Comment: My advice for leadership transition (Score 2) 229
I started my career as a systems administrator / systems programmer on Unix systems. Over the last 20 years, I went from a "hands on" role to a leadership role. I'm now the "CIO" of a small university (we don't have the title "CIO" at this campus, but that's basically my job.) Some of those transitions to a larger role were easy, others were more difficult.
I strongly recommend you read the essay "Taking on a new role" (PDF) from MOR Associates. In short, the essay gives this advice:
1. Share broad themes early: what general areas do you plan to address, what are your goals for the team, where are you headed?
2. Read the landscape: what does the culture of the organization look like, not just in the team you work with, but at the leadership level.
3. Build relationships: people who can help you in your new role, mentors, coaches.
4. Create a "SWOT" profile with your team, to understand the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
5. Assess the talent needed to get the job done: do you have the right people, and are the right people doing the right things?
6. Understand your financial situation: this is often the most-overlooked by new leaders.
7. Sketch out your priorities for the first 3-12 months: in particular, keep track of what you need to get done in your first 100 days.
I like do to the SWOT profile (see #4) without actually using the terms "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats." I find it's easier to start with a "plus/delta" profile. If you haven't done that before: Draw a vertical line on the whiteboard. On the left, label it "plus"; on the right, "delta". Draw a horizontal line across this, making 4 quadrants. Above the horizontal line, label it "now"; below the line, "future".
Now you're ready for your team to identify what's working well (plus) right now, and what's going to be a benefit to them after another 6-12 months. They can also help you identify what needs to be addressed/fixed/changed/improved (delta) right now, and what can wait for another 6-12 months. Congratulations, you've built a SWOT profile:
- S = plus, now
- W = delta, now
- O = plus, future
- T = delta, future
I find the SWOT helps me to identify the key issues to focus on. What you must do is identify a plan to address the right-hand column (deltas) that leverages what you have on the left (plusses). Your team is critical to help fill out the SWOT, and the great thing about this exercise is that it helps the team to identify with you on your new level. But while your team helps you with the SWOT, you must build your own strategy to respond to it; that's your job as a new leader.
If you're having trouble picking out your top priorities (see #7) you may also consider doing an "affinity" exercise with your team. You can do this in different ways, but here's what I find works best for my team:
- Give each team member a stack of Post-It notes, maybe 5 or 6 each. Have them write down what they think are the top priorities - but only one item per Post-It note. Not everyone can fill out 5 or 6 Post-It notes, and that's ok.
- When everyone has their notes, talk about them in front of the group. See if any overlap (or are the same) as someone else's note. Combine any that seem to match up.
- Then, pass them around the table. Each person at the table gives an independent score (0-10) for how important they think that item is to the team or organization. You aren't ranking them in a list, you're just giving them an independent score. Everyone gives their own score, and passes the note to the next person around the table.
- When every Post-It has been scored by everyone at the table (i.e. when a person gets their own Post-Its back) add up the scores for a total for each note.
You can now identify (by score) what are your top priorities. Maybe you have 5 or 6 "top" priorities. Or maybe you only have 4 top priorities, and there's a big gap (in score) between #4 and #5.