The days of expecting members of your team to respect you just because you have a certain title are long gone. You don’t need a fancy title to lead and even if you are given a title like ‘General Manager’ it doesn’t guarantee you can lead of diverse team of professionals.
I knew that I was going to move into the General Manager role nearly a year before I did. The founder was doing succession planning and had earmarked for me to step into a new General Manager role because he was finding juggling his many businesses increasingly difficult. I began to lead like a GM from that day.
Irrespective of whether you are going to become the General Manager of the business you are working for, you can still act like a GM and show to those around you - how you lead. Leader can influence. If you can influence the outcome without the title, this shows your leadership and clearly demonstrates that you are a future leader.
Here is what I did and some of these tips might work for you as well:
Treat the business, as though its your own - Have a founders mindset
I have a founders mindset. After owning my own businesses I always treat any company I work with or for as though it’s my own. This then becomes the litmus test against which I assess each business decision. I think “if this was my money/business/team, would I spend it doing X?”. If you wouldn’t spend your own money on that initiative you have to seriously question whether you should be agreeing that that project or initiative. Showing the founder or leadership that you make sound, well thought through decisions, will give them the confidence to trust you to be autonomous and with time the freedom to make the decisions without running it up the ladder. Here are some ways you can treat the business like your own:
Learn all areas of the business
Think about suggestions for improvement across all areas of the business
Share ways your team can work better with those around them
Contribute the vision and strategy of the business
If you get a gap, step it and fill it
Set the right example- WALK THE TALK
I always treat everyone the same way I expect to be treated. I also ensure that I fully embrace the core values of the organisation. I lead by example and I try to demonstrate these core values in all my interactions.. Your team is always looking at how you treat each member of the team. I always show the same respect for everyones opinion and feedback no matter where they are in the hierarchy (note that I don’t believe in hierarchy for the sake of it). I never expect more of anyone else on my team than I expect of myself. If you decide to implement a new process, do it first. If you need the team to work longer hours as a one off, work those hours too. Don’t have one standard for yourself and another standard for your team.
Demonstrate technical competence - KNOW YOUR STUFF
If you would like to influence and lead those around you, you need to know your stuff. This doesn’t mean that you have to know everything about every domain space in the business. But you do need to know enough to have informed conversations and to participate in decision making. Be curious, learn about all areas of the business, particularly the other functions that you interact with regularly. Be sure to back up your opinions with data and research. Be sure to know your own domain space or business function well. You can share your intuition and your experience but it will be more meaningful if you can substantiate it with some external proof. You want others in the organisation to see you as a domain expert, as the person to come to who is willing to share their experience and ideas openly the benefit of the the entire organisation. Here is how you can become a domain expert:
Attend training courses - internal and external
Listen to podcasts
Reads books on your domain space and those you interact with
Read industry websites, blogs and news sites
Attend meet ups and join groups related to your domain space
Blog about what you learn and share it with others
CELEBRATE SUCCESS - Be a cheerleader
You don’t need to be a team lead or a manager to cheer on those around you. I made cheerleading one of my primary activities. If you see anyone doing something well, be it thinking outside the box, showing initiative, going the extra mile, being innovative, or keeping a customer happy - point it out and celebrate it. Effective leaders, cheer people on. They shout out the success of others. They make their teammates shine. They make sure everyone in the organisation knows how great that person it. A leader doesn’t boast about their own success. They acknowledge the contributions of the team. There are lots of ways you can cheer on your team mates:
Send a congratulatory email
Shout out in an open Slack channel
Give a high five if using 15Five
Give Karmabot points in Slack
Call out in team meetings
Set up a weekly celebration meeting where team members can share about success in terms of outcomes, living the core values, mini achievements etc
Have a positive attitude - FOCUS ON WHAT IS WORKING WELL
