Does it make sense to turn a team member into boss?
My answer is that it depends on a number of things including the needs of the team, needs of the organization and business and personality amongst many other factors.
The most important factor though: can this person really manage and inspire the team to do great work?
This can be a polarizing topic but I think it's worth bringing up and discussing. Recently Hank Gilman, deputy manager editor of Fortune wrote a book, You Can't Fire Everyone: And Other Lessons from an Accidental Manager." He wrote it specifically geared at younger managers given that the average age of management is skewing younger and younger these days.
In this book, he talks about how plenty of managers are never asked or expected to be put in charge of other people. But when it happens, these accidental managers find that learning to manage is akin to learning to swim by being dropped in the deep end of the pool.
There are two parts to becoming a manager: managing down and managing up. This post of mine will focus more on the managing down part. I'll save the managing up part for another day :)
Some people have it innately within them to be a team leader, others need a little coaching and mentorship and others, well others simply should not become managers and hopefully senior managers have the insight to understand when to make that call. Unfortunately more often than not, they make the wrong call.
Seven years ago I was one of those managers who never asked to be put in charge of people. Fortunately, I had many years of working for the best and worst bosses, so along the way I would tuck away all those experience nuggets of "I would never treat my people like that" and "wow what an inspiration to make me work harder"and was able to pull them out when the opportunity or should I say mandate was handed down to lead a team.
In my eyes it boiled down to something I learned back in first grade:
Treat people the way you would want to be treated.
BUT remember, you are their leader, their manager, NOT their BFF.
This is a line very easy to cross when you are first put in this position, especially if you have come up through the ranks and suddenly your colleagues are your direct reports. The dynamic changes instantly for you and for them.
Respect that change. If you try to be both, you will get in a lot of trouble and no one is happy.
But coming back to my point of treating people the way you would want to be treated. I think this simple statement can help you manage and make the right decisions, as difficult as they may be. I was fortunate to inherit a wonderful and talented team, this made it very easy for me to do the right thing and I soon realized my challenge wouldn't be so much about managing the team as much as it would be to understanding the political landscape of senior management, managing up and how to get my team what they needed without steamrolling sr. management with an extensive list of needs.
So how did I do it?
The first feeling I experienced was crap, how the hell am I going to do everything. I need to show senior management that I can manage and I need to show the team that I can be a leader to them. Baby steps was the answer.
Communication
Feeling overwhelmed is human but you need to take baby steps. My first course of action was to talk to the team individually. This is huge. I cannot underscore the importance of communication.
It will make or break you as a manager.
Sure it may be harder depending upon the size of the team but it's important as a new manager, so take the time somehow to establish that one on one contact at some point. Remember, this is just as new to them as it is to you. This one on one will unearth things you never thought about, good and bad. You will get a deeper understanding of their goals, expectations, personality, all which will later inform you on how you what your team looks like from a skills and personality perspective.
For each team member, the fact that you sat down and listened to them will be big in their books. You took the time and that counts for something.
Take Action
Now here's the really important part. You need to do something with what you have learned and you need to communicate back to them what YOUR plan is. More often than not, managers will actually take the time to listen but there is no follow up. The more this happens, the more your credibility is shot.
So even if it is just a quick email to follow up that you have reached out to someone to inquire, that makes a difference. Remember that part of taking action is also continuing to regularly meeting with individuals and checking in, it's not just something you do on day one. Another common management mistake that can be easily remedied.
Prioritize
Now obviously, it will be impossible to satisfy each and every need but that's where your role as a manager comes in. You have a running list of needs and now it is time to prioritize them. There is no way that everything can or should be addressed right at the beginning. This will help you plan and also communicate to sr. management that you have set goals that they can then help you achieve.
Remember your job as a manager is to keep your team motivated and staffed on projects amongst many other things. Keeping them motivated though will inspire them to do great work and ultimately make the department look good.
So motivate them by hearing them out, addressing their needs when possible and communicating next steps. Makes sense right? Not brain surgery by any means but these simple things are more often than not forgotten in the shuffle of "just get the work done."
So for all the senior managers trying to figure out whether or not they should promote internally or hire externally There are a number of factors to consider but I would challenge them to go through these points and ask, will they be able to do these things? I think your answers will lead you to the most sensible answer.
