Being a First Time Manager and Coaching a First Time Manager.
by Anand
One very key factor in both employee engagement and performance management is the role of the immediate manager. As the Gallup poll on this subject confirms by this classic statement “when an employee joins he/she joins an organisation, BUT when he/she leaves he/she leaves the manager”. This article addresses this critical role of the First Time Manager and coaching the First Time Manager.
I give the summary below
How to get it right as a first time manager:·
Find a coach:
Fine tune your Communication
Build Credibility
Don’t dwell on your mistakes
How to coach your First Time Manager
Encourage, Support
Do not attempt to be in control
Understand Coach vs. Manager
The First Time Manager
Being A First Time Manager
You’ve finally been passed the baton. You now have the organization’s letter that congratulates you on being promoted to a manager. You’re elated, enthusiastic and determined to make a difference. But upon realizing that you now are moving from managing yourself to managing others, anxiety sets in. The initial enthusiasm and confidence slowly begins to fade away to building apprehension on whether or not you will be able to manage people. The feeling isn’t right. Disorientation starts taking over.The key is the make it through the first rough year of being a manager. As Linda Hill, professor at the Harvard Business School says, “The earliest test of leadership comes with that first assignment of managing others. Most new managers initially fail this because of a set of common misconceptions about what it means to be in charge.”
You may have been an outstanding performer as an individual in your previous role but this does not necessarily mean that you will make an outstanding manager. Your individual performance is not as important as the collective performance of your team. As Linda Hill states, you need to “understand what it means to be in charge”. New managers need to identify the challenges they face during an often difficult first year. Three things—getting comfortable with being a beginner again, scoring some early wins, and learning how to ask for help—can make the transition smoother.
Being a manager means a shift from your interests to that of your team. Understanding them is important. Your focus now is to help improve the performance of your team for they are now looking up to you to help them chart their way. As Madeleine Homan, co-founder of Coaching Services for the Ken Blanchard Companies® explains, “The biggest challenge is going from a kind of mono-focused work life where all you had to think about was yourself and your daily task list and moving to a world view that is so much broader.”
However, it is not just your reportees, but your boss and peers who also increasingly demand your time and attention- often leading to conflicting situations leaving you dazed and confused.
One of the things that Homan reminds new managers about is that it is ok to feel overwhelmed. After all, it’s completely normal when you’re faced with a large task that you haven’t done before. What’s important, according to Homan, is how first-time managers respond to this feeling. They can either retreat into their comfort zone and do only what they did best before, thereby not really stepping up as managers or walk through the tide, learning from every mistake they make recognising that they may not get it right the first time, but continue to expand their horizons.
How to get it right
Find a coach: Elvis Presley, the famous rock ‘n’ roll star once narrated an incident, “The first time that I appeared onstage, it scared me to death. I really didn’t know what the yelling was about. I didn’t realise that my body was moving. It’s a natural thing to me. So to the manager backstage I said, “What’d I do? What’d I do?”
Elvis was doing what he did best, what came to him naturally. He was overwhelmed and scared the first time, but he went on to become one of the legendary artists in music history. As a first time manager, you are thrust onstage. People- your boss, peers, and reportees are looking at you to take charge. You begin with what you know best. Yet when it does not work, a coach backstage helps you tide over the initial difficulties. He prompts the lines you missed and does not let the spotlight blind you.
1. Fine tune your Communication: clearly state your priorities and expectations to the team and ask them theirs. Your team needs to understand what you want of them at the same time they, too, should be aware of what to expect from you.
2. Build Credibility: This can be especially challenging when a new manager finds himself trying to establish credibility with direct reports who used to be peers. As Homan explains, “These new managers have to live in the discomfort of knowing that they have no idea what they are doing, and also knowing that there are people who report to them who also know that they don’t know what they’re doing
3. Don’t dwell on your mistakes: it’s ok to make mistakes. Don’t let the fear of failure stop you from taking risks. Focus on the big picture. Developing strong managerial skills will take time. You need to be patient and diligently work towards improving yourself. Learn to be a beginner again.
Coaching a First Time Manager
What do you do once you promote an employee to be a manager? Definitely, he/she has shown the potential of outstanding performer who can go far and beyond. You’ve now officially put the spotlight on this one person who now has to transition from a lone-worker to manage a few people. Just like Elvis Presley, you will have your first-time managers constantly looking backstage (at you) for support. Being a new experience for them, you now become a Coach. Remember the time you were a first time manager? The disillusionment. The apprehension. The confusion. A million questions would have crossed your mind- will I make a good manager? Will my subordinates listen to me? What expectations do I set up? How do I delegate? Etc.
This is exactly what your newly appointed manager is going through. The difficult first year. Once the initial elation and enthusiasm disappears and the enormity of the situation sinks in, he/she will look around for someone to hold on to. This is where your role as a coach comes in.
1. Encourage, Support: As a coach, the first thing that you need to do is ease out the pressure of that the new role may have put on the individual. You need to make him/her understand, that as Herculean a task that it may seem, by keeping a cool head and focus, they will be able to tide over any obstacles that come along. Support the new manager by constantly providing encouraging feedback and directing them towards the right path.
2. Do not attempt to be in control: Do not be authoritative. Understand that you are only a guide lighting the path for the individual. Do not try to force your methods or opinions on to him/her.
