#25 - Managers, Empowering the Careers of Others Is A Privilege (5 Points on How To Do It)
Management is more than “title.” When I was first gunning for a lead role, I was targeting it because… well, that’s what society told me I should have been doing. Jesus, was I missing the true joy and potential that comes from having the privilege to serve your employees, so that they can go do big, meaningful things. Below are some deeper musings on this topic area, as I reflect on ten years of managing teams… and still being in touch with many of the people I’ve been fortunate enough to serve over that time.
(And psssst: even if you aren’t directly managing others, you can absolutely practice the below or lean into these tactics in projects that you’re participating in).
Practice Servant Leadership: Managers should work on behalf of their employees; not the other way around. This mindset will keep you being people-first, and receptive to the consistent feedback you need to be an effective manager. #ServantLeadership
Orient Around Your Employees: Managers who are so preoccupied with business outcomes that they forget the career outcomes their employees have are unlikely to generate followership or achieve outsized impacts
Take Time to Develop Relationship platforms: when managers take the time to get to know their employees, levels of trust are far more likely to grow. It still shocks me how many people just rush into new relationships at work without taking time to get to know one another on a human level. You are more than yourself at work.
Practice Disciplined / Sustained Mentorship > Quick Advice: My least favorite calls with people giving advice are the ones where people just talk at you for 30 minutes. It’s as if they’re trying to just pack everything they know into 30 minutes instead of discovering things about you and being intentional. I far prefer longer-term mentorship relationships, where you get to know each other, establish the trust to push back on each other, and to also help people experiment & learn over time. This is the superpower of managing teams for longer periods of time. You have the visibility and data over time to help you see what an employee may be missing (and they’ll do the same for you, if you’re open to it)
Argh: I definitely broke this rule today a little bit…Need to keep working on it :)
Create Space for Longer Career Check-In Conversations: My favorite conversations with my colleagues tend to be the ones where we’re taking a longer period of time (~1 hour) to dive deeper into what they’ve enjoyed doing, what they are hoping to do, and checking in on their longer-term goals… And assessing whether or not I’m helping them to achieve said longer-term goals. If the opportunities I’m giving them and/or collaborations we have are not materially enhancing their chances to hit their long-term objectives, then I’m not being a great manager. At that point, I’m just doing a job.
Key thing here: don’t just make it about the current role. Engage in a more expansive dialogue that goes beyond The Now and into What Could Be
And on that note, I’m off to pre-kend happy hour. Hope you all have an awesome rest of your weeks!