You have got promoted in your professional field. You might feel great that you are starting to make progress in your career.
Of course now that you are a manager it is no longer just about what you achieve personally but what you achieve through others.
Easy to say but not always to do in practice.
The myths about managing
- It’s easy.
- You can carry on operating in the same way as you did previously.
- People will get on board with what you want to achieve if you manage them.
- You will always get things right.
- You can make a lot of change quickly.
The realities of managing
- There is an awful lot of unpredictability.
- There is no formula, strategy or approach that is going to work perfectly every time.
- People will only get on board with what you want to achieve if you deal with them in the right way.
- You don’t have all of the answers and won’t ever have.
- Changing anything takes time, energy, commitment and effort.
What this means for you as a manager
- You have to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
- You have to decide what you want to achieve, create a plan and strategy.
- You have to involve people in the creation and of the plan and strategy. Telling them and expecting them to buy-in never works
- You have to have a way of measuring how you are progressing on the significant areas that you are seeking to achieve success in.
- You have to give enough time to properly assess what’s working and what’s not working.
- You have to stick with it even when it might be a struggle.
- And also accept and learn when things are clearly not moving in the right direction.
- Realism is key. It always takes longer than you expect to achieve results.