This is the final part of my mini series of blog posts where I’m sharing 20 great tips for new leaders! In this part we are covering tips 16-20, where we don’t pull any punches on your journey to success. If you haven’t already, go and check out the first , second and third parts so you can feel confident you have seen all the tips! OK? – Let’s crack on:
#16 Manage upwards if you need to
If you work in an organisation with multiple tiers of management, and you have been appointed as a front-line team leader, you may find yourself in a tricky position. Many organisations operate an open-door policy right up through the hierarchy of leadership, which is great… unless it isn’t being applied properly.
In an open-door policy scenario, we are trying to encourage discussion and communication, and a feeling of connectedness for every team member with leaders at all levels. Ideas can be floated, concerns can be raised and generally, healthy dialogue should be taking place.
#16a – Tackle undermining early
An area of concern for you as a new leader arises when the open-door policy results in your team going around you, straight to your boss with issues and concerns. This is something which requires you to muster courage early on and address this right away with your boss. You really don’t want this one becoming an established trend.
If your boss makes decisions, resolves conflicts or generally fails to give you opportunity to address things, he or she is undermining your position, and therefore your viability as Team Leader.
Being undermined in this way will give your team the impression that you are not in a position to affect change, address team concerns or make any real decisions. The follow on from this will mean that where you are trying to establish a good team culture and rapport, you will never be seen as someone who can really protect the team and enable them to innovate freely.
Having this bypass occur will prevent you from building the healthy relationships with your team members we covered earlier in this series of articles. This may not be intentional by your boss, as they are most likely adjusting to having you onboard, used to being the ‘go to’ for these things and are trying to be available to team members too.
#16b – The ol’ redirect
In these circumstances, it is prudent to schedule a meeting with your boss as soon as possible to raise your concerns. Tread lightly here.
Remember, you are not wanting to come off as having had your feelings hurt because your ‘authority’ has been disrespected. At best you’ll come off as childish and at worst you’ll be considered an authority challenger.
Explain to your boss that you are working hard to set up a creative, innovative team who will be kicking goals quickly and consistently. To do this, you need to establish a strong rapport with your team, and they need to feel like you have what it takes to lead them in this regard. Try and help your boss see that you can only do this successfully if you are empowered in the eyes of your direct reports.
Ideally, senior managers should hear the concerns of employees, but where it is an issue that is best addressed by you as the immediate leader, they should be redirected back to you. If possible, ask your boss to always allow you to amend decisions you have made that he or she doesn’t agree with, rather than them overruling you. While it is a bitter pill to swallow to be climbing down on a position that you held, it is by far preferential to having the rug pulled out from underneath you in front of your team.
#16c – Seek leadership advice from everyone
To help your boss feel confident to redirect your team members back to you, it is a great idea to be open about your weaknesses and areas for potential improvement. This sounds counter intuitive at first, but it works.
In your monthly meetings with your team, if you have implemented tip #14b, you’ll be asking for feedback on your leadership approach. (For access to a great monthly focus meeting template which includes a section on feedback, have a look at the Let’s Work Healthy Shop, the resources there are very inexpensive and really help).
Use what your team members raise with you as discussion topics with your boss during your regular meetings with them. Ask your boss for their take on the feedback that your team member provided to you, and for strategies to address the concerns. They may not feel that the concerns are valid, but either way they will then see that you are open and transparent about how you run your team, and your ability to self-reflect. In my experience this gives your manager the confidence to redirect enquiries back to you whenever possible.
If the team member has raised concerns about you directly with your boss, then ideally your boss should seek to include you in the discussion wherever appropriate. Although they are then seen to be addressing the concerns, the message that you are not easily circumvented remains.
#17 Them vs us never works – I promise
I can clearly remember the Monday morning of my very first leadership position. It was a horrible introduction to human behaviour. I like to think that I am a likeable and friendly kind of person, and I know I was well liked in team I worked in. At least I was on the Friday before I became the new Team Leader. If there was office banter or lively chats, I was included, and we all got along great. Then after competing with a colleague for the leadership position, I walked into the office on my first day as leader. As I approached the open door of the office, I could hear that the usual Monday morning chat was happening, talking about the weekend and whatever else. So, in I walked… and all chat stopped, heads went down and quiet fell over the room. I had become ‘one of them’.
#17a – Friends without benefits
New leaders are faced with an overwhelming temptation to promote a bond with their new team by becoming everyone’s best friend. Additionally, in large organisations there is an even stronger temptation to be on your team’s side, in a ‘us against the corporate bosses’ approach. These apparent short cuts to team bonding are like Snow White’s apple. They seem appealing and take the edge off the initial discomfort of becoming a leader amongst friends, but they are potentially deadly to your leadership aspirations!
Being an honest, fair and consistent leader is the longer and harder road but if you take nothing else away from anything you have read that I’ve written, trust me on this… never take the friendship / ‘us against management’ short cut! Friendship and the odd favour here and there give the veneer of you being a liked and popular leader, but underneath they erode any respect your team has for you quicker than anything.
#17b – Address negativity quickly
Vocal negative team members hurt everyone and everything you are trying to achieve. The old adage about a rotten apple spoiling the bunch is more relevant in this setting than any other. Yes, you will find that some decisions that are made above you seem impossible to sell to your team.
