Failing as a First-Time Manager. What I learned and how I got better.
When I became a people’s manager the first time, I had no idea I was going to be one. But it felt great, I was stepping into the grown-ups world of work-world. I was going to have people follow my orders, listen to my opinions, and most of all — laugh at my barely-funny jokes.
As you could guess, I failed miserably.
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… As you could guess, I failed miserably.
It came to a place where when I was leaving the job, I categorically wanted to get back to an IC role. Before I left, I sat down with each of my reportees to understand where I messed up. I took detailed notes, and there were a lot of notes to take. I still thank them for their honesty. It gave me a list of things to work upon and I did.
The IC role only lasted a year before I was again looking at a team-lead role. A team of 10 this time. This was 500% of the earlier team (talk in percentages when the absolute number is small, marketer’s trick). I was dreading it, but I knew the fastest route to grow into a leadership role passed through the rite of passage of people management.
This time, I was prepared. After accepting the offer and understanding what I was taking up, I only and only did one thing — read books on people management. From ‘High Output Management’ to ‘How to win friends and influence people’ and so many in between.
And it actually did work. I was constantly rated highly by my team, I was nominated as one the runners-up for the best managers in the company, and my team was the winner of the 2nd best team in the company.
It gave me hope that I can be a decent people manager. Hence, I am sharing everything I learnt from that exit interview with my first time team members to now. Buckle up and enjoy the ride.
1. Context is everything.
Here’s a hypothetical question — have you ever been Slacked this — “How far along are you on this project?” or “What’s the status of the task we discussed last week?”
From the perspective of the sender these are harmless questions. And honestly, they have all the rights to ask. But on the receiver’s end, this almost always sounds like a question mark on their ability to do that task or run that project.
“I need to coordinate some things, so I’m curious about your progress on this project,” is a lot friendlier. See the difference?
2. Not everyone is running the same race.
Find out what makes them tick. Are they big on multitasking, or do they work best when focusing on one task at a time? Do they find solace in doing good work or they really do care about one-metric-that matters.
Remember, not everyone is running the same race. I have had extremely impressive senior folks who just wanted to do their work and not care about anything else much. Good salary, decent job security, and semblance of psychological safety is all they needed. And then there were people who wanted to know the fastest route to growth. Even if that meant rubbing a dozen people the wrong way or working on 52 weekends a year.
And both of them have been assets in the team. However, until you understand all personalities individually, you’ll end up building a monolithic culture, mostly resembling yourself and lose the variety that these varied individuals presented.
3. Still need to work?
One of the perks of being a manager is taking credit for the work your team does. Lol, no. I have seen and been both the extremes of this. Either giving all the work to the team and chilling while the updates roll or do all the work because the team is not up to the mark.
Firstly, keep contributing individually while you become a manager as well. Especially if you’re a part of a startup. Do not lose that muscle, and don’t let people question the value you bring.
At the same time, delegate like a pro. Your job also is to develop your team, not to do all the work yourself. Give your team members opportunities to stretch their skills and grow. The output will at best be 80% of what you were expecting. And it’s your job to bring them to a 100, and they’ll take it to beyond.
Does it sound like more work than before? That’s why you’re getting more money than before.
4. The score resets at every role change.
Doesn’t matter if you come from a high-flying startup or an established brand name, you individually should not come on a high horse. Your trust and respect score begins from zero. You need to perform and earn that again, and then only the team will pay it back to you.
I would save on words and give an example to remind you of this — Hardik Pandya and Mumbai Indians.
5. Absorb ambiguity, give clarity.
One of the shortest and one of my favorite definitions of leadership — absorb ambiguity, give clarity. Try to observe this in your company — the more senior the person, the more clarity is expected of them.
Bonus: How to co-create the marketing-operating plan, for ownership-by-default.
In the pursuit of providing clarity, we often make the mistake of spoon-feeding (or rather throat-shoveling) the annual/quarterly operating plans.
While the team might still work on it and do a good job, the motivation is mostly driven by incentive and not ownership.
Here’s how I have learned to do it.
Take goals from my manager.
Break it into the areas my team members handle individually. Ask them to create a plan for their sub-function.
In parallel, I make a plan based on the entire function’s responsibility.
Then I mix both the individual plans of my team members and my overall plan and let it ruminate in the common Slack channel for everyone to comment asynchronously.
Bonus 2: Create a user guide to yourself.
It’s crazy that the simplest of gadgets which are highly intuitive to use, come with a user manual. But humans, the most complex of beings and each one unique, do not. So, I created one about myself. It is a required reading for everyone who starts working with me. I have seen the before and after changes, and I would say — it is pretty darn worth the effort.
Here’s the one I wrote: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/user-guide-working-rohit-srivastav-rohit-srivastav/
Parting Thoughts
Are there more things I learned along the way that made me a better manager? I am sure I did. Do I remember them? Sort of. Do I think you want to read a longer version of this post? Absolutely not.
Reach out over DMs if you’re facing a peculiar challenge — being a marketer, manager, or just existing. Drop your problem in text or audio. I will find time to reply to the best of abilities.
Ciao!