General Management

Adding Value as a Leader

You’ve just been promoted to Project/Team Leader and now you are managing a group of people. Your previous colleagues report to you and the dynamics have just changed. They treat you differently, they want different things from you, so how do you respond?

Patrick McKenna and David Maister’s book “First Among Equals”1 is an excellent management text on managing a group of professionals and is recommended reading for new leaders.

Being a leader involves a different mindset in terms of what you do and how you do it. You need to be energetic and optimistic and create shared communication within your team. Your job as group manager is to help your people succeed and to assist with the overall performance of the team, not just your individual performance.

This transition can be very difficult, and the key is to appreciate the importance of both skill and attitude. Leaders need to be able to influence other people without dominating them, and this is a skill that can be learnt. Leaders also need to be willing to focus on the success of other people. This change in attitude can be confronting for many. It’s no longer all about you. It’s about us and them.

The role of the leader is to create energy and excitement in the team and a large portion of your activity should be aligned to raising enthusiasm and excitement and hence performance. To be successful as a leader focus on what excites each of your team members and not only on what excites you.

Another key aspect to successful leadership is your personal time management.

Leadership is time-intensive. There’s not enough time to do everything and an effective leader must prioritise.

Patrick McKenna and David Maister (“First Among Equals”) have listed their top tips.

1. Spend unscheduled, informal time with individual people, serving as coach and helping them develop themselves.
2. Be active in the development of junior people by suggesting new assignments so that they can build their skills.
3. Connect with customers, grow relationships and monitor customer satisfaction.
4. Help team members differentiate themselves in ways that customers recognize and value.
5. Help your people stay current with the trends affecting the industry.
6. Monitor performance and results with group members and discuss results with them.
7. Devise methodologies to capture and share knowledge.
8. Help your group to explore new and innovative ways of using technology to better deliver services and reduce costs.
9. Spend time recruiting, interviewing and attracting new staff members.
10. Spend time following up and actively helping colleagues execute their planned activities.
11. Initiate and plan regular meetings to collectively plan activities and initiatives.
12. Conduct formal performance appraisals with your people.
13. Conduct counseling sessions with people on the basis of these performance appraisals.
14. Celebrate individual and team achievements – both the minor wins and the major successes.

Leadership. It’s complicated and it can be confronting for new leaders. You want to succeed and everyone around you is watching your every move. By understanding the key skills and attitudes required you will have a very rewarding experience.

References:

First Among Equals. How to Manage a Group of Professionals. Patrick J. McKenna and David H. Maister. The Free Press. 2002.

Back to Resources and Links