. dominance would ultimately impact and blur our ability to recover quickly.  After all these years, running a successful business continues to rely upon the ability of the organization to have a strong purpose. 

Business models have drifted away from this very sage advice.  We tend today to want to find someone to "blame" for our challenges.  Drucker's work was dedicated toward looking at the entire enterprise--trends, organizational design, norms, processes and routines.  He also reminded us that it is the responsibility of CEO's to challenge!  The article also talked about the importance of both long and short term goals as they relate to the organization's mission and vision. 

During crisis situations we can take our eye off the ball, but that leads to confusion, discord and anxiety.  Executives constantly have to ask themselves if they are making the right decisions.  As an executive, you need to utilize the talents of the management team around you.  If you can't make mid-course corrections you really run the risk of failure. 

Delivering the Difficult Message to the Boss

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One of the most difficult challenges I face as a consultant is helping employees deliver difficult messages.  The task becomes even more difficult when employees are faced with the challenge of helping the boss see that there are problems with "favorite" employees impacting the rest of the organization. 

Like the Wizard of Oz who hides behind a curtain pretending to be something that he's not, employees have to realize that bosses are simply people with a different title.  Organizations can become paralized by fear and retribution, but in the long run the entire organization may suffer if employees are not willing to help the boss see what they see. 

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you did approach the boss with the truth?  You might be surprised by the reaction.  It is unfortunate that employees are under the delusion that the boss, like the Wizard of OZ is "all-knowing" and "all-powerful."  Are you going to go merrily down the yellow, brick road or are you going to stop and help the Wizard.  Values and behaviors drive how employees react to your leadership style...be the kind of leader who demonstrates support of a candid and open environment.