What I've learned from my first 6 months managing people

^^^ Me on my First day^^^

In quarter one, I was promoted into my current role. As things were working out I imagined I’d do a similar role to my pre existing one just for more money and on more strategic accounts. It turned out that in startup land, as I call it, I was involved in a whole a range more. Part of that transpired to be taking my first steps into management. It wasn’t expected but was definitely something in line with the progress I wanted to be making in my career. It justified in many instances why I wanted to start my career at a startup. So here I share with you all some things I have picked up on my first 9 months or so of management type work.

Keep it positive. One thing I have noted about my current boss is she is unrelentingly positive for the majority of the time. Taking a step back to evaluate where this sits with other senior leaders both within my company and more generally when I view many of the successful people I have worked with and observe from afar is the power of positivity. Without divulging into too much personal stuff, I also met someone special this year who reminded me that on a much deeper level. I often describe myself as an optimistic realist, but I can understand how that can perceived as being a pessimist. Keeping to the positive light of a situation, at least externally when around a team, is very important. Morale is so important. I admit I’m not a morning person but that doesn't mean sometimes you don’t have to suck it up for the greater good of those around you. Keeping positive can keep morale up amongst your colleagues and ensures productivity and team cohesion is maintained. It is also a device to pull you through some of the more difficult and challenging times. This is one of the biggest things I will take into 2017 - A positive outlook on events.

Minimise drama. Very few people particularly look forward to conflict and I will be the first to admit, I actively seek ways to avoid it. Nonetheless conflict can occur in the workplace. Much like an outside passion of mine (refereeing) prevention is better than cure. Conflict often has a series of events the run up to it; Spotting those (and your ability to do some improves with experience) and addressing those instances early reduces its prevalence. When conflict does occur, much like refereeing, nip it in the bud and minimise drama. Much with a red card on a football pitch, it doesn't need to be a grand ceremony. Everyone should know the result and you should minimise inflating the situation (on a football pitch the opposite of this would be rubbing the red card in the player's face). This is very similar in the workplace, address the issue, “take it offline” and make sure you address it in a follow up. Ensuring you minimise the drama means you can do a few things:

• Consider your response and the outcomes of it - maximising the chances of doing the right thing
• Don’t negatively impact morale or sentiment with the individuals involved
• Focus on the task at hand, rather than the emotions of the event

Keep your ear to the ground Possibly my biggest observation in the workplace is how disillusioned senior members can get when they don’t listen and ask questions. Hey I recognize I’m not a CEO, MD or some other fussy title just yet, but what I have learnt is that when managing a team you work very closely with you need to listen to them. Take time to understand their problems, concerns and interests. Doing this enables you to help prevent things that can cause them and the operation grinding to a halt. In addition keeping you ear to the ground enables you to facilitate team members solving their own problems. Finally by keeping your ear to the ground you can strike up a deeper and different type of relationship which engenders some mutual interest and trust.

Empathy can be your best friend. As a device empathy can be extremely powerful. Whether it is pulling in a favour, pushing back, delivering bad news, celebrating or even working through the post christmas party hangover, being empathetic can help you along the way. Empathy can help you disarm in conflict situations. Starting to use empathy helped me enormously given the point below.

You can’t be friends with everyone. Ultimately I have always considered work as work. I like a degree of visible separation between work and my social/private life. One basic rule is team members are not friends on social media (beyond linkedin). This separation is really helpful for me because it enables me to remain objective, decisive and critical at points. When you don’t view your colleagues as your friends it engenders a freedom for me to make decisions which I feel are best for the business or the team in general. This has been particularly useful for me.

Perceptions matter. During my work experience I have learnt that as a figurehead of the team there is no substitute for being there. Being able to check in with the colleagues for a friendly chat, remind them that you are there working as hard as them, and ensuring you are easily contactable to help solve problems should not be overlooked. In my early months it conspired that I was working a lot abroad and had annual leave periods dispersed around that. The cohesion, morale and operations of the team was a lot better once I returned as we could share the workload more equitably, resolve issues faster and function as a team.

Asking for feedback is important. Both upwards and downwards feedback is important. It can be easy to cut yourself off from thinking critically about what you do, but a former manager and teacher have always praised my willingness for feedback. I am keen to ask those with more experience how I could do things better or differently to equip myself with more tools for the future. Likewise I am aware perceptions matter, so remain keen to keep my ear to the ground and ask those I work with or manage how they find working with me, and how I can improve. The times when I haven’t asked for feedback for periods further self doubt and bad decisions can creep into your mind. I have found gathering lots of feedback enables me to move into new situations cognizant of how they may play out and keep a feedback loop active to ensure I improve in future situations.

Learning can come in different forms.  Sometimes we crave the ability to learn like a baby. Afterall as a baby everything is new, full of opportunities and different. That is still compelling for me 23 years later and I am sure for you too. Nevertheless as I have matured I have recognized that you (given the right things) should be learning all of the time (well as much as you can, some tasks are repetitive and “mastered”). At first didn't recognize that I’d be here 9 months later having learnt as much as I have done, however it is a different form of learning. The learning was more self critical one developing soft skills That type of learning is extremely valuable. It is learning from the times when things went well, to the times where it has been difficult or gone badly. Its learning from feedback and experience. All of that can be just as exciting as obtaining a new hard skill. It's a bit like hardware and software. Getting a new gadget can be rewarding, however you can find just as much fulfillment from playing with a new operating system on old device.

Aint no body got time for that: the ego. Its not about me it's about us. Working as a team should always be a team. It is a "we" not "i" and an "us" not :you". We are successful as a team, and develop as a team. We share the ups and downs as a team and help eachother out. Managing a team you quickly learn you are able to achieve (and at least for me) have a greater level of fulfillment when we do things together. Conceptually it's easy to grasp but often doesn't happen for some. I challenge myself to always reassure, praise and credit people for the work that they do as it is mutually beneficial for all. If my team is successful I will be, and that means there is no space for ego trips either from myself or others in the team. Individual success is celebrated but I remember make sure when applicable it is situated within the context to the central goal

So here is to work, my learnings in 2016 and my team who make me a better individual after every day. I look forward to sharing many more thoughts with you all in 2017.