Management/leadership

[clemsonfan]

I started a new job 2 weeks ago. In fact, everyone I work with started 2 weeks ago too due to a brand new program being launched in this area. So the powers that be noticed that they needed another manager for the project, so they promoted me yesterday. I am a natural leader and am very much a people person, but I have no management experience. Any advice? Any great books on leadership I should read?

Just another background bit of info: I am a nurse and I'll be supervising nurse case managers.

[Blackadar]

There are plenty of management books out there. However, most of them suck or are far too esoteric to be useful as a day to day guide. For example, the lofty "7 Habits" is a wonderful goal, but it's of little use to a new manager who hasn't ever been exposed to it before. I don't really have one in particular that I like.

I don't know a thing about managing nurses or nurse case managers. All I can tell you is that the whole point of a manager is to set the goals and remove the obstacles to those goals. In short, get the bullshit out of the way and let people do their jobs. If you've set goals and gotten the BS out of the way and a few people can't do their jobs, then your job is to either train them (if trainable) or dump them (if they're not). Someone legitimately asking for help is my favorite type of employee - they're eager and want to learn. Someone who is feeding me BS excuses why they can't get something done isn't long for my team.

In short, mentor and coach but don't hover. Clear obstacles and set clear goals. Lay out reasonable expectations and be clear what needs to be done to fulfill those expectations. Work with your team and help them. Make sure they know which rules must be followed and which ones can be bent. And be yourself - there's nothing worse than a new manager who was a good people person but suddenly decides to turn into the pointy-haired boss because they got a promotion. You NEED your employees to succeed for you to succeed.

Oh, and I suggest a strong dose of the website Evil Skippy at Work. Think of Ann Landers meets HR.

[rowech]

I started a new job 2 weeks ago. In fact, everyone I work with started 2 weeks ago too due to a brand new program being launched in this area. So the powers that be noticed that they needed another manager for the project, so they promoted me yesterday. I am a natural leader and am very much a people person, but I have no management experience. Any advice? Any great books on leadership I should read?

Just another background bit of info: I am a nurse and I'll be supervising nurse case managers.

Tell people what you want done, when you want it done by, and any rules they must follow for legality purposes. Otherwise, stay out of the way as long as things are getting done.

[Eaglesfan27]

My company promoted me to a leadership position 3 years ago (and twice promoted since then.) They sent me to a week long leadership seminar that was very helpful. Several books that they had me read which I found helpful:

The Servant by James C. Hunter
Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf
Good to Great by Jim Collins

[Warhammer]

Don't be threatened by employees who are better than you. If you have a very successful team, it reflects well on you. Find ways to help your employees grow. Don't shoot the messenger, best way to shut down communication is taking off someone's head who brings bad news.

[Young Drachma]

Leadership & Self-Deception (http://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Self-Deception-Getting-out-Box/dp/1576759776)

Finding the Space to Lead: A Practical Guide to Mindful Leadership

Also 2nd the nomination of "Good to Great" one of my favorites.

[JPhillips]

Pick your scapegoat before you need one. In the middle of a crisis it will be hard to find a single person to blame.

At staff meetings always sit slightly higher than anyone else. (Stacking chairs works wonders!)

It's never too early to pick your favorite meaningless buzzwords.

At the end of the day the only thing that matters is your happiness.

[sterlingice]

When I was a supervisor for the first time, I felt like I was drinking from the fire hose, particularly since I was a supervisor on a new project that hadn't been done before and didn't really have mentors in place. So I did what I could: I started trying to find as many different book as I could and get up to speed.

However, I have yet to find even a good "management 101" book. Every book I can think of, I had to wade through a lot of stuff that I already knew, wasn't really good advice, was too vague/idealistic to be useful, or wasn't applicable to any situation I would encounter. I really liked "How to Win Friends and Influence People" - while it sounds like a self-serving egotistical book by the title, I found it not to be because of when it was written. I can't find any of my notes on "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" but I have a vaguely positive impression of it. I also got some useful things from books you wouldn't think of as traditional management books: a Joe Navarro book on Body Language and "Emotional Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman. They were good for building soft skills, even if you have to wade through a lot of stuff that's not applicable and especially with the latter just kindof grin and bear it through a lot of fluff. Heck, one of the more "interesting" spots I picked up some tidbits were from Ender's Game as there's a lot of dialog and internal monologue explaining why Ender and Graff do what they do. Heck, even the classic Art of War and The Prince bring a lot to the table.

