What critical success factors are important for succeeding as a first-line manager, which ones as a middle manager,\u00a0 and how much does the focus change\u00a0 when moving from\u00a0 one role to another?<\/p>\n
Traditionally, leadership is discussed more generally (at least in Estonia), and\u00a0 less attention is paid to\u00a0 different levels of leadership:\u00a0 which\u00a0 critical success factors are important for succeeding as a\u00a0 first-level manager, which ones as a middle manager,\u00a0\u00a0 and how much the focus changes when moving from\u00a0 one role to another?<\/p>\n
Intuitively, everyone agrees that yes, there are differences but what kind? Can we formulate them more precisely? It is possible that one of the\u00a0 reasons why the differences are not discussed so often is\u00a0 the\u00a0 lack of large enterprises\u00a0 in Estonia: our small and medium-sized companies have a thin layer of management and\u00a0 there is no acute need to address the topic.\u00a0 Large companies have\u00a0 their\u00a0 own career programs, but their content is rarely public and does not find wider coverage.<\/p>\n
An important day comes for the team leader of specialists, when the\u00a0 boss calls to his office, praises for the\u00a0 work and proposes\u00a0 a promotion.\u00a0\u00a0 In the new role, you need to start managing team leaders instead of specialists. Like in the army: the division commander becomes a\u00a0 platoon commander.\u00a0 Everything is\u00a0 great at first, but inevitably at\u00a0 some point you\u00a0 have to ask yourself the\u00a0 question: what\u00a0 is going to be different now?\u00a0 Below, I’ve briefly summarized conversations with executives who have successfully completed this career turnaround.\u00a0\u00a0 We asked them<\/strong> what is the difference <\/strong>\u00a0between managing specialists versus managing managers<\/strong>, \u00a0or whether\u00a0 there are any differences<\/strong> at all. <\/strong><\/p>\n The large number of respondents confirmed that by becoming a manager of\u00a0 managers, \u00a0several focuses will change<\/strong>.\u00a0 First of all,\u00a0 as a manager of managers,\u00a0 one\u00a0 is engaged purely in management.\u00a0 As\u00a0 a team leader of specialists,\u00a0 you inevitably had to do\u00a0 specialist work from time\u00a0 to time.\u00a0 Secondly, specialists need to be managed mainly\u00a0 through\u00a0 tasks (this is certainly a big generalization) and managers through goals.\u00a0 Of course,\u00a0 in the case of specialists,\u00a0 the\u00a0 level of detail\u00a0 depends on individual differences (one is aware of\u00a0 a long-term goal and\u00a0 already knows what to do next) and also on the competence of specialists level (young specialist versus experienced professional).\u00a0 Thirdly,\u00a0 the\u00a0 task of the\u00a0 team leader of specialists is definitely to create a good working atmosphere in the team. For managers, the working atmosphere\u00a0 is\u00a0 also important, but also\u00a0 clarity of goals and expectations, freedom, space to\u00a0 act and the resource base to achieve goals.<\/p>\n As a new thing, the\u00a0 manager of\u00a0 managers has to deal with the topic of leadership potential<\/strong>: who to\u00a0 promote from specialists in the\u00a0 future to become a team leader (i.e. his own direct subordinate). On\u00a0 a few occasions,\u00a0 I have\u00a0 met former specialists who have been promoted directly to\u00a0 the position of leader and who have\u00a0 not learned to value being a leader,\u00a0 i.e.\u00a0 managerial duties.\u00a0\u00a0 They tend to choose\u00a0 people with more successful technical achievements\u00a0 than\u00a0 others as team leaders and\u00a0 do not know how to\u00a0 see and value leadership potential.<\/p>\n When managing managers, coaching becomes a key skill.\u00a0 In addition, it\u00a0 is necessary to provide\u00a0 subordinates with job responsibilities related<\/strong> to management and leadership<\/strong>.\u00a0 Often,\u00a0 someone who has not received the appropriate\u00a0 leadership training is\u00a0 promoted to\u00a0 the position of team leader of specialists, and\u00a0 his success depends on the\u00a0\u00a0 manager’s willingness, ability\u00a0 and patience to supervise him (incl. in addition to instructing,\u00a0 also assess\/measure (managerial) performance and give feedback). Fortunately, acquiring the\u00a0 skills of a coach in Estonia is a\u00a0 popular topic and there are\u00a0 quite a few opportunities to improve yourself\u00a0 in\u00a0 this field.<\/p>\n In their work,\u00a0 managers\u00a0\u00a0 also begin to deal\u00a0 with issues of strategy, and\u00a0 they need to\u00a0 look at the\u00a0 big picture: how his field relates to other areas of\u00a0 the company and the overall picture.\u00a0\u00a0 You can no longer shove the\u00a0 blanket solely towards you.\u00a0 Considering the typical profile of\u00a0 Estonian organizations, the\u00a0 head of managers\u00a0 may already be\u00a0 a member of the company’s management group.\u00a0 In this case, strategic management is\u00a0 a critical part of the\u00a0 job description.\u00a0 Although different models and tools of\u00a0 strategic planning and management have been developed over time, the\u00a0 effectiveness of a\u00a0 manager in this area depends a lot\u00a0 on his or\u00a0 her strategic thinking capabilities, which\u00a0 according to today’s researchers of\u00a0 occupational personality, the function is\u00a0 from\u00a0 certain basic personality traits and cognitive style.\u00a0\u00a0 The topic of strategic\u00a0 thinking has\u00a0 been of\u00a0 great interest to\u00a0 myself personally\u00a0 in recent years, and I would definitely like to touch on it further in the context\u00a0 of the selection of top managers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What critical success factors are important for succeeding as a first-line manager, which ones as a middle manager,\u00a0 and how much does the focus change\u00a0 when moving from\u00a0 one role to another?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_stc_notifier_status":"sent","_stc_notifier_sent_time":"2022-10-25 12:58:48","_stc_notifier_request":false,"_stc_notifier_prevent":false,"_stc_subscriber_keywords":"","_stc_subscriber_search_areas":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n