Becoming The Boss
In the last half-year I have gone through a personal change,
Taking a new job has changed me and the way I work.
In my last Position I was doing 70% hands on and only the rest Team Leader work,
But now I am spending 95% of my time not doing Technical things any more,
And this has been a dramatic change for me.
I am a technical person, very technical, and actually even a Geek too,
and suddenly I work mostly with people, and my main function is to help them do their Technical stuff the best they can.
after 3 months I got my first Panic attack. I have stopped doing what i was best at and started doing soft skills things, In which I do not know yet how Good I am.
This was a scary moment, and I have started to question myself:
Was this the right change?
Is this really what i want? maybe going back is easier?
How can I become good at it?
what is really my new Job? what does it takes to succeed at it?
I have gone through the crisis after doing a lot of thinking and soul-searching,
and decided to push back harder, to do the extra mile and learn to be the best I can,
I have started reading managing books and listening to lectures and Pod-casts,
And all this have helped a lot.
but, I have read an Article this week that would have saved me a lot of anguish If I’ve read it sooner,
and I think every new manager should read it too as part of his early training – so you know what you are getting into.
“Becoming the Boss” by Linda A. Hill
This Article at hbr.org has resolved so many of my fears and helped me relax,
I’m not alone at this! I’m not the only one going through this process and having a hard time!
Most new managers find their first major Role filled with unknowns life changing decisions.
The new job is more demanding than what they imagined, and the skills and methods they have excelled at over the years are not relevant to what is needed to succeed in the new managing role.
The article talk about a “Gap between the current capabilities and the requirements of the new position”,
This is something I really resonate with,
it’s not learning new technologies or applications that I’m missing,
it’s a whole new set of qualities I need to develop within me, and this is 10 times harder.
Security Blanket is another term used in the Article – after switching to management,
The technical worker is no longer increasing his technical skills,
And this is a scary decision to take.
Another Hard change for the technical person when becoming a manager is the need for good people skills:
“Unless they identify and build effective relationships with the key people the team depends upon, the team will lack the resources necessary to do its job”, so now it’s not only creating good relationships with the team, but important relationships with people across the organization is needed to succeed at the job.
I recommend reading this to everyone who has started a new managing role, or even thinking about it,
the managing role is not what it seems from the outside, this article helps to build a better understanding of what it is and what it isn’t, and what is expected of a new manager.
This Article can be found at http://hbr.org/2007/01/becoming-the-boss/ar/1
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