Strategy is not just looking up

“I can't believe I just let go a team member.”

Rowena didn't expect this day to come where she had to effectively ask an unsuitable team member to leave the organisation. It certainly was not something she would consider doing when she joined the company 5 years ago.

Fresh out of school with a diploma in engineering, Rowena was a minority, a female graduate with an Engineering background. She quickly found employment with a global manufacturing organisation, Orca, in the position of Trainee technician, which was the entry level for someone with her qualifications. Her hometown had plenty of such companies and their factories operating there, so getting a job in one of factories was no issue at all.

3 pieces of advice when starting out in your career

In a country where English was not commonly used as the medium for education, Rowena spoke the language fluently. Recognizing that unique talent that Rowena had, her first boss, Casey, gave her three pieces of advice to help Rowena along in her career.

First, always deliver on results, meaning you have to get your job done. Second, be able to present well what you have done in front of others, so others will know of your results. Third, make sure you can properly document those results so that you get credit where it is due.

Rowena took note of the three pieces of advices given by Casey, and worked on them as she started on her career. First, she did her job and delivered expected results. Second, she polished her presentation skills so she could present well in front of others. She took it a step further by going on platforms that allowed her to showcase herself across the organization and across the industry. 

Third, she wrote her reports so well that even senior leaders from other departments in the company commented on her ability to communicate in written form. It was no surprise that within two years of joining Orca, she was promoted to the position of Technician, followed by another promotion 2 years after that to Senior technician.

Strategic outlook is looking up

Rowena moved to another department shortly after her promotion to Senior technician, and her new boss, Tony, told her that as Senior technician she would be more involved in supporting colleagues with onboarding new client contracts to the business. 

For Rowena to support her colleagues effectively, she would need to know the client's industry and business, what they do, what they need and how Orca could they help them. This was what her boss, Tony, called developing a strategic outlook, building an understanding of the business environment beyond Rowena's immediate role.

Rowena took it on board and immediately put developing her strategic outlook to practice. By focusing on addressing the client's needs, matching them, and at time building those capabilities within Orca, she became quite skilled in managing the onboarding of new clients within several months. 

By this stage Orca was expanding their facilities to cater to the increased volume of business, and a couple of new hires were brought into the department that Rowena was in. Three of those new hires were to report to her, and that’s where things got a little bit tricky.

Becoming a first time leader

When Rowena joined Orca, her diploma qualifications meant she came in at the entry level of Trainee technician. Two of the three new hires reporting to her were Assistant engineers, entry position for fresh university graduates. Not only were the two assistant engineers more academically qualified, as a Senior technician Rowena was actually one grade below them.

She struggled to get around the idea that she had higher grade staff reporting to her. Her boss, Tony, simply told Rowena that she had over 4 years of work experience with the company and the industry, and was more than suitable to guide the new hires; work experience trumped academic qualifications in his eyes. Furthermore, having a team would be a fantastic growth opportunity for her.

Rowena took that comment on board, and figured that in terms of her strategic outlook, she had already developed an understanding of how to interpret directions from middle management and translate them into actionable results.

Now all she had to do was to understand how to get her team to deliver those results together.

Know your team like chess pieces

Taking a cue from other respected leaders within Orca, she first set out to get to know her new team. Subsequently she would interpret the direction from middle management to her team and they will work closely together to deliver those results.

One of the new hires, an Assistant engineer, Leon, was consistently underperforming for his first 6 months with Orca, so Rowena decided to find out what was going on. By this stage she had come to learn that each of her team member were like different chess pieces, and that she had to learn how to deploy them effectively in order to achieve the team results.

Leon was a quiet and reserved fellow, so Rowena decided to take him out for lunch one day to inquire on how he was doing with his work. It was then that Leon revealed a honest truth. Going into engineering was something that his parents had imposed on him, and that he preferred to work in the media industry.

Know the external environment

Rowena understood it well because in his hometown, a profession such as being an engineer, a doctor, or lawyer were very well respected and hence very desired. Only very progressive families would ever allow their children to go into newly developing Industries such as media and infocomm. In those days, even going into the IT industry was still considered a risk due to the hangover effects of the E-commerce bust a few years back.

After some further frank discussion with Leon, Rowena came to the conclusion that if Leon was to stay around it would impact the team's performance. She then said something that she never thought she would say.

“Leon, should you continue to stay with Orca, your performance will negatively impact the team. For where you want to go and what you want to do, this is not the place for you.”

Strategic outlook is also looking down

Rowena learned a hard lesson that day. When Tony mentioned developing her Strategic outlook, it was not only simply understanding the direction from the level above her position. As a first-time leader she had to be able to translate those directions into a form that was easily understood by her team, so that they could work effectively to deliver results.

She also had to understand her team and be willing to move people out, and bring fresh blood in where necessary so the team can be effective.

In short, developing a strategic outlook wasn't only limited to looking up, as was commonly espoused, it also included looking down to ensure those below understood what was going on.

Three months later Leon left, and Rowena brought in a suitable replacement.

It’s about the value you bring as a leader

In her sixth year with Orca, Rowena was promoted to Assistant engineer. She was now at the same grade as some of her team members. Not that it mattered anymore because by then Rowena had gotten over her own awkwardness of being at a lower grade, and her team members did not mind at all because she had plenty of experience with the company and was able to deliver results.

Rowena would continue to work in Orca, applying what she had learned from her bosses Casey and Tony. She would climb the ranks, moving to Engineer and then to Senior engineer within the next 4 years.

Bring your interest to work

Her interest in bettering herself would eventually spill into her work, leading Rowena to champion Continuous Improvement initiatives with Orca. Her senior bosses felt that it was important that Rowena was given sufficient authority to drive those initiatives, so a few months after starting to champion continuous improvement in Orca, she was promoted to Assistant manager.

Rowena was recently promoted to the grade of Manager, where she continues to build her visibility across the business by being on several platforms, leading her team to achieving the objectives by ensuring that they understood the strategy behind their work, and continuing to champion continuous improvement within Orca and across the industry.

Question: How else is strategic Outlook important to a first-time leader? Would love to read your comments.

About the writer:

Daniel Lee is a speaker and writer and is co-authoring a book on First Time Leadership (FTL) to create a roadmap to understanding leadership for aspiring and first time leaders.

Enjoyed the article?

Hi FTL readers. If you are a Senior Leaders or a First Time Leader, you can help so much more by sharing your leadership experiences to our FTL research. Click here to subscribe to our member list. Your sharing will benefit many others, and your details will be kept private and confidential. I will get in touch with you.

In return for subscribing, you will immediately receive the Top 10 list of Leader and Minion Behaviours to help you identify appropriate productive and destructive behaviours in your workplace.

Disclaimer  

This article is based off a true story that I learned during my interviews with senior and first time leaders. Any similarities with fictitious events or characters are purely coincidental.