Image by Thomas from Pixabay

Shifting  Your Focus Affects Your Leadership

Individual contributors get promoted for different reasons. It’s often a reward for strong individual performance. For others, it’s because they have the potential to help the company meet its goals.  Being promoted is good for the individual but the company has to benefit also. The benefit improves things for the bottom line and myriad stakeholders. When the company succeeds, employees have jobs, customers have products and services and stockholders have income. To be successful, you have to direct your focus in two directions, first inward and then outward – in that order.

Looking Inward

In the beginning, you concentrate not so much on getting things right but on not getting them wrong. It’s normal to want to have all the answers right from the start because you want to be liked and respected, especially by the new team. You don’t want to screw up because the boss has placed their trust in you and you want to look like you know what you’re doing. After all, first impressions mean a lot so you have to work on yourself before you can take care of your team.

Inward focus means learning the hard skills that drive the company  How do you schedule the team, assign the work, and review their progress? It means writing reviews and knowing what meetings to attend. It’s understanding what you have to do day in and day out to get the work done and it takes all your effort and concentration to get it right. The problem is it takes time to develop the knowledge and the skills. At first, you don’t even know what you’re supposed to do beyond assigning work and approving time off. You have to focus on yourself because your success depends on it. Once you get comfortable in the role, it’s time to shift outward and when you do, the job starts to morph into the craft.

Shifting Focus

Your job starts with a learning curve but changes as you get the hang of the routine stuff. Now you can start to think more about what the team needs. This means finding out which team member needs close supervision, which members can be left alone, and to what degree. More importantly, it means finding out why. Do you know if Jake can’t or won’t do his job? It makes a difference in how you handle his training and his assignments. Once you know what he needs and how you can help him, everyone benefits. Jake, the team, you, the company, and the stakeholders reap the rewards. The road to successful leadership requires seeing the big picture and this is where it begins.

So How Do You Do It?

Changing your focus is a matter of developing skills, hard and soft. I’ll be honest, many managers often think soft skills mean handholding and pop psychology sessions with the team. That’s not what I mean at all. Developing your teams’ hard skills will get them through the workday. Developing their soft skills will help them, and you, sleep at night. Here are a few examples:

Hard Skills:

• Project Management
• Presentations
• Marketing
• Accounting

Soft Skills

• Emotional Intelligence
• Communication skills
  • Verbal
  • Nonverbal
• Critical Thinking
• Conflict Resolution
• Problem-Solving

Hopefully, you see how the skills in one group can affect performance in the other. A lack of critical thinking skills can torpedo a marketing campaign and botching the accounting could affect a team member’s problem-solving abilities. As the manager, your job is to develop each team member’s ability in both groups and you can’t do that if your focus is on yourself. The team is your direct responsibility and by focusing more on their success, you will ensure yours.

Conclusion

Working your way up the ladder means constantly shifting your focus to see the big picture. Always start with yourself. Discover where you are, where you want to go, and how you plan to get there. This involves being a lifelong learner, whether it’s what the job entails or developing soft skills that grow your outlook.  In time you’ll start to see the role others play in your worldview and how your actions impact them. It’s all about being aware and willing to lead the way.

Commitment: Your SuperPower

Workplace Dedication

Commitment is one of the most underutilized superpowers managers have at their disposal. It means we dedicate ourselves to something.  When was the last time you were wholly committed to something? Was it your favorite sports team? How about supporting someone you care about in pursuing their passion?  Parents make huge sacrifices when their kids play on a sports team. They spend countless hours driving to practices, tournaments, and games. They do it because they are committed to their kid’s success and happiness.

As a manager, ask yourself; “How committed am I to my job?” I’m not talking about drinking the Kool-Aid kind of dedication. I am talking about the amount of thought you put into the question.  We are very committed in the beginning. We get the job and think that the company is the greatest thing since sliced bread “Wow! I get health benefits and a 401K, not to mention Paid Time Off (PTO). I will do everything I can to support this company!” A month later, we’re knee-deep in the details and often forget about supporting the company, we just want to get the work done. We still want to do a good job but the reality is that dedication is no longer the top priority. That’s when it’s time to consciously examine the different levels of commitment and how we can use them to energize ourselves and our teams.

Levels of Commitment

Different relationships require different levels of commitment and those levels require different amounts of energy. Your team requires a deeper level of obligation and support than your peers. Your job is to figure out who needs what, including your responsibility to yourself.