3. Understand Coach vs. Manager: A manager and a coach essentially do have overlapping roles; however, a line has to be drawn when it comes to the way in which you provide direction. While as a coach, you need to help the individual find the correct direction as a manager you need to ensure that the individual complies with the said rules and policies to get the job done.
Being a coach requires you to be a friend, a confidant and a role model. The new manager will look up to you for showing him how to get the first year as a manager right. You need to fill him/her up with your experiences- especially about the mistakes and the wrong turns you took while managing a team for the first time. This will help the individual realise that what he/she is going through is not unique and that he/she is not alone. At the time, also discuss what you learned out of from your fall-outs and how you worked hard not to repeat the same mistakes again.You facilitate the individual’s achievements at the same time are there when anything goes wrong.
“Coaching is unlocking the person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”- Fortune Magazine
source: http://www.techtribe.com/viewBlogEntry.html?blogEntryId=78ddd20c-9370-102b-81d6-000f1f68a9bf
The Field Marshal quoted the Bible and offered to resign…
There are many stories, some true and some apocryphal, about India’s legendary soldier - Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw. It is common knowledge that India’s military campaign in 1971 to liberate Bangladesh was delayed on professional military advice, against the wishes of the political class. It is delightful to revisit the anecdote in the words of the lead historion of the dramatis personae. The Field Marshal narrated this incident as a personal example of moral courage, at the inaugural Field Marshal KM Cariappa Memorial Lecture in October 1995 at Delhi.
There is a very thin line between being dismissed and becoming a Field Marshal. In 1971, when Pakistan cracked down in East Pakistan, hundreds and thousands of refugees started pouring into India, into West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. The Prime Minister held a Cabinet meeting in her office. The External Affairs Minister Sardar Swaran Singh, the Agriculture Minister, Mr. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad, the Defence Minister, Babu Jagjivan Ram and the Finance Minister, Yashwant Rao Chavan were present. I was then summoned.
A very angry, grim-faced Prime Minister read out the telegrams from the Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. She then turned around to me and said, “What are you doing about it?”
And I said, “Nothing, it’s got nothing to do with me. You didn’t consult me when you allowed the BSF, the CRP and RAW to encourage the Pakistanis to revolt. Now that you are in trouble, you come to me. I have a long nose. I know what’s happening.”
I then asked her what she wanted me to do.
She said, “I want you to enter Pakistan.”
And I responded, “That means war!”
She said, “I do not mind if it is war.”
“Have you read the Bible?”, I said.
The Foreign Minister, Sardar Swaran Singh asked, “What has Bible got to do with this?”
I explained, that the first book, the first chapter, the first words, the first sentence God said was, “Let there be light” and there was light. Now you say, “Let there be war” and there will be war, but are you prepared? I am certainly not. This is the end of April. The Himalayan passes are opening and there can be an attack from China if China gives us an ultimatum.
The Foreign Minister asked, “Will China give an ultimatum?” And I said, “You are the Foreign Minister, you tell me”. I told them that my armoured division and two of my infantry divisions were away. One in the Jhansi/Babina area, the other in Samba and the third one in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. I mentioned that I will require all the road space, all the railway wagons, the entire railway system to move these formations to the operational areas and that harvesting was in progress in the Punjab and UP and they would not be able to move the harvest which would rot; and I pointed out to the Agriculture Minister that it wouldn’t be my responsibility if there was a famine. Then I said, “My armoured division, which is my big striking force is supposed to have 189 tanks operational. I have got only 11 tanks that are fit to fight.”
The Finance Minister, who is a friend of mine asked, “Sam why only 11?”
So I told him, “Because you are the Finance Minister. I have been asking you for money for over a year and you say you haven’t got it!”
And finally I turned around to the Prime Minister and said that the rains were about to start in East Pakistan and when it rains there, it pours and when it pours, the whole countryside is flooded. The snows are melting, the rivers would become like oceans. If you stand on one bank, you can’t see the other. All my movement would be confined to roads. The Air Force, because of climatic conditions would not be able to support me. Now Prime Minister, give me your orders. The grim Prime Minister with her teeth clenched said, “The Cabinet will meet again at four o’clock”.
The members of the Cabinet started walking out. I being the junior most was the last to go and as I was leaving, she said,”Chief, will you stay back?”
I turned around and said, “Prime Minister, before you open your mouth, may I send you my resignation on grounds of health, mental or physical?”
She said, “Every thing you told me is true”.
“Yes! It is my job to tell you the truth” I responded, “and it is my job to fight, it is my job to fight to win and I have to tell you the truth.”
She smiled at me and said, “All right Sam, you know what I want?”
I said, “Yes, I know what you want!”
[Field Marshal KM Cariappa Memorial Lectures 1995 - 2000, Lancer Publishers & Distributors, Delhi, 2001]
Three cheers to the old soldier! The only regret - I wish all of us had compulsorily read this at school, among all the mythological and faux historical fables, as a living illustration of moral courage.
Courtsey: http://indianeconomy.org/[The article is by no means belong to navneetshrivastava.blogspot.com; Its been put here with a pure intention to share the good-written-words]
Please do read the full article: http://indianeconomy.org/2007/10/12/when-manekshaw-confronted-indiras-cabinet/
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