So. You went for that
management job or started your own business, eh? Guess what?
You are no longer the focus of your work life -- other people are. Are you sure you wanna do this?
You probably didn’t plan your career this way – at least not
consciously so. If you had wanted to
“work with people” and make THEM the focus of your career, you would have
chosen a “helping” profession like social worker, teacher, or nurse or doctor.
But you weren’t necessarily people focused to begin with.
Instead, you started out in engineering, business operations,
marketing, carpentry, accounting, forestry, horticulture, engine repair, the
culinary arts . . . . something focused on an interest, talent, or skill that
was easy for or of interest to you.
While it’s true that people use the products and services provided by
these occupations, these jobs aren’t really known as “people-oriented”, are
they?
Now, you find yourself in a position to manage people, not
because you necessarily enjoy dealing with the challenge of getting the best
out of those you now supervise, but because of any number of other reasons, like
power, status, money, prestige, recognition, or because there isn’t any other
way for your career to progress as it is “supposed” to.
You are badly in need of some guidance, my friend. So, take a deep breath and read on for
navigation tips:
First, learn to check
your ego at the door. When
supervising others, you must consciously shift your focus from yourself to
those you supervise. Up to this point,
your career has been focused on you – what YOU think, what YOU can do, who YOU
know. That ends right now. Your thoughts, your needs, your concerns, your
technical ability . . . they are not your number one concern anymore. Instead, your world now centers on the
thoughts, needs, concerns and technical ability of your employees. Your management brilliance will be measured
by how well you elicit the best work from these people, who may be nothing like
you, and to do that you have to focus on what makes THEM tick.
Second, learn to listen
. . . a lot. Before, you simply had
to understand the task, and then carry it out to the best of your ability. Now, you must engage your employees in what needs
to be done to improve in the department or the company. They will have much to say whether they tell
you out right or not. When in doubt, close
your mouth and listen (without that ego that you just checked at the door). Your employees will come to you with
complaints about the company, you, and each other . . . and with excuses for
why the work is not done or not done well, and your initial reaction will be to
shield yourself from blame.
You’ve been a master at doing the work. You’ll want to justify everything you’ve done
and to correct their facts and interpretations.
Don’t. Listen for the emotion
behind their words, and validate what they are experiencing. Then, redirect them by asking questions about
what they have experienced. Eventually,
you’ll get to the real reason they came to talk to you, and through that
conversation you will prove to be someone whom they can trust because you kept
the focus on them and listened.
And third, the last
big tip is to learn to manage your negative emotions. You’re human, so there will be times where you
lose your cool. But as much as possible,
stay as cool, calm and collected as you can.
The biological reason for doing so is that when your
emotions kick in, you don’t think as clearly as you normally would because the
body is taking energy from the logical prefrontal cortex and sending it to the
emotional limbic system, which is the seat of emotion response. The professional reason for staying collected
is that blowing up in anger or being overly excitable signals your employees
that you are not the controlled leader they are looking to for guidance. Your employees need you to be a stabilizing
presence, which in turn, increases your trustworthiness.
When you’re angered or irritated, take a deep breath while
counting to 10 before responding to give your emotions time to pass, so your
logical brain can have time to kick in again.
Then realize, whatever happened is not the end of the world. Your response can then be focused on how to
move forward to get things back on track.
Supervising a group of people who produce fantastic results
is truly a rewarding experience. And the
road to getting there will teach you more about yourself than almost any other
life experience. Enjoy.
