Sent this to a coaching client of mine who was just telling me how overwhelmed he felt by his new management position. He expressed that he felt more comfortable in his active engineering role but felt pressured to take the promotion. Now, he's suffering through the political aspects of his workplace when he'd rather be doing the technical work. I'm hopeful he'll find some advice here that will give him a new perspective! Thank you!
You have described two of the FASTEST ways to get the LEAST from your team.
Great insights, thanks!
Now, how to fix it? My 2 cents...
The starting point is trust.
You've hired skilled people - let them show you why.
Lay out the broad objectives and then work together to set the KPIs that will guide their performance.
Once those are agreed upon, step back.
This allows for mutual accountability without you constantly looking over their shoulder.
There's a difference between a leader who delegates tasks and one who delegates authority. The latter is what you should aim for.
By allowing your team to make decisions, you're offloading work from your plate AND enriching their job experience AND boosting their professional growth.
Of course, set the boundaries (financial, ethical, etc) - but within those lines, allow your team to experiment.
Lastly, knowing when you have to step in is fundamental.
When I see a project derailing, I know I have to do something. However, my entry point should be as a facilitator, not a dictator.
The objective is to help my team find their own solutions, not impose mine.
If I'm too dangerously close to a deadline, the project is in shambles and I have to rescue it, then I can safely say I've done something wrong in my governance, which can happen too (yes, I also f- up at times).
The tables in this post are worth reading. I've struggled with this many times over the years - and often swing from providing too much feedback and then too little. Over time, I think I'm getting it right - but it's been quite a journey.
There's a lot in here which I intuitively knew but never really thought about 'out loud'.
You are spot on that there is a lot of focus on the micromanager and not enough on the macromanagers. Learning to find the right balance as a manager is important to learn and to figure out how to apply to different team members.
Lots to learn here and not enough teaching. Becoming a good manager is a completely different skill set!
Great post, Dan. On the topic of micro vs macro management, I learned recently that another dimension at play here is how much managers subscribe to different management theories of what motivates their teams (ex: security vs. vision vs community); here is a short piece on that related topic: https://open.substack.com/pub/waqaswrites/p/choosing-your-your-management-mo?r=jhccc&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Sent this to a coaching client of mine who was just telling me how overwhelmed he felt by his new management position. He expressed that he felt more comfortable in his active engineering role but felt pressured to take the promotion. Now, he's suffering through the political aspects of his workplace when he'd rather be doing the technical work. I'm hopeful he'll find some advice here that will give him a new perspective! Thank you!
You have described two of the FASTEST ways to get the LEAST from your team.
Great insights, thanks!
Now, how to fix it? My 2 cents...
The starting point is trust.
You've hired skilled people - let them show you why.
Lay out the broad objectives and then work together to set the KPIs that will guide their performance.
Once those are agreed upon, step back.
This allows for mutual accountability without you constantly looking over their shoulder.
There's a difference between a leader who delegates tasks and one who delegates authority. The latter is what you should aim for.
By allowing your team to make decisions, you're offloading work from your plate AND enriching their job experience AND boosting their professional growth.
Of course, set the boundaries (financial, ethical, etc) - but within those lines, allow your team to experiment.
Lastly, knowing when you have to step in is fundamental.
When I see a project derailing, I know I have to do something. However, my entry point should be as a facilitator, not a dictator.
The objective is to help my team find their own solutions, not impose mine.
If I'm too dangerously close to a deadline, the project is in shambles and I have to rescue it, then I can safely say I've done something wrong in my governance, which can happen too (yes, I also f- up at times).
The tables in this post are worth reading. I've struggled with this many times over the years - and often swing from providing too much feedback and then too little. Over time, I think I'm getting it right - but it's been quite a journey.
There's a lot in here which I intuitively knew but never really thought about 'out loud'.
Great post!
You are spot on that there is a lot of focus on the micromanager and not enough on the macromanagers. Learning to find the right balance as a manager is important to learn and to figure out how to apply to different team members.
Lots to learn here and not enough teaching. Becoming a good manager is a completely different skill set!