I’ve yet to run a workshop or program on leadership where anything approaching a majority of the participants describe their initial days of their initial role as a team leader, supervisor or manager as a period when they received much if any support and coaching from their own direct manager.
Most describe this particularly precarious professional time as more like a “hit and run,” or, at least “promote and run,” where their manager anoints them as in charge of some group and disappears like a Cheshire Cat, grin and all, only to resurface around performance review time. Sadly, the flameout rate for first-time leaders is high, and the fallout on those being led equally high.
Experienced Leaders Often Perpetuate the Sink or Swim Approach:
Unfortunately, many experienced leaders (those promoting the first-timers) will under the cone of silence and with just a bit of truth serum, admit to perpetuating the same promote and run approach they received during their own careers. “I know it’s wrong, but I’m too busy,” described one. “I promoted her because I knew she was up to the job and because I needed someone to carry that load while I dealt with mine,” offered another. And, “I survived and if he’s as good as I think he is, he’ll survive as well,” added one experienced leader.
The slight pang of guilt I feel every time I write about this topic tells me I might have committed this act of leadership treachery at some point during my journey as well. Ouch.
While few of us have time to handhold…and that’s not healthy for anyone anyways, we all have an obligation to ourselves, our firms and those we’ve put into roles of responsibility to do a better job with this important development task.
8 Things You Can Do to Start Supporting Your First-Time Leaders More Effectively:
1. Provide clear context for the role. Help the individual understand your view and the organization’s view on and expectations for their team and their role. Ideally, make certain the new supervisor can see clearly how his/her role and team plug into the firm’s strategic goals.We do our best work when we have context for its’ importance. Your first-timer will draw upon this context to motivate his/her team.
2. Establish clear accountability for outcomes. The new leader is typically overwhelmed with the people complexities of leading and it’s easy to lose track of what needs to be done to help the rest of the organization. By clearly communicating how the new leader’s performance and team performance will be evaluated, you remove much of the ambiguity from the situation.
3. Scheduling planned time to connect and a “911” protocol for crises with the new leader. The planned time provides an anchor for regular updates and having a clear “911 protocol” assures the new leader that you are there in a pinch. (And yes, those momentary crises are great teaching opportunities.)
4. Resist telling and focus on teaching. Use questions to teach. Your best friend may in response to, “What should I do?” is, “What do you think you should do?” Too many senior managers fall back on telling their first-timers what to do. That’s not teaching.
5. Choose a variety of settings/situations to observe and then provide coaching feedback. Hey, this is your job and your diligence here will absolutely pay dividends. You get to see the new leader in action and the new leader gains valuable insights and performance suggestions.
6. Resist the urge to flame the new leader for mistakes. Your post-mistake coaching opportunity must focus on, “What did you learn?” and “How would you do this differently?”
7. Provide ample positive feedback (when it’s earned, of course). Confidence is one of the missing components of first-time leaders, so celebrate the small victories.
8. If things are going well, ratchet up the challenges. We learn by exposure to new and more complicated situations. As the new leader develops confidence for current tasks, establish a challenge in a new and more complicated area and keep pushing him/her out of the proverbial comfort zone.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
A first-time leader is a horrible thing to waste. You’re already invested in the promotion, now get involved in creating the success.
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Art Petty is a Chicago-based management consultant focusing on strategy and leadership development. Art regularly speaks on innovation in management and leadership, and his work is reflected in two books, including the recent, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development. Art publishes regularly at The Management Excellence blog at https://artpetty.com
Prior to his solo career, Art spent 20+ years leading marketing sales and business units in systems and software organizations around the globe. You can follow Art on twitter: @artpetty and he can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]
Art,
interesting post, but I guess I look at it differently. There are things that can be taught and there are things that have to be learned. A leader, in any position, needs to learn their role quickly or fail quickly. The worst thing that happens is that they get babied along or they become a carbon copy of the previous person. People need their own ideas and their own feet to stand upon. Isn’t this what Ayn Rand would have called “becoming ‘I'”?
It’s not easy. Many times people will fail, they will leave organizations and they will have to grow on their own. That is called learning. One takes those lessons into the next job, fresh and not burdened. The world is not one company, that is the great thing about America having such large markets. You can learn and start again with a fresh page, almost entirely unburdened by the past, except that which you choose to bring with you.
If the existing manager babies someone into a position, spoon feed them things, all they learn is the shape of the spoon. They become a weaker replica of the previous manager.
If someone is coming into a position, they either have understandings and strengths that’ll enable them to grow into the position or they’re being brought into the company because they have experiences that have prepared them for this position. In either case, the sooner people find out if the person will succeed, the less damage will be done.
Fail fast or succeed. Don’t baby.
Newsflash, we don’t agree! Great to hear from you Andy and thanks for sharing your always fascinating views. My points are in the post, so I’ll have to stand on those. I believe somewhere in my caffeine-induced haze this morning, I suggested that hand holding was never ideal. The practice of “promote and run” has no place in my world. Your interpretation of my guidance is most definitely off of my intent. As always, thanks for diving in! -Art
There also may well be a question of perspective. The existing manager sees themselves as buffering the new person, moving behind the scenes to help them succeed. However, the new person is overwhelmed, and sees themselves as having been abandoned.
#4 is an difficult one. I think so often when we try to “groom” someone, we really just ended up telling them what to do instead of taking the more difficult step of walking them through the decision. Good post.