First-time manager tip for newly promoted high-performing ICs

Photo by Fox

Many people are promoted into management because they become adept in the functional area they work in. However, this advantage can become a disadvantage in management.

Here's why:

1. As an Individual Contributor (IC), you excel if you know the subject matter well, and you do the work.
2. As as manager, you excel if you know communication and systems-thinking well, and you can enable other people to do the work.

1. As an IC, you are responsible for your own success.
2. As a manager, you are responsible for your team's success, and your team is responsible for your success.

As a previously high-performing IC, if you don't make the switch to becoming hands off of the controls and instead learn to train, encourage, coach, delegate, and be willing to let others fail/learn on your watch, you will either

A) become a micromanager nobody wants to work for

B) burn out/be miserable/overwhelmed

C) at the very least miss your full potential as a manager

It can be painful to see your team stumble, or do the work you already know how to do well – only slower/worse/differently. But a manager's job is not to do their team's work. Controlling & always telling others what to do makes teams fragile and weak; giving others just enough knowledge to learn to stand on their own and guidance without full answers makes teams resilient and strong.

High performing ICs can excel as managers if they learn to:

1. Dose their knowledge

2. Accept that not everyone will be at their level

3. Make time/space to learn how to empower their team to grow at their own pace

The answer is also not to hire all-stars or to just fire under-performers. A good manager knows it is not sustainable to try to build a team of stars, but can see and coax the potential out of almost everyone by establishing systems that educate/guide/support and plugging people in where their skills best match business need. Sometimes it can mean someone must move on, but many times it means a change of mindset as a manager to see/develop the person's best fit, adjust their own expectations, or find other levers to pull.

That’s all for today! Stay tuned to The Musing Mind for more leadership takeaways and sign up for newsletter to get more career advice and inspiration delivered regularly.

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