Kudos! You have achieved a significant milestone in your career. You are a manager. You have worked hard to get the promotion, and you deserve it.
But enough about you. Because it’s not really about you. You now have employees reporting to you and, whether you realize it or not, it’s all about them.
Some of your employees will hate you, and some will revere you. Some may look up to you, and others will want to be your best friend. What I know for sure is that your life will change. Similar to an adult who becomes a parent for the first time, you now have responsibility for these employees that you call a team.
As a former employee, boss, and boss of bosses, I’d like to share a few thoughts with you as you embark on your new role:
Recognize that each employee is unique. You will be asked to implement personnel programs by your management or human resources team that (by definition) assume that all employees fit into the same mold. At times you will be asked to rate your employees against a pre-determined set of skills or leadership qualities. These instruments assume that there is a particular type of employee that is best suited to the work you do – that one size fits all.
But it’s just not true that extroverted big-picture thinkers who like to drive things to closure make the only good employees. Great employees come in all shapes and sizes. It’s your job to find the unique magic in each and every one of them. When you do, and only when you do, will you truly have what your HR department calls a high performing team.
Don’t forget that you are the boss when you are away from work. It’s just not practical to expect that you will never socialize with your employees. Bosses are often promoted from within their own teams, and it’s also just not practical to expect that you will suddenly have a new circle of friends. But even when you are at the bar for drinks after work, you are still their boss.