What is the role of a manager? Are you a new manager? Would you like a quick guide on how to become an excellent manager? Would you like to learn how to manage your team for high performance? Watch the short video on what it means to be a manager and what is expected from your role as a manager.
So you’ve been promoted to a manager and what used to be your colleagues or peers are now reporting to you maybe you were in a technical job maybe you were an HR maybe you were in sales and now you’re a manager of HR or sales or engineering and your next day is going to look like what are you going to be exactly the same person acting in a role as a manager or are you going to show how much power you have to your team many new managers are quite confused when it comes to their role and the responsibilities that come along with it and from my experience training for about training and consulting professionals for the last 15 years I’ve come to realize that many new managers completely miss what it is to be a manager and in this video I’m hoping that my ideas about what a manager is would make sense to you and that they would add value to your role as a manager my name is Edward Shehab stay with me [Music] okay so now you’re a manager yesterday you were not right so what changed if you are an engineer then what does manager of engineering staff do what does manager of engineering staff do what does manager of HR do what does manager of sales do what’s the clear-cut difference between what used to be a technical resource or someone who follows certain procedures as compared to someone who is a manager if you’re thinking it’s a hierarchy and that you lead the team by being the front person the one who represents them the one who delegates responsibilities to them maybe you’re kind of right so a manager does delegate responsibilities to the team a manager in most places who anyone who’s come up through the chain through the ladder right climbed up in their own department may be more experienced than the rest of the team around them maybe they did things better maybe that’s what their superiors saw in them and that’s why they promoted them to become a manager but I have a different opinion on what it means to be a manager [Music] I believe in a flat organization now that doesn’t mean that there is no hierarchy yes there is you are a manager and there are people who report to you you yourself reports other people above you but in that hierarchy there is some sort of there are some expectations that are not quite stated so look at it this way you were a team of five engineers and you were on your very last project you showed some strong leadership traits that your supervisors saw in you and they you know when the position opened and when they felt they need someone to lead the team they thought that you will be the best fit for that position right so the moment you take over what happens right if all you do is delegate what work needs to be done to the team then I have to ask you a question that’s a team that was successful you were part of that team they pretty much knew what they were doing and if they don’t it will take them a little bit of time to figure out what it is that they need to do so at some point that team becomes self-sufficient they can run their own project so then what’s your role as a manager what is it that you add to the table when you become a manager and I’ll tell you what you should add to the to the team right you should add the functions that they don’t film right a team of engineers or salespeople or HR professionals have specific tasks to do they do it day in day out they come in in the morning they have a list of things that they need to get done right and they go through it diligently right throughout the whole day and they don’t really need you right well I’ll tell you when they need you they need you when they need something from upper management so basically if I was an engineer and I get stuck and I have a tough client on the other side or a tough department had to deal with I need someone to speak on my behalf I need someone maybe more senior to go talk to this person so I’m going to go to my boss and ask them if they can talk on my behalf to that department head right so that’s one thing that managers feel is that they represent their staff when it comes to escalating matters to senior management but what about when we need resources tools software some applications some space what about when we need some leniency on the budget or on the time we need someone to represent us to go to senior managers write to the board and talk to them about why we need that extra time or extra budget or extra resource if we have to stop our work and go and speak to the board then nobody is doing our work so essentially for us to get our work done we need someone to be the runner the one who goes back and forth to the board and that’s you the manager so the manager is the runner the one that goes back and forth talks to the board talks to the senior managers talk to other departments and make sure that your team is able to do their work properly and efficiently in addition when the team feels a bit disoriented right and they’re confused and they don’t know what’s next which action they should take and they’re confused about priorities there could be some conflict within the team what they need is someone who is the tiebreaker the tiebreaker who listens to all sides evaluates all the options and makes a decision now the team could equally do that they could sit there they could brainstorm they could have a little word shop and they could come to a decision but no matter what the decision is it’s going to be from one side of the team and the other side is going to bling that side if something goes wrong that is if they agree so this is where you come in as a manager you fill that gap you’re the unbiased neutral person that leads this team in making decisions you listen to both sides you evaluate your options you look at the risks you look at the opportunities you look at the pros the cons and you called a shot you call the shot on behalf of the team but that means that if something goes wrong because of your decision then you take the hit the team needs someone like you so basically you’re the one who takes one for the team you’re the one who always takes one for the team right they expect you to take it for them so essentially you as a manager could basically march in on your first day and say guys I know how you feel you know I was one of you yesterday and today I’m a manager so you’re wondering you know how I’m going to behave with all of you I’m not going to be any different in fact I’m going to be even less from today onwards I’m the one that takes the hit for you guys right you guys will do your work I’ll provide you all the resources I’ll be the runner I’ll go up to management I’ll get whatever you need from them I’ll convince them I’ll take the tough job of sitting with stubborn headed stakeholders and department heads and get you what you need when decisions need to be made I’ll be the one that calls the shot and when I call the shot I take all the blame right none of you will take the blame so how about that for a manager what else can you do for a manager well think of it this way you as a manager a part of a team and myself I believe in