By Koralia & Nicos Timotheou
All over the world, there are so many wonderful specialists inventing, discovering, creating, producing and selling products, services and ideas. These people usually thrive in their fields due to their inherent talent, quality education, motivation and persistence and their love for what they do.
> What happens when these people are called to partly abandon their field of expertise and assume managerial roles?
> How many of them are as good managers as they are specialists?
Experience shows that brilliant specialists can be very poor managers, if left without guidance.
Management is a skill and like all skills, some carry it with them naturally and others have to learn it. So, unless a specialist is also a natural-born leader, he or she needs to undergo a learning process to be taught how to be a manager - just like he/she was taught how to be a mathematician, a doctor, a biologist, a lawyer or an accountant.
> If a manager is hired to fill in a managerial position, then it is logical to assume that she/he has acquired her/his management skills elsewhere and that she/he has proven experience on management.
> If, however, the managerial role was the result of a promotion or organizational rearrangements or an election, then it is the responsibility of the organization to establish a mechanism to train newly appointed managers to the new job requirements.
> This mechanism may comprise lecture and workshop-type training as well as coaching by more senior and experienced managers, who have been through the transition successfully or even mentoring for the top jobs by internal peers or senior executives or by external suitable persons.
> The induction/transition program should focus on what makes this new job different, what a manager is expected to do and how.
Here are a few important changes that the induction/transition should cover:
The Manager's duties vis-a-vis the Specialist's duties
The Specialist-turned-Manager (through promotion/appointment) must recognize that her/his duties are now very different than previously!
He/she must now:
(1) Manage the culture of his/her unit/team;
(2) Manage the processes of his/her unit/team;
(3) Manage her/his people;
(4) Ensure that the whole unit/team works in unison for executing their common Mission and realize their common Vision -as Specialists, i.e. as professionals like she/he was until the day before!
(5) Ensure that "generic sub-processes", such as "budgeting" & "budget control", "audit management", "excellence management", "risk management", "health and safety" and so on, are also well structured and effectively executed.
The team notion
> This is especially important for people who have been working mostly in isolation: researchers, doctors, teachers, lawyers, academics.
> These people need to realise early that their job is no longer to produce results but to support and guide others to produce results.
> They need to understand that their role (and interest) is to facilitate the team to accomplish goals common to all members, including them - that the days of playing solo are over.
People management
> Being a manager is more about solving other people’s problems rather than striving to solve our own problems.
> Meeting the team and hearing them out, will slowly formulate a profile for each team member that will show the new manager how each person should be utilized.
> Learn the group dynamics, always having in mind and accepting that this picture can change at any moment and the manager must be ready to quickly adapt.
Time management
> Most new managers find it challenging to cope with the new workload, mostly in terms of meetings, handling correspondence, problem solving and reporting.
> The only way to manage this is to delegate work and focus on what is important. What can be done by someone else, let them do it.
Relationships management
> Management is a lot about relationships: internal and external. Relationships within the team, with other departments, with top management, with external parties (customer, suppliers etc.)
> It is the new manager’s job to identify the parties affecting and affected by the team and to establish channels of communication.
Planning and reporting
> The manager is the person responsible for the overall team performance. Therefore he/she needs to plan the work in terms of time and resources, allocate it, monitor progress and solve problems. > She/he will also need to report progress and unresolved problems to the hierarchy. These may be entirely new requirements for the newly appointed manager.
> He will need to find data to rely on and to be methodical and diligent throughout.
Troubleshooting
> As mentioned before, a lot of the manager’s time and energy is consumed by problem solving.
> Problems may involve people, time, resources and technical issues. > The new manager must learn where to look for solutions when problems occur: encourage the team to find their own solution, seek advice from others, inform the top management, ultimately make a decision, knowing what is worth sacrificing and what is not.
Offering praise and accepting responsibility
> Finally, the most important and difficult lesson for the new manager is to act as a shield to his or her team.
> When things go well, he must generously offer praise.
> When things go bad, she must be able to gracefully take the blame.
Personal improvement
> Above all, the new manager must be aware at all times of her/his strengths and weaknesses.
> She/he must learn from her/his mistakes and must not be afraid to ask for guidance from above and advice from peers and team members.
Do remember:
The corporate Management Induction program transforming specialists into managers should provide the new managers with the methodologies, the skills, the tools (the mechanisms) and the information and should be practical and relevant to the organization. It should empower and support them, ensuring at the same time, that they are fully aware of their authority and responsibilities and know where to revert when in need.
20.5.2016