Newly Minted Managers: Read This First!

A significant chunk of my work is helping clients unlearn what they think they know about “good work” and “good leadership.” Because so much information out there is either cookie cutter or outdated, or both. And that holdover information – whether it’s explicit or more subtly ingrained – works against creating a career with intentionality and deliberate design. And this evaluating, revisiting, and unlearning has to happen at every level – the individual, the team, and the company at large.

Now the reality is that those cookie cutter ideas run deep, and they’re the bane of individual contributors, managers, and executives who want to do things differently. If this sounds like you – congratulations, you have your work cut out for you. But it’s exactly the work you need to do to create the intentional, responsive, and transformative organizational cultures that belong in the 21st century. 

A Quick Reminder

I often say that the definition of success is profoundly individual. And while that’s as true today as it was yesterday, I have to add an important caveat: The definition of success is individual, but achieving success is a team sport. If that seems obvious to you in theory, you’d be surprised at just how tricky it can be to put it into practice. So how exactly do you, as a new leader, build highly optimized, motivated, and effective teams? 

Superstar Syndrome

We’ve all seen that movie, right? The one with the basketball team or football team or hockey team that just can’t hit their stride? Every player wants to be great, but no one wants to work together. That team’s suffering from Superstar Syndrome. The individual players are talented and train hard. But they’re trying to win every game all by themselves – hogging the ball, missing passes, and not paying any attention to what the other players are doing. It’s a mess. And the whole team suffers for it in losses, missed opportunities, and damaged reputations. Here’s the big takeaway, great players don’t make great teams. Great teams require synergy. 

So What Do You Do About It?

Synergy feels magical. But the whole point of that movie is that synergy is not magical, it’s cultivated. And that’s where you, my newly minted managers, come in. Unfortunately, there’s a 53% chance that you don’t know what that means or where to start. 

Hopefully, you know the role that each member of your team should be playing – and they know their individual roles well. But when you’re developing your team, you absolutely must distinguish between each contributor’s role and their individual strengths. Establishing clear roles and expectations will give you the WHAT: tasks each team member is responsible for. But that’s not enough. To avoid frustration, miscommunication – and their domino effects – you have to establish the HOW. How will those tasks be accomplished? How will the team communicate and collaborate? How will you problem-solve as challenges arise? And here’s where you absolutely must apply a strengths-based approach.

Remember, even if you’ve got technical expertise pouring out your ears, your role as a manager is fundamentally about influence and relationships. So it’s your job to identify, understand, and improve the HOW. This means you’ve got to: 

First, help each team member escape the grip of the cookie cutter approach.

Instead of prescribing solutions, or falling victim to micro-managing – help each team member identify and use their strengths to surmount obstacles and accomplish their tasks.

Then, leverage your team’s complementary strengths. 

Adjust your team’s internal processes – or build new ones – to ensure their strengths work with one another as opposed to creating friction, dissonance, and disrespect.

Finally, cultivate mutual recognition.

It does you no good to develop a powerful and comprehensive understanding of your team and then keep it all to yourself. If your team is going to work together and achieve the potential you’ve uncovered then you’ve got to let them in on the secret. When your team members understand and respect one another’s strengths, the quality of their participation changes. And rather than being perplexed or frustrated by the differences in their strengths, they can feel supported by HOW the team as a whole gets the job done. 

As a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach (™) I help leaders and their teams understand and lean into their strengths to optimize their performance and create more alignment and ease.  Ready to get moving? Schedule a call with me today.