Trainism

I still remember that Saturday night very clearly, when I read my appraisal letter the first time and it stated, that I was promoted as an “Assistant Manager’. Which would mean that I was now a ‘People Manager’ with people reporting to me and would be handling one of the core wings in my department. I was very confident of my self. A year has past by and my feelings are a little mixed now. My journey started on a very good  note but soon, in-fact very soon I realized that this path was not as simple as I had imagined it to be.

• Earlier I was only responsible for my self now I was responsible for my team.
• Earlier I was always like a one man army but now I was dependent on people for every little or big event. My performance was now to be measured against the weakest member or link in my team.
• I often found myself being clubbed between the Management and team, not knowing which path to take. Earlier when an information was shared with me, I used to understand it from an employee’s perspective and now I had to look at it from two sides. One was the management side and second was the employee side. So in a nut shell whenever a news broke in, it had to be handled with maturity and to be filtered correctly and then to be told to the employees tuning them gradually to it. With no sudden moves and jerks. But what about, how I felt ???. Their was no room for it anymore.
• Another truth that I faced was, that no matter what you do for some of your team member, you will never get the due credit for it or should I say it will never be appreciated. You are not remembered for what you do for people but they will remember you for what you missed doing for them.
• Delegating work was my biggest problem. I can delegate work to people who are ready to deliver. But what about the one’s who want it the easy way out. I messed up royally and then I learnt my biggest lessons of being a good manger.

This list would be endless if I don’t stop now. I can happily say that now I have emerged out of the smaller issues to face the bigger one’s and can now give tips to the new one on board. So here we go…

Tips & Tricks :

1. From Work Perspective:

• Be a Master Planner : Keep all backup strategies ready for every activity that you have planned.
• Keep the End in mind : Always work backwards. It is often said that we all as human beings do things twice. One in their mind and the second time when while executing it. The winners our the ones who  see themselves on the other side of the finishing line.
• Meetings : Daily, weekly and monthly meetings with the team will help you achieve your goals quickly and professionally.
• Be a good Crisis Manager: Don’t succumb under more work and pressure. Plan with a cool head and share responsibilities within the team.
• Effective Delegation can work Wonders: However, what you really need to analysis is who is the best resource in your team to take up the job. Someone once said that ” The most busy person in your team will always have time to take up another job” and the free one’s would want to remain free for ever.
• Time Management : Do effective goal setting and & always set a target date for every activity. I once heard a G.M. from my existing company talk about the concept of  an “Activity Manager”. When I gave a deep thought to it I realized I was also hooked being one, where most of time went by doing mundane and routine jobs. It means that we get into this vicious cycle of doing the regular work so much that will never be able to take out time conceptualizing new things for the ourselves and our teams.

2.   From Team Members Perspective:

• Create an environment of Motivation: Motivating people will always be difficult. However an environment of motivation is best that you can give to your employees. An environment which is clean and transparent from politics, with good number of opportunities for all to pick, a rich culture of growth, respect, security, high self esteem.
• Being a Mentor : Be with your people and support them in what they want to be in life. Helping them and shaping them to be what their real dreams are and taking buy in from them for the work that you want them to do.
• Gap Analysis : Identify the current job gap for all your resources and take corrective actions to minimize it.

3.   From Management Perspective:

• Align Team goals with Organizational goals : Follow the PDCA cycle(Plan-Do-Check-Act).
• Being Visionary : As a manager you must Dream big people of where you want to see yourself and the team.
• Showcasing : Today the world is full of people who look busy, do nothing only project high !!! What a new manager needs to understand is that good and hard work will not reap you profits and benefits until or unless you show the world what you have planned for your team, for your self and how are you progressing on it.
• Innovation : Will always be the need of the hour. Jobs after a specific duration will become monotonous and would start eating you up…What you must think of is How to get new business to your team.

If I really have to be honest with you all, doing all these will be very difficult initially. Hence, I suggest that know your self better as a person and a manager before you get into leading a team. Because you will only be able to execute all this properly WHEN YOU WILL DEVELOP THE ABILITY IN THE REAL SENSE!!!