Fortunately, as the project went along, I had a couple of different mentors who really helped me out and were eager to teach. That was the best way to learn, that and making copious mistakes to learn from (experience is still the best teacher, unfortunately).

My biggest keys (and I'm sure everyone's are different because you learn the lessons that fit best with your style and situation):

*Building people is huge. They are what will make you succeed. Mostly stay out of the way of the good ones and assist them in reaching their goals. However, don't neglect them! There is a strong temptation to spend all of your time correcting the low performers because they need the most help just to get to a reasonable baseline. But by doing that, you won't be helping your good performers, who can already do much more than the bad ones. Think of it this way, if someone can do 8 units of work in a day and someone can do 4 units, doubling the output of the former gets your total team from 12 to 16 while the latter only gets you to 14. You need to either get those bad performers up to what you consider the standard acceptable level or get them out because they will just drag down the performance of the rest of your team. If you have people being below the expected baseline, it will bring down the whole team with bad morale or because you have to burn out your good performers.
*Learn to delegate well. This one I still have a hard time with. You have to juggle best job for the best person, the need for critical projects to get done, finding a place for your lower performers to succeed that's low risk, and the fact that you personally only have X hours in a day to do it all. This is how you build that team and develop skills- challenge your people with new projects and new responsibilities so they can grow and get better.
*Consensus and horse trading get things done. The first two were about building your team but the last one is about how your team interacts with the outside world. Don't have your team out on an island. You can have them with higher standards than everyone else if you think they can meet them. However, when working with other groups, you need to have everyone at least partially buy in or nothing will get done. Also, when dealing with others, don't waste each other's time: you need to make sure everyone is getting something out of that time. A silly but obvious example would be no meetings just for meeting's sake and if it's done early, get everyone out of there so they can get back to work.
There are tons of other things that you'll figure out along the way but it's going to depend on your style. For instance, my current supervisor thinks he's just one of the team and, as much as I really wanted that to be the case when I was a supervisor (the other 3 supervisors and a couple of managers on the project just looked at me with pity when I told them that early on), I came to realize you can't do that. You are the one responsible: you are the one who has to make the (sometimes unpopular) call. I don't have kids but I think I have a much fuller understanding when people say "you have to be their parent not their friend" as I think the situations are similar. I got burned early on, not understanding what I could and couldn't trust other people with, information-wise. Those you are in charge of are not your peers. If you need advice or a place to vent or brainstorm or whatever- you need to go find other supervisors/managers you can trust. One of the more unnerving realization I had was that you are always being watched at all times and setting an example- in both good moments and bad moments.

That said, I don't have all that much experience. What I do have is that I did it recently and I don't think I'm that far up the management learning tree so hopefully these are practical lessons for early on. I dunno- I'll probably wander back into management one day but for now I'm rebuilding my technical skills. When I was a supervisor, I was trying to squeeze 12+ hours into a 10 hour day and every single bit of it was poured into being that supervisor. I don't think I turned a screwdriver or wrote a non-excel line of code those entire 2 years. And what made a good engineer often meant nothing or sometimes even worked against my being a good supervisor. I don't miss a lot of the stress that comes from being responsible for the livelihoods of a couple dozen people. But the teaching was really rewarding. One of my previous managers and mentors told me as I left that job (extenuating circumstances as my wife had moved a year before and we really wanted to get back to living in the same city): "You're still young and you like doing things. When you're ready to teach and help other people do things, that's when you'll be ready to stay a manager."

My company promoted me to a leadership position 3 years ago (and twice promoted since then.) They sent me to a week long leadership seminar that was very helpful. Several books that they had me read which I found helpful:

The Servant by James C. Hunter
Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf
Good to Great by Jim Collins

(aside: I'd be curious what you thought was good management stuff about Good to Great. I read it a while back and found it a reasonably entertaining read but not much helpful unless maybe you were a C-level. Same with Jack Welch's Winning- entertaining read, not much help for lower level management.)

SI

[flounder]

I read this book (http://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Manager-Skills-Excel-Career-ebook/dp/B000S1L40Q/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400336245&sr=1-2&keywords=accidental+manager). I agree with sterlingice that there's no good management 101 book, but this one at least let me know what I should be thinking about.

