Transition to Managing Managers
Leadership textbooks paint the path to executive leadership as linear. First, you are identified as a high performing individual contributor. You continue to grow, develop, and demonstrate aptitude for leading others, and next you are promoted to supervisor.
As a supervisor you learned to let go of what made you a great individual contributor. This allowed you to focus on developing a leadership style, learning to coach, develop, and inspire others, and eventually consistently getting positive results through other people. After establishing a successful record as a supervisor, you begin looking for the next challenge of managing other managers.
This path is rarely the reality. Many new managers are lucky to get new manager training, have a mentor, or sufficient time to adjust to their new role as a leader of other leaders.
Managing managers is challenging. The manager is leading people who have their own teams, departmental goals, and individual challenges. They may be leading people who the day before were their peers, which is just one of many interpersonal challenges for a new manager. If the new manager has not received any support, mentoring, or training it can feel overwhelming at best and sometimes nearly impossible.
New managers of managers who may feel overwhelmed can start with the following 5 strategies to make the transition to leading other leaders more effective.
Identify a mentor and personal board of directors and engage them in regular meetings as a sounding board and guide to support your leadership development.
Establish and communicate your expectations clearly to the managers you lead multiple times and in more than one mode. This includes responsibilities, goals, and other tactics and areas you want them to focus on.
Foster positive working relationships with the managers you manage. Creating a trusting environment where your team feels psychologically safe to share good and bad news openly will ensure engagement and productivity.
Give your managers the autonomy they need to accomplish their goals and lead their teams effectively. This builds their confidence, increases a trusting relationship with you, and creates a sense of ownership over the work.
Listen to your team and share information more openly and often than you think necessary. Clear and sincere communication will ensure they know you care and are invested in them as people and decrease misunderstandings, assumptions, and the “meetings after the meetings” that drive distrust and drama. This includes:
The willingness to ask for help and admit ignorance.
Sincerely listening to concerns and their feedback for you.
Giving meaningful, real-time feedback to direct reports on their work.
Providing updates on team goals and projects.
Regularly checking-in on their individual lives.
Leading other leaders is hard but it can be rewarding and successful when the leader creates an environment where people feel comfortable, confident, and supported.
Start with the simple things – clear expectations, open two-way communication, and sincere concern for your team – and you will be on the right path to success as a leader of other leaders.