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You were the technical expert. Now you are the manager. The skills that got you here are not the ones you need so much now.
You wanted this role to be able to implement your ideas to lift performance. You believe this team is capable of even better results.
Yet, this is harder than you thought it would be because.
- People are confused about who is doing what
- There is a duplication of tasks
- You are in the middle of every communication, within the team and between them and other stakeholders
- Your calendar is booked fully between 8 am to 6 pm with meetings
- Mistakes are happening, and work is being redone (by you)
- You are noticing mediocre work by the team, and you are spending precious time helping them understand what the standard should be
- There is an overall lack of responsibility and accountability from your team
- Energy levels feel low, with high levels of anxiety between team members
- There is a general lack of pride in doing a good job
- You love being busy. Busyness is (almost) a badge of honour, yet you know you are not focusing on the work you should be doing.
So you become a micromanager (and control freak) as you try the direct the work and dictate how they should do it.And you are a perfectionist and can’t trust your team to do this work as well as you.
Here’s what you need to know.
There are three critical areas to focus on to achieve high performance for you and your team.
- Understanding the elements of this new role you are taking on and connecting with your team to create a sense of belonging, trust and strong relationships. My earlier newsletter discussed this. Read it here.
- Creating predictable performance, so results are assured and consistent. My previous newsletter discussed this. Read it here.
- Supporting your team to allow them to develop the skills needed to excel.
And there are three questions to go with these:
First, what are the right skills to get the best out of your team?
Second, how can you shift from feeling overwhelmed to being in control and creating predictable performance?
Third, how can you develop a sense of purpose, urgency, and accountability with your team, so they perform effectively?
My previous newsletters concentrated on the first and second critical areas and questions around engagement, skills and performance. For now, I’m focusing on the third critical area and question.
3. Supporting your team to allow them to develop the skills needed to excel.
When individuals tap into their brilliance and connect with everyone in the team, those teams start to go beyond the norm and stand out as they outperform similar teams.
The question here is: how can you develop that sense of purpose, urgency, and accountability with your team, so they perform effectively?
You know the work will be done well when you develop this sense of purpose, urgency, and accountability. You don’t need to be across every detail.
Then your time is freed up so you can concentrate on the high-value work appropriate for your pay grade. You are less involved in the detail and no longer doing lower-level work because your team now does it.
There is more engagement within and between team members, which spills over to other areas within the organisation and lifts overall performance.
You have and continue to develop high levels of understanding of what makes each team member tick and what they need to level up even more.
There is a sense of purpose within the team. Each team member taps into each other’s strengths and skill sets, making the team even more effective.
Reaching this level with your team means work becomes effortless with the team moving in the same direction. The purpose and vision for the organisation are understood, and the team is aligned to achieve them.
Creating a performing team requires:
- Clarity. A team that is clueless, not sure of its direction, and unclear about its objectives, goals, and outcomes will not perform well
- Conviction. If you are suffering from doubt in your ability to lead this team effectively or unsure if you have the ‘right’ skills to lead well, you will struggle to tap into your team’s brilliance.
Creating clarity with each of your team about their role means each team member is clear about what they are delivering or doing. Each team member, and you, understand what differentiates them and what they bring to their role.
You know their strengths and areas for development. You understand their career aspirations and how you can help them to reach those aspirations.
You use a delegation framework which allows you to distribute work in ways that you and each team member are satisfied with what is delivered.
You have regular conversations with each person to check progress, give (and receive) feedback, and support them in doing good work.
Building your conviction means you are aware of the skills you have or need to develop, to support each team member. This conviction allows you to trust your team to do the work as well as you (or even better).
When this happens, you can start to focus outward and concentrate on the high-value work required and appropriate for your pay grade.
High-value work might include
- planning for next year
- working out the best structure for your team
- taking the organisation’s vision and strategic plan and applying it to what your team can deliver
- building crucial external connections and relationships with stakeholders
- developing your team’s capabilities.
Skills that ALL managers need to create empowered teams and lift performance are:
Coaching. Having a coaching conversation means you are comfortable asking open questions for which you (and they) may not have the answer. Open questions help your team member explore what they know or how they might apply their skills to solve a problem. Too often, managers immediately try to solve someone’s problem by giving advice. However, people become capable faster when they think of a solution rather than relying on someone to provide them with an answer.
Delegating. Develop a delegation framework and not leave delegation to chance. Good delegation skills means the completed work meets expectations. Use the ‘8 Ingredients for Clear Instructions (link to download is at the end of this message) to kick start your delegation framework.
Having difficult conversations. Too often, I’ve seen managers avoid having these conversations with underperformers. Team morale drops when there is perceived toleration for poor performance. New managers often inherit personnel issues from previous managers who feared rocking the boat and couldn’t/ wouldn’t have these difficult conversations.
Mentoring. Mentoring is different to coaching. Mentoring is directive. It is about tapping into your technical expertise and sharing your knowledge and experience with those with less experience. You leverage your skills and expertise to guide others. You are serving as an advisor and role model.It is up to you to develop and hone your management competence.
You can
- Read management books. For example - my book Level Up – helping managers learn to do less and be more’ is full of tips and information about how to oomph up your management skills. I’ve added other highly recommended books at the end of this newsletter.
- Listen to leadership podcasts. Search for leadership podcasts on your podcast platform of choice and sample a few to see which you like
- Watch TED talks
- Seek feedback from your boss and ask them about the areas they’d like you to focus on (more about this in future newsletters)
- Ask your team for feedback – get them to focus on strengths you bring to the role, and areas for development
- Sign up for some management training or join a mastermind group
Changing how you operate will shift your team’s way of performing, leading to success.
Click here to download ‘8 Ingredients for Clear Instructions’, which will kick start your delegation framework.
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