I saw this shocking stat on LinkedIn this week:
According to Forbes, 60% of managers fail within 24 months.
82% of managers never receive foundational training.
My aim of this newsletter is to compensate for the foundational training 90% of managers don’t get.
This is the newsletter I wish I had 15 years ago.
Let’s get in to it!
Why do you have a team?
There are only two reasons why you need a team.
Either you need to add people to deliver at Scale, you need to add expertise to deliver your Scope.
Taking an owners perspective is valuable no matter your position in the organization. I’ll write about this from a CEO or an owner’s perspective.
Be the CEO of your team😉
Scale:
Say your business is making pizza. You can personally make 1 pizza, or maybe even 10 pizzas. But you can’t make 100 and you can’t do it 7 days a week. Here you’ll add a team to deliver your solution at Scale.
Scope:
Imagine you want to make a special telescope to look at how the universe started (like the James Webb Space Telescope).
But to do that, you need more than the telescope itself. You also need a rocket to send the telescope up into space.
You need a radio system to send the telescope’s pictures and data back to Earth. You know how to make the telescope, but you don’t know how to make rockets or radios.
So, you get help from a team of experts who know how to make rockets and radios. Together, you all work to make the whole project happen. You are adding a diverse team of specialists to deliver the full Scope of your solution.
What is a team anyway?
Team: A stable, bounded group of individuals interdepenent in achieving a shared goal.
Teaming: Teamwork on the fly. Coordinating and collaborating with people across boundaries of all kinds – expertise, distance, time zone, all to get something done.
Why is team leadership rewarding?
When a team succeeds, you share in that success. The success will be larger than yourself, it will be more complex then you could have delivered on your own.
I remember sitting on a new Navy ship the first time a helicopter landed on it. I designed the flight deck, and I led it’s first construction. I looked out and said “That’s MY helicopter deck!! It works!!”. In reality, I was just on the team. I played a major role with no fewer than a dozen people. But when I was on the deck and I saw it in operation, I had all the feels as though I created it personally. I never would have that moment without a team.
Why is team leadership hard?
Management work is different than individual work. You’ve got to make a shift in skills, values, and the way you think of time.
Most people don’t get told they need to make this shift.
When you made commitments as a individual contributor, the question you would ask was: “Can I do this?” You were imagining your “Personal Intelligence”.
But now you are leading a team, the question you have to ask “Can THEY do it?” You are now speaking for the “Collective Intelligence” of your team members. And you are speaking for your ability to get them to understand the problem, and to work together to deliver the solution.
Skills:
Every person adds skills. They also add emotions and communication complexity. This takes skills to navigate, different skills than you had before you became a leader. Delegation will be a key new skill. So is managing your own emotions, and navigating the emotions of those around you.
Values:
Management work is different than individual contributor work. You have to learn to value doing management work. This includes doing less and facilitating more. This includes prioritizing, communicating in meetings.
Time:
Time will mean something different to you. You are looking further, so the Time Horizon you consider is different. You’ll be considering Team Time, not just your time. And your Time Management will change as you allocate your time to different types of tasking.
Start to make this shift, and you’ll be in the 40% of managers who succeed. Congratulations!
Ciao,
Evan
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