Transitioning to a Managerial Role

Have you ever felt happiness and fear at the same time? We all feel it when we encounter life-changing events like making a career move, moving to a new city, or getting into a relationship. Every new move in our life can be exciting and daunting at the same time.

Performance reviews happen every year, it is quite a routine for most employees, however, for Rajesh this year would be special, since he was expected to move up the ladder and take up the mantle of a manager. He was excited about the new role and afraid at the same time. He was happy about moving up in his career and fearful of leaving his technical expertise. While he was a great technical resource, he had never handled managerial responsibilities like managing a team or giving presentations. More importantly, he was aware that once he became a manager, he would have more time on hand. The question that troubled his mind was, how will he utilize his time effectively to continue receiving appreciation from his superiors.

This is a very common dilemma faced by many technocrats when they move to a people manager role. Many who take up the role of a manager without letting go of their technical role are predisposed to failure, because of the inability to balance both managerial and technical roles. The larger issue is that they might end up putting in excess hours of work, impacting their health, and the well-being of their family and self.

In the book “Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices.” Peter Drucker gives a very simple solution to overcome managerial dilemmas.

1. Set Objectives: The primary role of a manager is to understand the organizational goals and translate them into achievable targets for the team members.
2. Organize: To achieve the goals set by the organization manager must organize resources such as time, people, and material ensuring effective utilization of resources.
3. Delegate: Managers need to learn to let go, by overcoming the fear of losing control over the task. Failure to delegate will lead to poor employee morale and growth. Empowered employees are more likely to be engaged and stay with the organization longer.
4. Motivate: One of the tasks of a manager is to fulfill the basic human need of motivation by providing timely rewards, recognition, growth opportunities, and a positive work environment.
5. Communicate: Good communication builds trust and collaboration among employees. Setting expectations, providing feedback, and ensuring the team is informed about the organizational changes.
6. Set Yardsticks: Managers’ must set measurable yardsticks to ensure that the team members are aligned with the organizational objectives and are on track to meet them.
7. Measure: Regularly collect data against the set objectives and goals by monitoring progress, analyzing results, and making data-driven decisions to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
8. Develop People: Another important role of a manager is to provide necessary feedback, training, mentoring, and creating growth opportunities. Investing in employee upskilling will not only save crucial resources, but it will also help managers deliver quality results faster.
9. Manage Stakeholders: Ultimately, it is the stakeholders, be they internal or external, need to be engaged actively by providing them with timely updates on the progress of the undertaken objectives and goals.

These are just some of the tasks a manager does on a day-to-day basis, this list can be far longer than what is mentioned above. So, if you have an opportunity to become a manager, take a plunge, there is no dearth of tasks that a manager can do. With AI taking over all the routine tasks, the future belongs to management professionals.

At OpsMaven we can help you to transition into a managerial role with our "First Time Managers Program".