[Desnudo]

I would see if they'll pay for some in person training specific to your field. Reading a book won't do much except make you feel better. You're better off looking on Harvard Business Review or Life Hacks for a short blog on 2-3 things to focus on.

I would also add that in some cases reading a book may make you a worse manager without applicable context.

[CU Tiger]

First I am sure you will do great, based on username alone ;)

Second, in a scenario where you are promoted from one of the team to leader of the team, the single biggest mistake I have personally witnessed is the revisionist perfection history.

You understand the job your charges do because you have done it, and presumably accomplished it well. Your new reports likely also recognize this. Dont beat them over the head with it. Also when someone makes a mistake think of a time when you made the same mistake and how you prevented it in the future.

Try not to say "When I was..."

Have fun. Be creative. Solve problems. Learn that firing someone means you either failed to select the right hire or you failed to train them. Firing an employee shouldnt bee a badge of honor but an admission of failure.

[BillJasper]

I started a new job 2 weeks ago. In fact, everyone I work with started 2 weeks ago too due to a brand new program being launched in this area. So the powers that be noticed that they needed another manager for the project, so they promoted me yesterday. I am a natural leader and am very much a people person, but I have no management experience. Any advice? Any great books on leadership I should read?

Just another background bit of info: I am a nurse and I'll be supervising nurse case managers.

Be flexible to a degree but be decisive.

The one thing I used to always hate was when an employee would ask what if the instructions I gave were wrong (I worked in bank operations). My answer was always that I was the one responsible if the action I instructed them to take was wrong. Once that happened a couple of times and I showed that I would take responsibility if I was wrong, people began to trust me.

[Edward64]

I break it out into hard and soft skills.

Soft skills are those about communication, listening, socializing etc.

Hard skills depends on your line of work. I am in IT consulting and I have to manage my teams. If you don't have the experience etc. to run an IT project, it'll be pretty difficult to do it well your first time as you do not have the background or context of that industry. The reverse is true, I do not believe I could run a construction project well.

I've found that if teams know their managers don't know what they are talking about, its very hard to get respect and credibility which is important for a manager.

Do you have the work background for the project?

[Eaglesfan27]

(aside: I'd be curious what you thought was good management stuff about Good to Great. I read it a while back and found it a reasonably entertaining read but not much helpful unless maybe you were a C-level. Same with Jack Welch's Winning- entertaining read, not much help for lower level management.)

SI

Honestly, I read it over three years ago along with about a dozen other management books from that week long course and I don't recall what specifically I got from it and what I got from the other books. I just recall that I found it better than some of the others I was given to read.

To me, I think there are skills you can build and some philosophies you can borrow, but I think a lot of my management style is based off my innate personality style and skills.

[clemsonfan]

Do you have the work background for the project?

I do. That is the part I feel most confident about. It's motivating others, dealing with call offs, and just general managerial stuff that I'm very new to.

[MacroGuru]

I am not home to look at all the books I have, but I had a mentor I followed growing in the industry and building teams. One thing I learned was to build a strong solid team.

It takes a unique personality / skillset to get a group of people diverse to work together and achieve a common goal, however if you have the ability to build your team then that much better.

In my industry I am able to focus on attitude / personality / work ethic more than skillset. I can always teach skillset, I can't teach the rest.

When I get home on Sunday night I will post the books I have used for me and my teams (Understand, I build Sales and Technical Sales teams and manage them)

[saldana]

one of the things i always try to remind myself is to treat the people i manage the way i would like to be treated, or even more so, how i was treated when i was in a similar role, and what i liked vs what i didnt about my managers at those times.

tl;dr: dont forget where you came from

[albionmoonlight]

The fact that you are even asking these questions probably puts you ahead of 50% of the newly minted managers out there.

[judicial clerk]

The seven rules of Admiral Rickover are worth researching and following. They have more of a risk management bent but they are great to follow, especially if avoiding mistakes or failures in your field is important because of potential drastic consequences.

[judicial clerk]

...and congratulations on the promotion!

[Vince, Pt. II]

The fact that you are even asking these questions probably puts you ahead of 50% of the newly minted managers out there.