You’ll likely find yourself the bearer of bad news. But negative talk by team members about these things should be strongly discouraged whenever you hear it. This is tough I know. Its even tougher not to side with the complainer and call out the senior executives to soften the response you might be facing.
There is no easy way to do this other than to stick to your guns. Yes, if the decisions are unfair and harmful to your team, you absolutely must be your team’s advocate. Stand up in manager’s meetings and fight your team’s corner, let that be how you keep yourself honourable. But, engaging in negative talk, or allowing it to continue on your watch hurts everything you are trying to establish, every single time.
#18 The credit crunch
There is something they don’t often tell you about leadership when they are advertising the roles. It’s a little bit of information about responsibility vs credit. To become a truly inspirational leader, the whole focus of the role must shift. Whilst we often get into positions of leadership through experience in our field, and sometimes even through natural leadership characteristics, the reason for holding the position needs to be examined.
To achieve the absolute best results in a leadership position, our focus must be on creating a set of circumstances that develop the team members to fully reach their potential. If they reach their potential, and deliver their best work, consistently and frequently, the team reaches its stated goals. To do this, the leader needs to see themselves as there to facilitate and develop the team, not to have the team do as instructed without question.
This means that some elements of team leadership are none negotiable:
#18a – Shout really loud
When something good happens in your team, a new idea comes to fruition, a project deadline is met or pretty much anything else that could be considered a success happens, you must shout! Not at your team though. You must shout at your boss, and their boss and to anyone else who will listen. But here is the rub, no matter how much you were involved in the process, no matter how many late nights you spent, the credit for the successes needs to be given to those team members who thought of it, delivered it or just plain worked on it.
As the leader you must never ever accept credit for anything your team does if there is any way at all that you can lay the credit at your team member’s doors. The quickest way to trample good will, is to claim credit for others work, or even hint at you being responsible.
The good news here is that people know. People know when good things are being achieved, the environment to achieve those things must have been created. The creation of that environment was your doing (hopefully).
#18b – It gets worse
So, what about when things don’t go to plan? What about when a team member makes a mistake, or an idea falls flat on its face… guess who takes responsibility for it? That’s right, you do. Always.
Behind closed doors, with the team member involved, constructive conversations can take place where you can work together to prevent the same thing happening again, but as far as anyone else knows, it’s on you.
Believe me here, whilst this sounds like career suicide, it is absolutely essential and the only way to go. The people above you in the organisation, the successful ones, will know that being a good leader is about taking responsibility for the actions of those in your team. Importantly though, your team will know you have their back, and the loyalty, respect and hard work that they will reward you with will know no bounds.
#19 Share and share alike
Taking responsibility for things within your team is a different story. It may feel like the hardest thing in the world to have to approach a team member for not pulling their weight or playing their part. If they are someone you get on with well, you are going to feel uncomfortable and mean. But here is the thing, every team must foster a sense of shared responsibility.
#19a – Favour the team over the individual
In matters of taking responsibility for getting things done, your focus needs to be on the wider team over the individual. Obviously, this doesn’t mean that you don’t offer support to an individual who needs it though. The thing is, turning a blind eye to an underperformer because you empathise with why they are underperforming is doing a disservice to the rest of the team who are carrying the extra responsibilities.
Tackle these situations head on to build a solid expectation across the team. As soon as a situation like this arises, set out your stall. Yes, spend as much time and energy as you can possibly spare helping the underperformer, but you must make it clear that everyone needs to take equal responsibility for the overall output. I have discussed how to approach these kinds of performance management conversations in this article, if you follow the steps there you should get the right result.
#19b – It’s to be expected
Laying out your expectations for the team, right at the time of onboarding new recruits, formally and in writing helps create your culture of excellence that you are striving for. When all of your team members know from the get-go what is expected of them and know that they each are held to account fairly, your best team members become better and all improve.
Being transparent with performance targets and how each person is fairing against those targets lets everyone see who you are as a leader, and where they are. This kind of openness does wonders for combating any complaints or grumbles, as its clear what the measurement is and clear that you will stick to it, for everyone.
#20 The voices told you to do it
I said way back at the beginning that the aim of all this is to create a dynamic and high achieving work culture. And the best way to know if you are doing this is to create the culture and the environment that you would want to work in.
You see, there is a voice in your head that whispers to you isn’t there? It’s the one that talks to you when you know you have done something that falls short of the ideal that you want to live up to. When you fall short of the picture of the leader in your head that you want to be, when you alter your style markedly. When you hear that voice, listen! Explore what the voice is telling you, research where things could have been better, and improve, over and over again. Listen, reflect and be the best leader you can be!
Get involved
As you can see from the post, I am trying to give simple practical help to leaders wherever I can. I would love to hear your thoughts on the tips in this article, so it would be great if you could leave some comments below. Have you got any great tips for new leaders too? Let me know below!
I will be offering lots of pointers on this site as I develop the content and so let me know about anything you’d like me to cover too. I am also developing some great resources for leaders, and if you subscribe in the box at the top of this page, you’ll get FREE access to the new 32 page E-book, ‘New Leader Quick Start Guide’. If you want to establish yourself as a great leader and develop a creative motivated team, this E-book is for you!
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