Five disciplines for the new project manager of the project manager

Congratulations, Congratulations! You have been promoted! After ecstatic, you are a little confused, some guilty: "I can do?" "The pressure and the challenge are a little overwhelmed. You may be an excellent professional who has been working as a member of the team, but has never led a team. You find that all of a sudden you have to be in charge of a time-critical project and play the role of coordinator for more than 10 or even dozens of people, and you're almost unprepared for it.

For many people, it's a big and difficult transition from being a regular member of the team to being a team leader. It can accelerate your ascent and ruin your entire career. People tend to experience setbacks before they finally grasp the meaning of "leadership". As a team leader, you must master five: management process, establish prestige, learn to lead, lead each person, moderate democracy.

The key is the management process

First of all to learn how to authorize, do it yourself is not the manager
For many people, the first response to a promotion is to take on more work. In their minds, this is the only way to ensure that important tasks that have never been undertaken are fulfilled. These people often use "handedly" instead of thinking. The biggest challenge for them is changing the way they work. Because you have always done it yourself, it is not difficult to solve the problem. But you have to learn to let others help you solve problems.

Connweld fell into the trap of pro-force. He worked in the production department for two years and was recently promoted to project manager, leading a team of 11 people. At first, whenever he saw that the group was lagging behind, he would roll up his sleeves and go into it himself. But the more he does, the less he is doing, and the more he lacks motivation. They will drag the workers between for a long time and wait for special instructions for obvious problems.

Kang thought he was helping the group, but the team members thought it was a hint that they were working too slowly: "Look, I do it faster than you." Kang soon realized that his job was not to complete the task for the whole group, but to provide direction, motivation and tools. In fact, every leader will eventually realize this. It's a simple lesson, but it's easy to ignore it: don't do it yourself.

focus on the management process, not the content

Professor Ann Donalen of Babson College in the United States concludes: "To manage processes, not content." The real job of leadership is to master the flow of schedules and information. But too many people try to control the details, and they regard themselves as ' craftsmen ', which can only lead to less and fewer responsibilities for subordinates. ”

Managing processes and managing content can significantly reduce the team's motivation. Blaine Acheux, the inspiration Company, was originally a programmer, recently promoted to project manager, responsible for the company's flagship product of 9 million users-personal finance software. "As a project manager, it's my job to develop, publish, locate and target customers. The biggest challenge is to find priorities in all things: what can be done? What can be authorized for the following people to do? What can be given to the superiors to do? What are the decisions that must be made today? ”

Asher uses the engineering mindset to address this challenge. He identified three factors that were critical to the success of the project, and every morning when he reviewed his daily work list, he judged which things helped to accumulate success factors and which did not help. He did the good work himself, assigning the rest to 15 engineers. "I wasted a lot of time on irrelevant things. I have to ask myself the question: ' How can I help people who need help, and don't have to spend time in person? ' ’”

Prestige is the leading efficiency of the leadership

No self-assertive, can't insist on being a bad leader
Being a leader is an important change in your career. But you can't be the same. A significant part of the new leadership is eager to complete the transition from "members of the group" to the Commander-in-chief. This is wrong. Asher said: "Do not become a leader on the shelves." A little easier. People want to see the original you, and everyone has a human relationship, so that people feel the work is pleasant. You can't forget who you are. ”

It's easier said than done. When Nancy Taole just took over the new post, her subordinates were very dismissive of her. The group has been working together for six months. People were very fond of the way the manager worked, and he regretted the departure of the man. Her predecessor had a very good communication with the team members and was very fine with the daily chores. But Taole is not like that. She only catches big things. The predecessor was good at expression and reasoning, and she considered herself rather shy.

"Everyone really likes her, and doesn't know me. "Members of the team do not automatically respect your new title, so I have to establish my own way of doing things, to understand how I work, and to show my ability through concrete examples." "She grabbed the two things that her predecessor ignored--straightening out a relationship with a key supplier, imagining more potential features for the team's new product--details that let the crew go.

Taole's goal is clear: "Make the product." "She chose to guide the process in her own way and ultimately the leadership team overcame the difficulties ahead.

there are inappropriate corrections to be moderately

This does not mean that the new leader does not need to revise his work style. Asher took over the new project shortly after, a subordinate spoke to him alone, and was prepared. She took out a list of the pros and cons of the former manager, with two pages of paper, expressing the hope that she would become a leader. Asher adopted the proposal. "As a manager, I found some things to be easy to do and to make her feel good and helpful. ”

But there is a limit to change. "The last manager did everything to her, and it didn't mean that I would. So I'm not myself anymore. ”

Learning while leading is the road to success

To grasp the role, the layman can lead the expert
In some cases, your new job has put you in unfamiliar areas. Your men are more knowledgeable about the department than you are. How to avoid the embarrassment of amateurs leading professionals? At such times, even if the team members need your guidance in an administrative sequence, you must also learn from them about their expertise.

Boeing's Brousse Molavic has been a manufacturing engineer for more than seven years, with excellent technology. But when he was promoted to the manager of the 757 retrofit project, he realized that as a layman who knew little about a certain field, he had to win the respect of the inner pedestrians. The project has to be long-bodied, and he has to expand his skills and lead others at the same time.