+1

[clemsonfan]

Thanks everyone for the tips, suggestions and the congratulations! I made a list of what my employees need to do their jobs and I will be either installing the necessary software on their computers or making sure it is already on their computers tomorrow. I couldn't turn my brain off last night so I made a list of all the odds and ends I need to do asap.

[Lathum]

My wife is an executive at procter and gamble so she has tons of experience as a woman in leadership. One thing she always talks about is establishing the culture you want. For example, if she sends email on weekends it sets the expectations her employees should work weekends. Remember they will follow your lead so whatever you want the culture to be establish it.

From my own managment experience I would say be approachable.

[dave731]

establishing the culture you want.
This is the key. Look at all the great turnarounds in sports and you can see the culture had to be established first. Our own example is what Dabo did (is doing) at Clemson. The expectation is winning...plain and simple. As a coach, I read all of the books on leadership in that role. There is virtually no difference in running a business or leading any team. The concepts are all the same. One of my faves was "Success is a Choice" by Rick Pitino. Another fave was the one Jim Calhoun wrote detailing how he turned around UConn...can't remember the name right off the top of my head.

[Qwikshot]

My wife is an executive at procter and gamble so she has tons of experience as a woman in leadership. One thing she always talks about is establishing the culture you want. For example, if she sends email on weekends it sets the expectations her employees should work weekends. Remember they will follow your lead so whatever you want the culture to be establish it.

From my own managment experience I would say be approachable.

I think "lead by doing" is key but I don't like "implied" leading...be direct. Also, without knowing the context, but weekend work, unless it's compensated or part of the job description, is a negative.

I know the economy, and I know the crucial need to reach deadlines, but I get reactive when things are implied. So, if there is a project that needs to be completed in a quick turnaround time and that means weekend work, be direct, but if it's going to be the norm that the workload is not manageable in a 40 hour work-week, then be sure to give your crew flexibility in managing work and life balance.

To often (and again not directing at your wife Lathum), managers take this for granted, there has to be an incentive and there has to be appreciation.

I just completed a Masters from Virginia Tech, the reaction from my manager was that he was happy I was done so I could concentrate on work (furthermore he asked if I was leaving the company), that doesn't bode well to me as it made me feel undervalued (the Masters is in corporate and environmental sustainability)...

I briefly chatted with my director, all she wanted to know was my trip to China and if she could see pictures, again, it ignored what the achievement was and if it had value to the group (I surmise she felt it had no value).

Then I ran into the head of Quality at my company, a man who hired me almost 15 years ago when he was a director. I told him and he congratulated me and told me to write him a brief summary of the program and that he would reach out to Environmental and Safety.

Now I ask you, even if nothing comes of it, that last one made me feel valued. Good leaders and managers don't just see metrics, they see their people and want them to do well, be happy and develop. It's what I would hope to achieve in the position.

Congrats to you, and good luck.

[Lathum]

I think "lead by doing" is key but I don't like "implied" leading...be direct. Also, without knowing the context, but weekend work, unless it's compensated or part of the job description, is a negative.

I know the economy, and I know the crucial need to reach deadlines, but I get reactive when things are implied. So, if there is a project that needs to be completed in a quick turnaround time and that means weekend work, be direct, but if it's going to be the norm that the workload is not manageable in a 40 hour work-week, then be sure to give your crew flexibility in managing work and life balance.

To often (and again not directing at your wife Lathum), managers take this for granted, there has to be an incentive and there has to be appreciation.



.

The expectation for just about anyone in my wifes company is you get the work done, there isn't any 40 hour work week expectation, and TBH most people have more work than they can do in 40 hours.

My wife doesn't imply anything, she just understands that others will follow her lead. If she sends an email out on Saturday morning, she doesn't expect anyone to answer until Monday, but she knows people will feel pressured to answer and start checking emails on the weekend, etc...

Some execs in her company are like that, and expect it. She has had bosses who say a project is due at 8 AM on Monday, they tell you 5 PM Friday. She has to work vacations, etc...

I guess my point is people will follow your lead, implied or otherwise, so always be aware of the culture you are establishing.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

The expectation for just about anyone in my wifes company is you get the work done, there isn't any 40 hour work week expectation, and TBH most people have more work than they can do in 40 hours.

