For a specialist,\u00a0 an\u00a0 exciting moment\u00a0 in professional life comes when he\/she is proposed\u00a0 to take up the position of a team leader.\u00a0 Typically, he\/she has some kind of \u00a0experience in\u00a0 managing or supervising\u00a0 the\u00a0 workflow of employees, has the ambition to\u00a0 test him\/herself as a manager, and there is a confidence on the part of\u00a0 the management that the rest of the team will accept him\/her\u00a0 as a leader.<\/p>\n
There are a whole range of new topics that come to the desk of a newly promoted team manager and the need to form new attitudes and values in him\/herself. It’s no secret that quite often otherwise good professionals tend to fail in a new role. I’ve noticed that this has been a hot topic in recent years.\u00a0 So I’ll add a few more thoughts\u00a0 to the discussion room.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You become more visible<\/strong><\/p>\n Your words and actions will carry\u00a0 more weight from now on.\u00a0 Your statements and actions will now be monitored\u00a0 more closely. You\u00a0 can no longer\u00a0 always afford such pronouncements as\u00a0 you used to be as a specialist.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Acquiring<\/strong> new leadership skills<\/strong><\/p>\n The strengths that helped you\u00a0 succeed as\u00a0 a specialist may no longer be critical to success as a leader. I recommend starting\u00a0 with occupational personality\u00a0 assessment tests (for example,\u00a0 Hogan)\u00a0 to understand what\u00a0 innate strengths\u00a0 support you in your\u00a0 new role, what\u00a0 personality risks you should pay attention to (for example: do you have an\u00a0 inherently high line of perfectionism that promotes micromanagement of\u00a0 subordinates and prevents the delegation of tasks?)\u00a0 and what leadership skills could be\u00a0 further developed. NB! Take into account the whole context, i.e. in addition to the\u00a0 new role, the\u00a0 profile of your\u00a0 team,\u00a0 your immediate manager, the company’s expectations for your position, as well as the organizational culture.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Your previous colleagues (possibly <\/strong>\u00a0your<\/strong> friends) will become your subordinates<\/strong><\/p>\n If you are promoted to a team leader position,\u00a0 your relationships with colleagues will change.\u00a0 It is possible that\u00a0 there are also friends among colleagues.\u00a0 Even if you really liked your colleagues in the past, now you need to understand that you will be their leader and a whole series of new dimensions\u00a0 will come to the relationship between you and them. You will begin\u00a0 to target them, evaluate their\u00a0 performance, give them feedback, be responsible for their development and work environment, discuss salary issues with them etc. It is possible that with some of them you will also\u00a0 have to have very difficult conversations in the future.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Representing the<\/strong> organization <\/strong>\u00a0in a team<\/strong><\/p>\n Unless you\u00a0 have\u00a0 to do something illegal or unethical,\u00a0 the\u00a0 organization expects you to represent the\u00a0 organization’s views on the team and implement\u00a0 its strategy. It is ok\u00a0 not to accept proposals at management meetings, but once a\u00a0 decision is\u00a0 made, it must\u00a0 be implemented. You\u00a0 can’t tell your team that\u00a0 you don’t agree\u00a0 with the decision, but you were in the\u00a0 minority in the decision-making process. This undermines the will of\u00a0 workers to put\u00a0 things into practice.\u00a0 The alternative is always to\u00a0 look for new\u00a0 challenges outside the\u00a0 organization,\u00a0 if there\u00a0 is a value conflict or if you\u00a0 feel that under new circumstances\u00a0 it\u00a0 will\u00a0 be difficult\u00a0 for you\u00a0 to meet the\u00a0 expectations set for you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Being a buffer between your team and upper level management<\/strong><\/p>\n It may be that the company decisions raise questions among\u00a0 your subordinates,\u00a0 or some of the team members may even disagree\u00a0 with\u00a0 some decisions.\u00a0 Often,\u00a0 decision-makers on the top level\u00a0 have\u00a0 more information and inputs than those on front level.\u00a0 In this case,\u00a0 you need to be an\u00a0 intermediate buffer between the\u00a0 management and your team and find solutions so that the decisions can still be implemented.\u00a0 It may be that with some decisions you\u00a0 do not\u00a0 even agree yourself. You\u00a0 should not pour oil into\u00a0 the fire\u00a0 in the team with\u00a0 your doubts and hesitations.\u00a0 Do not blame yourself\u00a0 for non-authenticity in this case, but think that this is part of your role.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Use the input provided by the team effectively<\/strong><\/p>\n Of course, it is important that you listen to your\u00a0 subordinates, ask their opinion and sell\u00a0 them your ideas before making a decision, but do not let\u00a0 a\u00a0 situation arise in which every decision becomes\u00a0 consensus-based.\u00a0 So it\u00a0 may happen that\u00a0 at the end\u00a0 of the day no one is completely satisfied with the\u00a0 situation.\u00a0 At some point, you have to make very unpopular decisions in the team, which not everyone likes. Remember that\u00a0 at the end of the day,\u00a0 as a leader, you are the one responsible for\u00a0 the team’s performance and decisions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Making difficult decisions <\/strong><\/p>\n Sometimes\u00a0 the leader has to make a choice between two more or less similar options. It is easy to choose between right and wrong.\u00a0 Sometimes it seems as if there are not very good options. To support the decision making, it is worth thinking about two questions: how will the decision influence our business and how will it influence our clients?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Adapting<\/strong> your management<\/strong> style to the needs of employees<\/strong><\/p>\n Your subordinates are different as human beings and must also be approached differently. Being treated fairly does not mean that you treat all employees the same way.\u00a0 A veteran employee needs a\u00a0 different approach than a beginner taking his\u00a0 first steps in the company.\u00a0 As long as your team members don’t feel like you’re unnecessarily favoring someone, using different approaches for subordinates is ok.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Providing<\/strong> timely<\/strong> and useful feedback<\/strong><\/p>\n The longer you drag on giving feedback, the harder it is\u00a0 to do it.\u00a0 If feedback is given in a timely manner, the\u00a0 parties will remember important details better,\u00a0 and the easier it will be\u00a0 to change behavior.\u00a0 In addition, it is\u00a0 easier for an employee to get less amount of feedback at a time. Make feedback regular.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Keep up the pace of work<\/strong><\/p>\n Do not forget about Parkinson’s law: the work fills the entire period of time given for the work. You’d better set\u00a0 more aggressive deadlines, get more done. Do the difficult tasks first and keep an eye on the performance on an ongoing basis.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Don’t be shy to ask for help<\/strong><\/p>\n Don’t forget about the resources your\u00a0 company provides.\u00a0 In the\u00a0 process of becoming a team leader, there\u00a0 will definitely\u00a0 be\u00a0 obstacles and challenges.\u00a0 Don’t be afraid to ask for advice or help from\u00a0 other leaders.\u00a0 The success\u00a0 of your team is also your success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For a specialist, an\u00a0exciting moment in his\/her professional life emerges when he\/she is proposed to take up the position of a team leader.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_stc_notifier_status":"sent","_stc_notifier_sent_time":"2022-11-14 17:59:17","_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-1664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n