a flat organization and if we see this organization as a puzzle right then every one of the team members is going to represent a piece of the puzzle and you as a manager is just another piece of the puzzle and that means you are complementary to the team and not necessarily separate from the team therefore if all the tasks that we do are were to be put into this puzzle then you as a manager represent one piece of that one puzzle so if you want a job or if you want tasks that will not be repeated throughout the team then stay away from your engineering tasks stay away from technical work and instead focus on the areas that your team doesn’t want to do or your team maybe is not capable of doing you see when you were promoted as a manager amongst this team it’s because you showed leadership traits and the leadership traits are typically in your personality your ability to talk to people to convince them to influence them to drive inspiration or create positive energy for the team that’s your job you need to create positive energy in the team you need to make sure that they are motivated every single day and that means you need to shed light on the next step where we’re headed right and why we are headed that way the team is too busy doing technical work they need someone to remind them at all times why we are doing this so you’re the point of connection between the team and senior management you’re the one who takes the strategy from above and passes it down to the team you’re the one who takes the problems from below or recommendations from below and you present it up to management additionally inspiration the team needs to be inspired if I am an engineer I’m typically going to focus on what I have to do for today for this week for this month my targets write you as a manager on the other hand your target is the team’s performance so you have to think up of ways to get this team inspired excited looking forward to their next task measuring themselves creating metrics and relaying those metrics at a team and telling them why these metrics are important you’re the one who has to do the dull job figuring out figuring out what these metrics are that’s what the manager is you cannot replicate what the team does if you replicate what they do they don’t need you right sooner or later if all you’re doing is replicating what they do if all you’re doing is walking around talking about what they did and assigning responsibilities sooner or later they figure out what they need to do and management above you realizes that they don’t need you that you don’t really add any value another task that is expected from you as a manager is reports no one from the team has time to prepare reports they’re busy doing technical tasks you on the other hand as a manager you have time well supposedly you have time right so you’re not assigned to any technical tasks so you’re expected to have more time on your hand to be able to prepare these reports so the team works you collect information you put them on a nice report and you share it with the senior management so writing reports is one of your responsibilities well what if the team needs another team member some skill set that does that doesn’t exist in the team they need someone who specialized in some software or some machinery are they expected to go look for that resource the answer is no that’s your job they’re gonna come to you and say boss we need someone who can do this and it is your job to assess your available resources talk to the apartment heads and make sure you’re able to acquire the resource that is needed for that task so you are a resource manager what about when one of your team members feels that they are a bit on experience or missing some knowledge or skills in some areas it is your job as a manager to make sure that your team constantly enhances their abilities on a day-to-day basis managers typically prepare a skills matrix and if you haven’t prepared one you should look into it as skills matrix lists out the team members right on you your team and it lists out the project that you’re working on the different projects you’re working on the tasks that you’re responsible for and then what you need to do is cross check for all the tasks that need to be done do you have the right skill sets for your team so you can list the team right or better you list the skill sets that the team has put the project tasks that you’re required to work on and cross traffic you know cross-check them make sure that you have people that can fill the specific skill sets if you don’t it is the job of the manager to ensure that proper training is being provided to the team so that’s your job you’re a Training Manager don’t know if you’re getting where I’m going with this you as a piece of that puzzle you do not replicate anyone’s responsibilities instead you fill the gaps that this technical team is not responsible for and cannot be made responsible for it cannot be a technical person’s job to figure out how to hire to get the additional budget to be raising concerns to senior management you know if everyone individually did that and raised concerns to management then you’re going to have senior management being bombarded by different opinions from everybody else so you’ve got to be in there and make sure you’re thinking and integrating all of what the team wants and presenting one single approach or one single solution or recommendation to the senior management so that you can get what you want right so again let’s summarize say you’re the runner amongst the team you go back and forth you acquire resources as new tools you escalate matters to senior management on behalf the team you pass down strategic and other directives from the management down to the team you’ll look out for skills that the team needs and provide necessary training you inspire by setting out goals letting them know why we are working on specific tasks you create positive energy in this team by being positive yourself you deal with problems and make decisions you’re the problem solver that takes the hit for the team so that the team can focus on getting there on using their talent on what they’re good at and not worry so much about backlash on decisions that they make they leave that for you if that’s what you do as a manager you’re going to do really well but on the other hand if you walk in with an opinion that you are now a manager so it’s time to get back at your colleagues who look down on you or questions your talent at some point then you’re sure to lose really fast team members can backstab you really fast if you’re not there for them so go with a positive mentality and ask yourself what part of the puzzle am I going to be filling that doesn’t replicate what the team does instead complements what they do so that we become whole and if you think that way then you’re going to be an excellent manager I’d like to know what you think of my presentation here and if you have any thoughts or comments questions feedback I’d like to hear from you I’m curious how you’ve been managing and I’m curious about how you feel about your managers if you like these videos and you’d like to know more if you’d like to know when my next video is released please subscribe and hit the notification bell thank you very much for watching and hope to see you on the next video you
