Being in a leadership role now for some years in this crazy growing
and changing world of technology, I see myself in a position to may give
you some advises you can benefit from, when you develop into your next
play – a role where you´re not only responsible for yourself anymore. A
people manager role. There is this quote saying, that when you develop
from being an individual contributor into a management position, it is
not about how great you are and perform anymore,
it is about how successful you can make your team.
I saw people struggling on this. Why? Because by nature sales experts
are restless fighters, chasing for their own success and having a high
level of ego. I don´t mean that in a negative way, it is one of the
skills you do need to have in that business.
So coming from a world where it is all about you and now it is all
about them is not easy. You really have to think it over. Take a step
back, collect lots of feedback from your peers and have an idea about
what really makes you happy. And I mean that not only in the sense of if
it is the right decision for yourself. As I mentioned in the beginning,
you take on responsibility for individuals and you absolutely should
care.
A high performing account manager is not necessarily a good people manager
and a development into leadership role may even not be seen as a
development because it feels wrong. Actually this is a step backwards.
If you made up your mind I have three advices for you, which worked for me very well.
1. always hire the best team
In my past years I did hundreds of interviews together with
management peers. I have often been really surprised about the
indifferent way they did their interviews.(Being later on surprised
about why their team is not performing)
Your success as a manager is the success of your team in total.
So simple as that. You should have a high interest in hiring the best
people for your specific open roles. Don´t only think about skills,
experience and educational background. Consider soft skills, diversity
and how the person would fit into your existing social micro cosmos.
Be bold to hire people for roles where they maybe not the experts in.
They may have an expertise on totally different topics you never have
thought about and they have interesting stories to tell. Don´t limit
yourself. The best advice I have for you in doing a perfect interview
is,
ask as much questions you can. Ask what you´re
interested in apart from the job qualifications and prepare yourself to
ask creative questions based on their background. (I don´t mean those
nonsense questions like google used to have – sorry google.
2. be authentic, be interested and show empathy
Now when you manage your team, you´re in a relationship with let´s
say 10 people or more. (In my perspective the span of control for a
people manager ends with around 10-12 individuals)
The fundament of this relationship should be trust and authenticity.
You will be together with your team around 10 hours per day. This
relationship mustn´t be friendship (sometimes it can be) and you don´t
have to leave the professional path, but
it requires as much intense work to keep it up like a friendship.
What does this mean? It means all those little things which appear not
to be important but at the end they make a difference and make you
unique as a people manager. As the headline says – your business is now
about people.
Be interested in them. Don´t arrive at
work, sitting at your desk and claim that you´re always open for them if
they have any issue. Look at your individuals maybe a minute longer and
build up pro-active empathy. What can you read in their faces? Did they
have a good weekend? What kind of activity have they done? What kind of
activity have you done?
Give and take and absorb as much as you can.
Don’t always talk about the things which are going well in your life.
You can share your challenges as well. And never forget,
personnel development is a key factor in performance management.
You have to provide the platform for it and should know all the time,
by what your individual is being motivated to achieve his next play.
Lead by example and prove your authenticity in speaking about your
career development as well. This makes you a great people manager.
3.always tell the why
Working in IT, technology, marketing or elsewhere in a fast changing
working environment means you have to do quick decisions and have to
cope with a fast pace.
Your management style has to be versatile
and to be adapted to several different situations during one day. Sure –
you could be all the time very directive and just tell you team what
you want them to do. But this turns out not to be very useful as you
will not benefit from the skills and knowledge from it. You must manage
your team by objective (MBO) and not by control (MBC). If you have tasks
for your team, make your life easier and tell them the sense behind.
Why do you ask them to do it – and especially
why is it important to you personally?
If the spirit is right, every single individual is happy to help you
out. If you have considered number one of my top three people manager
skills, you are surrounded by bright minds. They will claim and want to
know anyway what´s the deeper sense behind. Do concentric briefing and
give a holistic explanation. Make sure that everybody understands buys
in and accepts it as q common task which is in line with the companies
strategy. This leads to the best performance and results.
I simply help to find and develop your next talent that will rock the company