Leadership Challenges, Part Three

Someone recently asked me, “What are the common interpersonal and generational errors that leaders should avoid when managing a team?”. That is a huge question. However, after some thinking, I came up with four challenges that a new leader often faces:

1. Understanding how cultural differences impact a team
2. Using the Golden Rule
3. Learning to lead vs. manage
4. Learning the 80/20 rule

My last two blogs talked about #1 and 2. Let’s look at #3, learning to lead vs. manage. Most new leaders are project managers on Friday and then promoted to leading a team of four on Monday. Leading a team of people is a very different skill than running a project, yet the new leader is expected to lead without any formal training. This often creates overwhelm and confusion.

One of the hardest things a new leader must learn is NOT to fix everything that comes her way. A good employee fixes problems; that’s how she got noticed and promoted in the first place. However, if a new leader is always fixing her employee’s problem then she is still a project manager, not a leader. This is very challenging for a new leader to understand; it’s a whole new mentality. Yet, if the leader takes time to empower the struggling employee, she will create a powerful team.

How does a new manager do this? By listening and asking questions. Instead of immediately fixing the problem that an employee presents, a good leader will take some time to learn more about the problem and how the employee is currently handling the situation. Like this:

Mary employee: I’m stuck with this program. It’s not working. Can you help me?

Suchak new leader: What exactly is the problem?

Mary: It’s just not working right. I’ve tried but can’t fix it.

Suchak: What exactly is not working?

Mary: It’s not reading the formulas correctly.

Suchak: What have you tried so far?

Mary: I tried creating new formulas but it’s not working.

Suchak: What else could you do?

Mary: I guess I could ask Jeannine for advice. She’s really good at this.

Suchak: Great idea. When can you do that?

Mary: I’ll do it right now! I want to learn myself how to do this; she can help.

Suchak: Excellent. Let me know how it goes.

By listening and asking questions, instead of giving advice, Suchak led Mary to find her own solutions. She’s now empowered to fix the problem herself and he can now work on his responsibilities. Again, it’s not easy, but if a leader asks questions to lead, instead of giving advice, he’ll learn to lead vs. manage. My next blogs will cover the next challenge, Learning the 80/20 rule. Stay tuned!