You’ve done it. Your sales manager has moved on and you have been promoted as the new leader of your team. You’re the new leader. All that hard work has paid off. Now what?
For most leaders, the rise up the ladder begins with an event like this. You are now in charge of the team of which you were previously just a member. Moving from the orchestra to conductor. From player to coach. You need a plan.
There are two dimensions you’ll want to address with a coherent plan. You have a new functional reality and a new human reality. You need to bring clear new thinking to both.
From a functional standpoint, you have responsibilities that now span your entire team, not just your business and your customers. This sounds obvious. As a new leader, you must elevate your view of the business and understand the objectives and challenges of all your team members.
First, you’ll need to pick up essential competencies and technical skills that may not have been necessary as a direct contributor. Do you need to understand the P & L? You had to keep track of your own expenses, but now you need to manage the team’s expenses, and stay within budget. You need to make travel decisions, and perhaps give guidance to your team on that. You may need to understand different reporting applications, or understand them at a higher altitude. Be aggressive about all the technical knowledge you don’t have and fill those gaps as quickly as possible. Make sure you are connecting with the right people to access that knowledge, and be clear with your manager about your desire to learn.
Second, you need to shift the balance in your understanding of the customer relationship. When you had direct customer responsibility as an individual contributor, your bias was probably weighted toward your customer versus your company. In other words, you made sure that your customers’ interests were well represented in the policies and programs that emerged from your company strategy. Salespeople tend to over represent their customers’ interests during internal debates about how to solve problems. They want to deliver solutions that will make the customer happy. Your responsibility should now be more biased toward your company. That isn’t to say that you should disregard your customers’ interests, but you must find and satisfy those interests that are well aligned with those of your company.
Third, you have to know what your new boss knows. Thinks like she thinks. You are now at the crossroads of her priorities and your team’s ability to support and deliver results against her objectives. This sounds like I’m telling you that you need to please your new boss. I am, but not in a teacher’s pet kind of way. In your first role as a manager in your career, you must demonstrate that you can embrace the strategic mission of your company and translate that into excellent guidance and coaching of your team. You have been given the opportunity to lead, and those who gave you this responsibility are watching closely to see if you are ready. They want to see if you should continue on a leadership path or are better suited as an individual contributor. Deliver results for your new boss, small ones and big ones. Establish competence and dependability in your new role. Make everyone feel great about the decision to promote you.
The human dimension is no less critical to your success as a new leader. There are a few things you need to pay attention to.
First, you need to quickly move from peer to leader. You have existing relationships with everyone on the team. Those range from cordial to very close. You talk to some people once a year at a sales meeting. Others you consider close colleagues and trusted friends. You need to transform these relationships so they support your critical objective of being successful in your new role and support your positive career trajectory. The best way to do this is to be direct with your team. You are the same person. The depth of relationship you had prior to your promotion will continue, because you are still that same person. However, your responsibilities as leader now require that you ask different deliverables of the team, and of each individual. You should address your team together with this messaging. You should also discuss it individually with each person. Remember, you have individual relationships of varying depths with each person. You need to spend the time to talk about how that relationship is changing with each person. In my experience, this part is critical. I’ve seen rising leaders address the group, but resist individual engagement. The relationship between the new leader and team starts out as distant, and too much energy is expended afterward trying to repair that.
Also, be aware of external perceptions of you as a new leader. Remember, not only will those who selected you be watching, but other colleagues will be observing you as well. They want to know what it is about you that management admires. They’ll want to see what you are capable of, how you carry yourself. How you behave in crisis. They may want to bring you a project that they couldn’t get the previous leader to embrace. You’ll need to show that you are a competent leader. That you’re not just the “tallest” member of the team. You can make decisions and effect change. They can work with you. Look for opportunities to deliver small victories to those colleagues who are trying to decide if they can count on you in your new role. Establish your credibility network early, and show that you are engaged and empathetic about others’ priorities.
Lastly, avoid the tendency to view your promotion as a popularity achievement. You didn’t win an election. It doesn’t mean you are the most popular member of your team. I’ve seen rising managers devote focus and energy into making their new team “like” them. It’s a natural thing. You probably feel a little bit guilty that you were promoted to the top of your team over others. If others on your team competed for the same promotion, that feeling may be palpable. Stop yourself here. Earn your team’s respect through good works, not by becoming their favorite person. Remember, a successful leader must be of the team and above the team. That means you need to establish some separation at times. Your team needs to start perceiving you differently. They need to count on you as leader, not as a person they can sway because you are one of them. That means when the team goes to the bar after dinner for a nightcap, you go to your hotel room. If there is rowdy behavior at a trade show, you’re not there. You need to carry yourself differently now.
These are just a few tips for how to survive the transition into leadership. Another resource is the book “The First 90 Days” by Michael Watkins. I’ve picked this book up each time I faced a transition into a new leadership role. Also, make sure you tap into other leaders who have already made the transition, especially those who seem to be thriving. If possible, establish a mentor relationship with one of these people. Keep them as a go to resource as you rise into future leadership roles in your career.
People who run a marathon for the first time, but don’t have another race or life goal planned to follow that, often experience a great let down, even after they’ve accomplished such a meaningful achievement. This is not the finish line of your career. You have much more to do. Make sure you can see far beyond your current promotion and visualize your path as a rising leader. By taking confident initial steps as a new leader you’ll go a long way to becoming the modern compassionate leader you want to be.
Lead well.
(Please share your comments below.)
Click to visit Jim’s book page:
“The Modern Compassionate Leader – 12 Essential Characteristics of the Rising Sales Leader”
Follow Jim on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.
© Jim Martin and www.jamesmichaelmartin.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jim Martin and www.jamesmichaelmartin.com
