Some become leaders as a clear part of career ambitions. Others do so because it unintended becomes part of their role. Maybe the start-up hit it and scaling up put you in a leadership role. maybe a project got you committedly engaged and others started to follow, or maybe your own boss saw something you were not aware of yourself. For whatever reason you suddenly see yourself standing in front of others and realize - “they see me as their leader” - you are wise to take the job seriously. Not because it is a good step to promote yourself but because it is a position given to you and it comes with a responsibility. Others now lean on you, need you and hopefully trust you to support them in doing a good job in your mutual interest.
Some say manager you can be appointed, leaders are chosen. And there is something to that. The role of management is to large extent an administrative function where a signature on a document can put you in charge of scheduling work hours, planning and goal setting, budget follow up etc. All the managerial tasks that comes with having people working together.
Leadership is more a way to express the ability to make others want to join forces and move in desired direction, your direction. leaders are the ones people choose to follow. often managers and leaders are the same but never underestimate the power of informal leaders. If you focus on management only, your group may very well seek guidance, comfort and trust behind another person as their leader. Hopefully that other person follows you but there is no guarantee. Why take the chance? Better safe than sorry, take on the leadership role when someone wants to give it to you. If you turned into a leader by choice of others or by circumstance you have a window of opportunity open, use it wisely. In this article I will share some of the learning my clients have shared in similar situations.
These are the three main topics coming up , let’s keep you on track with them from start shall we?
“I don’t see myself as a leader, I have no interest in bossing people around!”
Ok, so that is a good start. Good modern leaders do not boss people around on a regular basis. In fact, bossing people around without having earned the trust from them that makes them think you actually know best will certainly have good people leave your team. Most of your best staff are probably far to the right on the scale of independence and those who are not still want to be treated with respect. A modern leader does not boss people around. A modern leader is more interested in facilitating getting the best out of every member in the team than being right and giving instructions. Get a coach and start working on your own thoughts around what leadership is. You don’t have to be bossy, you have a personal way of leading others and that is what you need to develop.
“I don’t have time to do my real job anymore!”
This is a common frustration in new leaders not yet fully recognizing the tasks of their new role. So you were a successful entrepreneur creating this new thing that you built a start-up around, or you were that really good worker who got elevated into leading the team. Guess what. Your old job description does not really apply anymore. You need to rethink what is your job today. Nobody moves an employee from production to sales and expect him/her to keep up the same level of production while also doing sales. A job switch means some tasks are replaced by others. Seems simple doesn’t it? We can all understand it. Why is it so persistent then to hold on to “doing the real job” when moving into a leading position?
Well this in my experience happens mostly when a new leader/manager got the position based on their skills in prior role and that has so far defined them. An entrepreneur who has built a business around an idea, is highly committed to that idea and the tasks around creating it. That person has a big part of identity connected to being an entrepreneur. A skilled worker has identity connected to own work done, and neither has yet connected their measurement of “a good days work” to being the facilitator for others to get things done.
Redefining job well done and taking the tasks of the leader and the manager into account there is essential. So is making sure there is someone else filling the hole in the team when someone is moving into leadership position. A very common mistake, especially in startups and fast growing entities where leadership and working productively is often combined, is to not have a clear division of how much time is to be spent on leadership/management, how much of the job description are still pure productive hours and who fills the gap as team grows and leadership needs more time. Make sure you actually take leadership as a task into account when calculating time, setting up measurements of success and build your powerful team.
“Why can’t people just do their job?”
Oh, they can. And they probably will, given the right circumstances. What I hear when clients come sighing this is there is some part of their own job they are not doing. Either in communicating clearly as leaders, getting people to opt in and get going on a shared vision. Or as managers, planning, following up, ensuring deadlines and fair conditions where nobody is slacking behind at the expense of others and nobody is over their head in unmanageable workloads.
Believe me. I am not saying there isn’t people around who would love to pick up the pay check with a minimum of effort. (some days even I would) Inspiration only takes you so far. You ned to trust your team to have the capability to do a good job, but you also have to make it possible for them to trust you to lead them in doing so fairly. Part of being manager is ensuring work conditions are facilitating chances of doing a good job, part of it is actually framing what is “good enough” and to take action when that level is not met. And sometime sit is even in your role to see when it is time to let go.
You need to ensure you have the clear head to know what is what and the self-confidence to step into it, maybe to see your own flaws, maybe to support others in managing theirs. Having a coach as a speaking partner in defining what is what, how to deal with it and who you want to be when doing so is a great way to ensure you can take on your full role of leadership and ask yourself that question unbiased, without blame and with far less frustration.