About first level managers and their importance

Let me start by telling you a short story. Once upon a time, there was a wonderful specialist. He was dedicated to his work, responsible to his colleagues, and open to new knowledge and so one day the leadership team of the company he worked for decided to promote him. Done - done - the very Monday the wonderful specialist became a team leader. He accepted responsibility for six people (and two more to be hired, but there were no people and it was slow going) and everyone expected him to be a wonderful team leader. However, the days went by and the plans for a great team did not materialize. Three of his six members left, a number of projects were postponed or put on hold, and the wonderful former professional, now team leader, was practically on his own - working 16 hours a day, nervous and tired, and often falling asleep thinking that the promotion was actually one big trap by the company.

Very often corporate talk ends like this. There is still a belief in many organisations that a good expert could undoubtedly be a good people manager, leading their team by personal example, good discipline and a pat on the back through the new position given on LinkedIn. However, stepping out of the world of fairy tales, we see that this misconception "burns" thousands of people every year, wastes potential, and slows the development of everyone involved - physically and legally - down the line.

The transition from expert to team leader

So let's be clear about this: people management is a completely different profession and just because a person is good at their field - whether it be accounting, sales, or engineering - is by no means a sufficient criterion for doing well in a management role in that same field.

And while expertise is usually the starting point and the necessary solid foundation for the person to stand on, the development of the necessary knowledge, skills, approaches, and last but not least - attitudes to lead people, are part of the undeniable duties of the very person or people who have decided to turn from an accountant to a chief or from a salesperson to a sales team manager in the first place.

First-time manager

It is no coincidence that the most frequent development programs delivered by Assert International in 2023 were on this very theme - Manager for the First Time - because, fortunately, a number of organisations have a good understanding of the key function at this management level. For many of them, the development of team leaders is their biggest focus - in their role as the effective link between customers (the market), all stakeholders (the company), and the people who do the substantive operational work (its team).

To support a person's evolution from team member to team leader is to responsibly accept that this is a huge career transition and comes with many new responsibilities and needs. In the following lines, I will provide some practical, important advice aimed specifically at senior leaders of organizations - those who are responsible for professionals becoming leaders of people and processes.

Development programmes for first-level managers

First and foremost, when working on such a program, our big question is what are the organization's expectations of an operational level leader - to be the best professional themselves and to know all the answers. Or in a nutshell, the question is - should the manager be a champion, or rather should he be the person who coaches champions?

Some time ago, early on in my personal journey to managing managers, my coach asked me "Which are you - Usain Bolt or Usain Bolt the coach". That question has been lodged in my mind as foundational ever since. So in the analysis stage of such development programs we get into the detail of what the company's expectations are of their respective leaders - personal, team; how the company communicates with their people - through them or directly.

Most often in such programs, we use coaching approaches - we aim to achieve awareness and attitude on the part of the trainee that he is already part of something bigger, that his success no longer depends on his work, but on the work done by his people. For novice managers, this change and acceptance of how to lead people takes time, patience, and practice.

In the programs themselves, we also go deeply through the understanding that managing people is a process of developing, organizing, and solving cases of many different kinds. Management roles involve not only supporting the work of the entire team, but also a personal human touch regarding the well-being, engagement, and growth of each team member.

Pitfalls for new managers

One common trap a first-time manager can fall into is prioritising being liked and so doing things that are liked by the team rather than doing the right things and developing their people.

Especially as a soon-to-be leader, one can also easily feel added pressure to prove one's worth, secure an early win, or be overly "proactive" in helping others achieve their results, honestly burdening oneself unnecessarily with their work. It's important for a person like this to realize that there are more productive ways to engage those around them, to give them space, responsibility, and the opportunity to give their best.

The theme of giving freedom and developing a sense of responsibility, as two sides of the same coin, is a fundamental pillar on which we draw in such first managerial-level development programs.

Prerequisites for the success of teams and their new leaders

Another of our key themes and, I believe, conditions for success at the operational management level is feedback, but not in the form of Feedback, but in the form of Feedforward. For such sessions, we particularly like using Lego Serious Play because the rules of the game accustom us to just that - how to constructively give feedback based on which the person across from us (and we with them) can move forward. And when I say feedback, I mean it in all directions - from senior leaders to him, from him to his people, from his people to him, and from his hierarchically equal colleagues, again bi-directionally. Successful examples incorporate a compulsory feedforward culture while excluding blame culture from the agenda altogether.

Another huge prerequisite for success is building trust among team members. New managers should view trust as a two-way street. They should know that they are hiring their people because they are experts in their fields or show potential to do quality work. Lack of trust can make them feel unacknowledged and unsatisfied, and hence less engaged. That's why we teach new managers the art of "smooth disappearance" and the "get the ball back" game. It is during these sessions that we most often see the aha moments in their eyes.

Finally, I'll share what I think is another key theme in building first-level managers, and that is the theme of the power of vulnerability. It is key for a new people manager to learn to be continually open to learning from those around them, to not be afraid to say "I don't know how", "I'm having a hard time, please help" or "I need you to help me cope".

To rewrite the fairy tale with a happy ending, I will say that the happy ending usually starts precisely with a change in leaders' behavior, which in turn builds a culture of trust, teamwork, and continuous development.