The Organization

Organizations have mission statements and visions. The minute we’re hired, we are asked to support them. The mission asks us to dedicate time and effort to helping the company fulfill its mission. If we don’t understand or can’t explain it, we’re probably not as committed as we’d like to think. That means it’s time to go back and review to understand. Does the company mission align with your values and needs? If it does, great but if it doesn’t you need to find out why and what you can do about it.

Your Peers and Colleagues

Are the people you work with and report to all on the same page? Do their actions support the organization’s mission as you understand it? If not, think about how you can influence their commitment. One way is to simply make it a natural part of the conversation. It’s normal to ask how projects, resources, and other aspects of the business tie into the mission or vision. Not only will you get people thinking about it, but you’ll also display the critical thinking skills that demonstrate strong leadership

Your Team

If you manage a team, you must demonstrate your dedication to them. Become the servant leader and let them know you care about them as a group and also as individuals. Managers get work done through people. Without their effort, you won’t succeed and that means that makes them your number 2  priority. The more dedicated you are to them, the more dedicated they are to you and by extension to the organization. Take the time to mentor them and find out what goes on in their world. Work on improving your communication and coaching skills so that they know what you expect of them and how important they are to fulfilling the mission.

Yourself

Make your commitment to yourself the number one priority.  Unleash your superpower by increasing your self-awareness. Take a hard look at why you think the way you do. How do your thoughts about yourself and others affect your actions, decisions, and how others see you? Looking inward is usually the beginning of change.

Think back to that first day when you vowed to support the company because of what it would do for you. Turn the question around and ask what you can do for it. Does it still hold true or have things changed? How does the company’s support for you affect your life outside of work? When we talk about work-life balance, we’re asking what we can do to keep our commitments to everyone and everything we do. The person we are when we begin our career is not who we are mid-career. As we mature, things change. We promote up, we start families, and we begin to think more about giving than taking. These changes require us to take a hard look at what motivates and inspires us because as our lives change so do our commitments.

Markus Winkler from pixabay.

Promoting to a manager has its perks but also comes with legal pitfalls. Owning the whole” is a phrase I learned some time ago and the concept can help you avoid those pitfalls.  What is it? It’s when you go all in and understand not only what you’re doing but why you’re doing it.  I submit that if we can convey the idea of owning the whole, our workplaces can become where we get to work, not where we have to work. Why is that important? Simple, when we believe in and enjoy what we do, we start to own it.  When we own something, we work harder to protect it.

What it means 

The concept is pretty simple.  It means understanding that your actual job is only one part of your role in the organization.  For new managers, this can be hard to wrap your head around. When you got promoted, you may have envisioned filling out schedules, assigning work projects, and getting the “work” done. But it’s more than that. You are now the “face” of the company. You represented the company in an unofficial role. When people saw you, they didn’t think of the company – you were simply someone who worked there. When those same people see you now, they see someone who can be held accountable for what the company stands for and how it conducts business. The increased accountability comes with increased liability. Welcome to owning the legal whole.

What it Looks Like

I recently interviewed Employment Attorney Zaylore Stout on my podcast “Management Matters” about this. and for new managers, he talked about the fact that you now have responsibilities to not only your team, but also to your higher ups. The responsibility to those above you include keeping the organization out of legal trouble by making sure your interactions don’t violate company policies, along with local, state and federal law.  What are some of the pitfalls you might encounter:

Pitfall #1 Managing former peers

Those Friday Night Happy Hours need to stop. Why? Because if you are aware of offsite incidents between coworkers, you have to address it. If you are present and do nothing, it’s even worse. The result could end up in a lawsuit against the organization and in some cases, against you personally.

Pitfall #2 Not treating everyone equally

Think about it.  David is your best friend and routinely comes into work 10-15 late but you don’t say anything. You know he has to drop his kids off at school so you’re willing to cut him some slack. Joe, on the other hand is a new employee and you want to set him up for success by making sure he understands company policy. The first time he comes in late, you take him aside and quote policy about timeliness. You may be setting him up for success but you’re setting the company up for a discrimination lawsuit.

Owning the whole means understanding what your organization is all about.  It’s not about making the best widgets or being the best at whatever.  Avoiding pitfalls means understanding your role in ensuring legal compliance throughout the organization.

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