Manager 2.0

Managing a large team operations was always a bountiful work for any manager in the usual business scenario. The pandemic and its aftermath of remote work from home makes it a tad more demanding.

In my career thus far, I have closely observed the glory that is assigned, especially in Indian corporate world, to be designated as ‘Manager’. It is one of the key aspirations of the younger generation. “What do you aspire to be in next few years with us, how do you wish to grow?” The answer is a ready-pop-up. “I want to be a Manager, handle a large team, manage overall operations.” Well, do you?

Not necessarily being called a ‘manager’ and ‘leading a team’ is the most glorious role one can be in. We can grow in our core skill and distinguish ourselves with the craft in that skill, as an individual contributor. That holds as much power and credibility – as in, in being an ace patent search specialist or the best office action response writer or simply the finest docketer. Those who know themselves and their talent well, understand this distinction. The specialization of any business rides on such professionals across the world. However, if you do possess a generalist skill and multi-tasking efficiently is your strength, then you must prepare yourself to be a manager. And in the given times of managing remotely, I call them ‘Manager 2.0’.

Here is what it takes to be a Manager 2.0:

• Starts the day with a phone call which is prior to the day’s official schedule. Its called ‘today’s challenge’. It can vary from unexpected work matter to a sudden health issue of a colleague or a laptop crash/faulty charger for a team member. The day begins! Loops in IT, Admin, HR teams to get rolling remotely.
• Runs on smart tools and excel sheets to review every day’s team bandwidth spikes and re-allocates/re-depute people accordingly on projects and ad-hoc assignments. Maintains supreme visibility from a corner of his or her home. Tracks every $ target daily, weekly, monthly.
• Multi-task like a pro. At any given time, you are handling a couple of deadlines, a sudden MIS request from the seniors, hopping from a technical system glitch for an account to quick celebrations on VC to keep up the spirits. Manager 2.0 is constantly talking, fixing, supervising. Everything is ‘important and urgent’.
• Conducts morning stand-up meetings until 11AM, attends review meetings until 2PM, leads intervention meetings until 5PM and gets ready for customer meetings starting 8PM! Living inside Microsoft Teams or Zoom, literally.
• Understands each customer, every account and all processes so well, that even remotely can dissect on-the-go on what possibly could be going on operationally. Has data and dashboard on a click of a button. The sanity of key business metrics is sacrosanct, especially during remote management, real-time, updated and on Cloud!
• Skips a meal or pushes it away because a meeting extended or an unscheduled call came. Does not have a SOP for the day. Each day has a unique script and is always upbeat to go crack it.
• Watches, listens, observes and has also picked up how to handle mood swings of colleagues. Thanks to the lock-down!
• In addition to the subtle nuances that got added to a Manager’s role in all of the above tasks, continues to be responsible for Quality, Production, TATs, Attrition, On-boarding, Farming, Margins, and Team’s Performance.

So if you wish to grow as a Manager in your career, self-reflect and understand yourself deeper. Ask the question, “Do I like planned, expected, structured, work wrapped around my core skill kind of a day or can I deal with multiple things and fast-paced day - switch back and forth on work matters, connect the dots, have exhausting days, handle chaos, fix it, create new, implement it, play the good cop and the bad cop and still keep everyone on the team happy?”

Companies need both – great managers and brilliant individual contributors. Specific talent experts and generalists. Grow where you have deep roots.

We are a company with some great Managers who have turned into Managers 2.0 so seamlessly, that it only makes me proud to dedicate this article to them. Some of the beautiful ways the pandemic is shaping up managers of today for a stronger tomorrow.