My wife doesn't imply anything, she just understands that others will follow her lead. If she sends an email out on Saturday morning, she doesn't expect anyone to answer until Monday, but she knows people will feel pressured to answer and start checking emails on the weekend, etc...

Some execs in her company are like that, and expect it. She has had bosses who say a project is due at 8 AM on Monday, they tell you 5 PM Friday. She has to work vacations, etc...

I guess my point is people will follow your lead, implied or otherwise, so always be aware of the culture you are establishing.

Yeah, I think the point is more to lead by example. Sometimes you have to show it by getting dirty, sometimes by putting in a bit of extra time. In the end you want your employees to understand through your actions that if everyone expects a high standard, the group benefits as a whole regardless of the industry/group you're managing.

[Lathum]

Yeah, I think the point is more to lead by example. Sometimes you have to show it by getting dirty, sometimes by putting in a bit of extra time. In the end you want your employees to understand through your actions that if everyone expects a high standard, the group benefits as a whole regardless of the industry/group you're managing.

Totally agree. We were on vacation in London a few weeks back, and rather than have her team have to work over spring break when many of them were off, she did the work herself when we were just relaxing because she didnt want them to work their vacations.

The point is you can lead by example while setting the correct tone about tthe culture you want.

[sterlingice]

I also think there are at least 3 different layers of management and they all have different expectations and model types (as in, there are 20 different ways at level 1, 15 different at level 2, and 10 different at level 3). I see them roughly as supervisor/manager, director-ish, and then EVP/C-level but I haven't tread those roads so I probably would change as I learned more. And I think you can do more of the "lead by example" the lower down as you're more operational, more "non-commissioned officer". The higher you are, the more you're "divided up" among your reports so the fewer smaller items are seen.

SI

[clemsonfan]

Well the first full day as a manager went well I was super busy and will be busier every day until the program launches on June 1.

[Barkeep49]

I also think there are at least 3 different layers of management and they all have different expectations and model types (as in, there are 20 different ways at level 1, 15 different at level 2, and 10 different at level 3). I see them roughly as supervisor/manager, director-ish, and then EVP/C-level but I haven't tread those roads so I probably would change as I learned more. And I think you can do more of the "lead by example" the lower down as you're more operational, more "non-commissioned officer". The higher you are, the more you're "divided up" among your reports so the fewer smaller items are seen.

SI

I think there's a lot of truth to this. In my current role I am both a supervisor/manager, in terms of the staff that work with my directly, and a directorish person, in terms of my relationship to the faculty as a whole. How I lead in each capacity is different. I think the gestures that Qwikshot talked about are far more important in the latter role while the lead by example is more important in the supervisor/manager role.

[flere-imsaho]

I think "lead by doing" is key but I don't like "implied" leading...be direct. Also, without knowing the context, but weekend work, unless it's compensated or part of the job description, is a negative.

Here's the thing, though: when you're a leader, people watch you.

This was one of the key things I learned in my most recent role as a people manager (with 90 folks on my team). Being direct, being clear, being unambiguous is all good, but you still need to be aware that people are watching you.

As an example, how do you conduct yourself in meetings. Once you're a leader, people are watching for your reaction. Do you look disinterested? Pissed off? Excited? Humans are social animals, and they're always looking for clues as to what to think.

I think Lathum's example of weekend work is a great one. It's easy to say to your folks that they don't need to work on the weekend, but if you yourself are sending them emails on the weekend, you're sending a mixed message. Now, sometimes it's unavoidable, and you should talk to that when it happens, but as a leader every little think you do starts to make a difference.

[DanGarion]

Think of it this way, if someone can do 8 units of work in a day and someone can do 4 units, doubling the output of the former gets your total team from 12 to 16 while the latter only gets you to 14.

SI

I think you math is wrong there...

[lighthousekeeper]

I think you math is wrong there...

Not when you realize the worker gains their productivity by devouring all or a portion of their coworker. :eek:

[Suburban Rhythm]

I think you math is wrong there...

His job isn't to do the math. It's to delegate it to the worker he knows can do the math.

[sterlingice]

I think you math is wrong there...

Oops. Yeah. I meant to do a 50% increase not doubling and then changed it up mid-rant for ease and then forgot to update the math. :p

SI

[DanGarion]

His job isn't to do the math. It's to delegate it to the worker he knows can do the math.

Hopefully it's to the one that proofreads his work and not me.