No one likes being around a person who is negative. It can bring down the whole mood of the team. The reality is that all businesses face challenges, nothing is ever perfect, there is always more to be done or too much to be done. As a leader you can’t get bogged down in the negative. You need to choose to be positive. You need to call out and build on what is working well. You need to build up your team to see change and challenges in a positive way. Help your team to develop a clear path for how they will addresses the challenges so that they don’t feel insurmountable and the team can see a way forward to a better day. Choosing to be positive is a mindset. Every time you interact with your team start by smiling - it will make you feel happier. Before sharing negative or challenging news, share something positive first. Then end on something positive. This way the team will come away from interactions with you feeling uplifted instead of defeated. Here are some ideas for how you can stay positive:
Keep a list of the teams achievements - reread it and share it at team meetings
Share other successes you hear about in the organisation and discuss how your team contributed to that success
Smile and laugh often during meeting
When sharing different news - start with positive new, hard news, then positive news
Take on extra responsibility and ownership for your actions - GET SHIT DONE
Put up your hand for new project or initiatives and then take ownership for getting it delivered. People respect people that get shit done. Don’t just talk about it. Do it. Don’t just recommend an improvement, make it happen. People respect people who take accountability for their actions. If you make a mistake, own it. If your idea fails, own it. Inspect why it failed, learn from it and move on. Be brave and experiment, try new things, don’t accept the status quo in your team. Here are some ideas for how your can take on extra responsibility:
Within your team - put up your hand for new projects
Make suggestions for new ways of works and offering to implement the change
care FOR your team - RESPECT AND NURTURE THEM
You need to deeply care about your team. You need to care about whether they feel successful, about whether they are enjoying their job and about whether they feel supported. Everyone, at all levels of the organisation can do this. Check in with your team mates and see how they are feeling. If they are struggling, offer to help. Simply asking “Are you ok?” can be a way to open a conversation and gives you an avenue to offer support. Your team mates are not machines. They are living, breathing humans with a world of emotion. Create a safe space where expressing your emotions and your feelings is ok. Give team mates a space to rant, deal and move on. A leader is there to listen and everyone can offer an ear to simply listen. You don’t need to fix it.
Be open and approachable - OPEN DOOR POLICY
Anyone can meet with me, slack me, email me or phone me anytime. Let your team mates know that you are available to chat, listen, or brainstorm. Being open and approachable lets people know that you create a safe space for them to share. Don’t cut people off, don’t do other things while someone is sharing, give your team mates your full attention. Make time via one on one’s or another mechanism to meet with your team mates to share ideas, learn and grow together. I would also end every Huddle or workshop with the offer to reach out to me personally. I am always to happen to spend more team with members of the team to ensure that they have understood or give them space to share this opinion.
Communicate often with your team AND ACROSS THE ORGANISATION
Leaders are good communicators. They make sure that they communicate well and often. This communication needs to happen with the teams that are leading and across the organisation. Learn the way that communication happens within the organisation and dovetail into that. If your team isn’t communicating well, makes suggestions for how the team should share information, learning and ideas better. Put up your hand to take responsibility for communicating with key stakeholders. Think of innovative ways to share what your team is doing - consider a newsletter, open slack channel, lunch and learn, dashboard, noticeboard, talk to boards. There are endless ways you can improve comms within teams and between teams. Find what works for your organisation. I liked to share the achievements, action items, challenges etc for my team in the company wide Huddle (all hands meeting). I would also drop into other teams meetings to give them an easy avenue to ask questions to make sure that they had the latest information relate to Product or Customer Success.
Always be learning and sharing what you learn - BE A LEARNER
Good leaders are life long learners, their learning does not stop once they finish university. There are so many ways we can learn today - books, online courses, blogs, training, conferences, workshops, social media and more. Don’t be selfish about what you learn share it. Use your learning to enrich your team and the entire organisation. If you team is struggling, then step up. Going and learn new ways to work, problem solves, collaborate and then come back and share it with your team. There are lots of ways you can share your learning - run a webinar, hold a lunch and learn, give a presentation, facilitate a workshop or hold a brainstorming session. If you find a good blog or podcast - share it with everyone. Share the summary notes on your internal wiki. Use your creativity and make learning fun. A number of times I would research leading edge methodologies and then bring them into the organisation I am working for. I would read books and provide the summary for the team. Other times we would all attend the same online training course and then meet regularly to share what we learned.
Think and act like a leader at every chance you get. Be humble and be a servant. Find news ways to make your team better, share and share again.