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Hi all,

I'm in an interesting "careful what you wish for" position.

Frustrated by previous lack of management opportunity, I made a call to move jobs. I compromised a bit - would've preferred to get several reports, and minimal change in technical content; whereas I settled for one report, and a bit of a lateral move technically, so I'm learning a new area.

Here's the catch; they moved the goalposts between interview and starting, so now I've got 5 people in my team instead of 1. The extra 4 of them are only reporting to me in a matrix sense, but I'm accountable for their work output. Great, but scary.

I figure that I'll be going through that initial hard phase of trying to get across everything, but just wondered if anyone has some tips for these particular issues:

[b]1. Tech work vs. management work.[/b] Finding it tough to apply myself to my own technical work, and deal with the management tasks. Answer should be to delegate, but two issues are troubling me: (1) I feel like I desperately need the technical experience to learn my way round the new job and build some client relationships, plus (2) I can't walk in and start delegating to the matrix reports until I get some buy-in from them on the new team structure, and they can see I'm pulling my weight, too. I'm not strictly their "boss".

[b]2. Deluge of "stuff". [/b] Almost immediately on turning on the PC I've been hit with a serious barrage of clashing calendar appointments - deals that have stagnated and become urgent, online training that must be done, been signed up by my boss to all manner of training on both technical and management items, team meetings, leaderships meetings, 1:1s (which was my first mission, obviously!). Waaah. I'm finding it hard to find the headspace to do important stuff like assess who my key clients are and go talk to them. Do I focus on getting on top of the technical work and my immediate team, and make the client stuff secondary?

[b]3. Confidence issues.[/b] I go through this every time I move jobs - feeling like my new manager must be worrying I'm a dunce, or that clients are trying to take advantage of my ignorance to get stuff done that is normally not allowed, etc. Invariably this has passed and I've got great feedback for hitting the ground running, but the new factor for me is that I feel much more in the public eye this time, because of the manager role. Any thoughts on how to stay calm and confident when people are looking at you for direction and you've no idea what's going on!

This has got to be typical for every new manager I'd reckon... it's one thing to have listened religiously to all the casts, but it's quite something else to be suddenly splashing around in the deep end!

Cheers, Token

HMac's picture

[quote="token"]I go through this every time I move jobs - feeling like my new manager must be worrying I'm a dunce, or that clients are trying to take advantage of my ignorance to get stuff done that is normally not allowed, etc. Invariably this has passed and I've got great feedback for hitting the ground running, but the new factor for me is that I feel much more in the public eye this time, because of the manager role. [/quote]

token - the feeling will pass this time, too!

#1: focus on your people. All five of them. Get the O3's set up right away. And spend time with them in between. LISTEN. Learn. Be visible and available. Time invested will pay incredible rewards - and will start paying those rewards right away!

#2: Focus on your clients. That is, they're a higher priority than your technical knowledge right now. In the short run you'll be allowed a learning curve on the technical stuff, and you can always find a technical resource to step in and help. But NOBODY can help you establish client relationships - you have to do that yourself.

#3: Work nights and weekends on stuff that doesn't require synchronous communications. Sorry - but that's life: for the foreseeable future, you have several fulltime jobs (as a manager; learning the organization [i]as a manager[/i]; technical knowledge). I argue that in the short run, attending all those meetings is reallly important to your visibility and establishing relationships as a manager. Sometime in the future you may be able to cut back on them. But for now, you push the "overflow" into the evenings and weekends. Not forever, but for now.

By the way, congratulations!

-Hugh

jhack's picture

Congrats indeed - they wouldn't have asked you take on the role unless they thought you could do the job.

The feeling of "I'm not worthy" is common and goes all the way to the boardroom. All those execs - they felt that way at the start, too (OK, there are a few exceptions...). Make the decisions you need to make, and remember that everyone else is in the same boat.

So follow Hugh's advice and get those one on ones in place.

After the first few months, remove as many technical tasks from your plate over time as you can. That's delegation, and it will allow you to manage and grow your team.

John

bensimo's picture

Token,

You need skills in managing people. To get a good handle on those skills, what leadership is and the way to bad as well as good leadership, take a look at my brief article "Leadership, Good or Bad" [url]http://www.bensimonton.com/Leadership,%20Good%20or%20Bad.htm[/url]

I can answer any questions you may have.

Best wishes for your success, Ben

MsSunshine's picture

...and no one else can do and either delay or delegate the rest.

When I follow that simple rule it makes it much easier to see how much of that stuff in my inbox is really "important" to get done.

I would be very careful of falling into the trap of doing the rest on your nights and weekends. I've been down that path and it's a slippery slope into losing focus that you have a life outside of work. You need that support group, down time, etc. especially now because you'll feel more anxiety with the changes in the new job.

Ask your matrix reports for their thoughts and advice on things. Don't do it on everything but if you have critical things to do, ask for help. People will expect that you don't know everything. But I like my people to be honest and ask. Give someone the opportunity to help you. It makes them feel good and you build a relationship with them. I read recently that people will tend to build stronger relationships with people who they have a balanced relationship of helping and being helped by. Right now you need help but work quickly to stepping up to help them.

token's picture

Thanks for the thoughts everyone, appreciate it.