Sunday May 23, 2010
Over the past 26 years I have witnessed many a fine employee stumble and struggle with the process of transitioning into a management role. In part a great deal of the failures that I witnessed came down to poor management of the process from those that had chosen to promote the employee. There are a myriad of potential pitfalls that the new manager can fall into and thus create a potential nightmare for both their new team of employees and of course themselves. I hope to provide you with 10 simple steps that may well enable you to transition into management more freely and be more empowered to achieve change in your life and for those you inevitably manage. If you are about to make this journey or maybe you are there and struggling like so many others to make things work then take the time to readall ten steps.
Even if your promotion to management doesn’t involve a change of desk location you will still find that you are forced to have a different
view of your company and its activities. You are now considered someone who has to champion the company and look after its interests as
much as you can. Previously, when a fellow worker came to you to complain about the company, the boss, the pay, the working conditions etc
you could agree that, yes, it’s a terrible place to work, the pay is lousy and the bosses are all idiots.
Now, you will have to look to placate people in that situation. You will have to consider the companies best interests at all times.
You don’t have to turn into a heartless slave driver in order to look at the world in this different light. It is possible to consider the feelings
and the futures of your workers, while still keeping the good of the company, its well-being and your job as the top priorities.
Let’s look at a couple of examples;
If one of your unhappy workers is highly skilled and the company would sorely miss them, then you are going to have to try your best to
make that person happy.
If the problem is boredom at work, a common problem with workers who have spent a long time in one role and are now experts at doing
one task or a small group of tasks, then encourage them to take on other tasks, whatever you think that person is suited to but will stretch
them a little. It could be checking your mail for you or setting up meetings or making recommendations on fairly simple subjects.
Maybe they are interested in being trained up to eventually take over a management role themselves.
Use the example of your own recent promotion to show that moving up in the company is possible and that it could happen sooner rather than later.
What you mustn’t do is stand in that person’s way. If they have always harbored a dream of working abroad or of studying to be a dentist
then in the long run no-one benefits from them being persuaded to carry on with their current job.
On the other hand, if the person is unhappy in their work and you consider them to be a bad influence around the place, or you feel that
you could easily replace them with someone better, or cheaper, then your advice to that person is going to be a lot different from that given
in the first example. After all, you will be helping that person if you give them subtle encouragement to seek out new goals in life.
Tell them that they can do whatever they propose to themselves. Tell them that they should not be restricted in their horizons; the world
is there for them to do whatever might make them happy. If they decide to go and look for a job elsewhere then the company
can bring in someone else, someone of your choosing perhaps. Of course, if the person in question takes your motivating words as an
inspiration to improve themselves within your company then that’s fine. After all, it’s a great company to work for.
Grant Shields - Zealmark Group