"You have to build a reputation for new roles and enrich your knowledge," he says. "If you look at people, you can find experts in areas you're not familiar with and start relying on them for information." ”

How do you achieve a balance when you need to learn and lead? Molavic said: "Do not impurities professionals, so doomed to failure." I tell all of my subordinates that our roles are different: My job is to integrate resources and they are experts. (See the 34 pages of this issue, "What is a layman, why not?")

Without an expert, we can start a business together
When Corry Sha Ping is appointed as a client development team manager for a gas company, a new leap in personal skills must be achieved. He has worked in the oil field for more than three years and is comfortable and competent in his areas of expertise. But now he has to go into marketing and process design. And he faces a more intractable basic problem: his group has no precedent in the company, and neither he nor his crew knows how to work. His solution is: "Let's find a way together." ”

"My mind was in a mess when I got my appointment. I don't even know what this group is for. I introduced myself to the group members to see if I could start the role and what it would do. "The Jiedi members were as skeptical as he was. These people have been working together for four months in order to create a customer service business, but there has been no formal leadership. Jiedi's self-introduction soon drew a group interview with his team members.

"They're asking me a bunch of questions," he told me. ' What do you think the team should do? ' How should we design the process? How are you going to support us? ’”

So how did the new leadership answer these questions? "I admit I don't know what to do," he said. I'm going to get to know their work first, find out what they want me to do, what the company wants us to do. When they found out that I didn't have a predetermined set of rules, they said, ' Let's do it together! ’”

It's a matter of years ago. Now, Jiedi still doesn't think he's a connoisseur. "If you ask me: ' Can you finish the work for your team?" ' I would say no. But if you ask them: ' Can you do what Gerty did for the group? ' I hope their answer is not. ”

The leader is the one who leads everyone.

Lead everyone, not the leadership team
The team leader does not lead the team, but leads the individuals who make up the team. This sentence is simple and deep-spoken. Each member has its own advantages, disadvantages, preferences, blind spots and sores. To lead a team, experts say, you must first learn to lead everyone in your team. Leadership is a one-to-two activity.

Psychologist and team expert Harvey Robbins said: "The most important skill of a team leader is to learn to deal with all kinds of people." You have to understand how people want you to treat them, and then you can let them follow you. ”

For Boeing's Brousse Molavic, it is difficult to carry out a one-to 300-man plane to lead the company. "95% of my men are salaried from other departments, and all I can do is influence them." ”

How did he influence these hundreds of people? "My way of working is casual, I just walk around and ask them how it's going. If you don't understand the roles and difficulties of others, it is easy to criticize others. Most people want to do the work well. You have to let them know that you are here to help them, not just standing there giving orders. ”

To rally the heart, Molavic repeatedly instilled a basic creed into every member of the team: "We are all here to build airplanes." If the plane can speak, what does it want us to do? How do we fulfill its wish? ”

But he also paid attention to the difference in team members. Recently, an engineer dragged his feet and refused to sign an authorization letter. Molavic suggested that if he could sign the document on that day, he would get a dozen donuts. By 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the authorisation was placed on Molavic's seat. The next morning, the engineer got a dozen donuts. "His eyes were so interesting," Molavic recalls, "as if to say: Ah? Are you really giving donuts? ”

recognize the consequences of ignoring individual demands

Corry Sha Ping paid a heavy price to understand the principle of not ignoring the individual requirements. Two years after his group was formed, although the team had achieved excellent results, someone had begun to leave. One of them was dissatisfied with the way the group worked. She was a "neat" pie, unable to endure some of the long-standing things in the project. Jiedi didn't meet her requirements. Another person resigned because of pay discrimination. "I ignored it because I felt I could do nothing about it," he told the story. But she felt unfair and eventually chose to leave. I don't see the individual needs of the team members. Now it seems that the problem will only worsen and I should have done something early. ”

When you are dazed, moderate democracy

How to lead a former colleague, ask them
Participation can make people motivated. But what kind of people should be involved in what kind of thing? How long does it take to participate? One of the hardest things about a new leader is how to get the team involved in a timely and moderate way. If the new leader is promoted from the original team, it will be more difficult. How can you just get promoted after work in Wednesday and interrupt your friend's speech in Friday?

But it is not hard to be. After Connweld was promoted to the leadership of a group of 11 people, he had four of his best friends in the original group. At first he did not know how to deal with such a relationship. "Although I became their leader, I wanted to be part of the group. I hope everyone treats me as equals, but it seems that I have been treated as a superior. "The first few weeks were embarrassing, and he didn't do much to guide the team's work. The group raised the question: what kind of relationship should we get along with? Everyone thinks he's over-worried. "Maybe I'm a little upset about the problem, but talking about it can help me reduce my fear. ”

There are always few people involved in decision-making

The Blaine Acheux encounter is another challenge. His first important task was to figure out what features should be included in the new version of the personal finance software. "The inspiration company is very focused on consensus," he said, "and we spent 6-7 weeks discussing it." Finally I said: ' We have to make a decision, we have to start programming. ' It's hard to define where the boundaries of this discussion are. You have to know when everyone is talking about it and it's time to move on to the next step. ”

Ultimately, making a decision means issuing an order. Asher five senior managers to prioritize the results of 50 of people brainstorming. "We need the high participation of a few people to simplify problems, find priorities, and move forward." ”

Five disciplines for the new project manager of the project manager