The hectic period is coming when you will need to analyse the situation, identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business, establish a strategy, raise funds and support the leadership of the team, communicate the strategy and generate the necessary enthusiasm within the team…
… But, do you spend at least 50% of your time thinking about the most important question?
What changes do I need to make in my team as soon as possible?
If so, accept my congratulations. You have set yourself the right priorities. If not, read carefully below, because this issue deserves your attention.
Controversial topic
If you ask the question of whether or not you really should be hard towards people who have already proved their worth in the company, think why your predecessor was replaced and what is expected from you in the new position. Did you hear during your initial interview words like “another step forward”, “stronger performance”, “meet the demanding plan” or “long-term growth”? If so, please be sure that to continue in the current set-up will not be enough. Your boss is under pressure, and he believes that you understand the situation and will act independently, quickly and with the knowledge that the time to show results is finite.
Being a manager, your task is to manage (people). I would add, however, that the successful manager manages the “right” people. I am sure you want to be one of the successful ones, don’t you?
You are expected to raise the performance of your unit to a new level and you cannot afford not to check the readiness of your only working tool – your team. Any new strategy, at least in one area, requires something fundamentally different compared to the existing practice. The more challenging the goal, the more likely the composition of your current team is not optimal.
It is not enough to know that people in key roles possess the required professional competencies. Personal traits make the difference. Different strategic goals require different characters. If, for example, your goal is to conquer a new market for your products, you need a man/woman with a strong drive who will not let himself/herself be distracted by details and discouraged by bureaucratic barriers in the organization. Conversely, if the objective is to increase customer satisfaction so that they do not leave to competitor, such a “bulldozer” may do more harm than good being in a role where you need to pay attention to every detail. Moreover, he/she will not feel comfortable in this role.
Even those who have been successful in the prior environment should be subject to your consideration. Can you rely on them? Can they pull the plug or shift up another gear and continue to shine as stars in your new strategy? Are they captives of their past successes?
What about loyalty? Are you sure that the people who you want to build your success on will be loyal to you? Do they envy your success more than is healthy? Will they “polish the stairs under your feet” at the first available opportunity?
You and your strengths and weaknesses (which you must be aware of) also play a vital role. Your team must complement you and its individual members must complement each other.
It’s like putting together a watch mechanism, where all the cogs and wheels must fit perfectly into their appropriate location. The right team is an assembly of people that, for the current moment and for the current role, have the correct character traits, complement one another, are able to get excited about the task and do not care about internal political games more than the job. They are grateful for the opportunity you have given them. Such a team can operate on a higher level creating “resonance” or “synergy”, without which the chances of achieving the ambitious target remain below average.
Unpleasant emotions
So you need to think about replacing people. It is easy to say, but harder to do. Especially in the event that your subordinates are your former colleagues with whom you frequently had a beer and laughed in unison over the stupidity of your superiors. If you belong to the group of people who are wedded to friendships at work, you have a problem – your relationships will change. These changes will interfere with the status quo and create uncertainties, and you will not avoid difficult decisions and emotional interviews. It is even possible that you will have to let go of those who have become redundant and for whom you cannot find a role in another part of the organization.
So that nothing deters you from determined action in this extremely critical area, think about following scenario.
You showcase the strategy to your team and get applause. On that basis, you assume that people are motivated to set out with you into battle, each of them expresses his/her support to you face to face. Although you are aware of certain deficiencies in skills and approach among some people, you convince yourself that they will make up for this by hard work.
You allocate the tasks and regularly check progress. For the first few months everything is running seemingly well, you get the encouraging information about what has “moved off”, “got started”, “opened up”. You reply a confident “yes” to your boss’s questions about going forward. However, things begin to get tougher after about half a year as then it should be clear, even on paper, whether you are really progressing well. You are, however, increasingly learning about the problem here, delay there, and you begin to feel that the answers to your questions are excuses rather than facts. You get pressure from above, but you feel that your team is not too worried about the fact that it is failing. Conversely, you capture corridor talk about your incompetence and failure to achieve the task. In addition, you will find that they are spread by your long-time colleague whom you have given a key role in your strategy…
… It is no longer necessary to develop this scenario further. The fact that you have bet on the wrong card probably complicates your new career.
You are judged by the quality of your team
Reviewing the team composition is a key task of the new manager. Avoid the common mistake of management novices and get on with modeling your ideal team immediately. In addition to expertise, look for qualities such as enthusiasm, ambition and loyalty. Do not be discouraged by hostile glances and affected by false adulation. Your future team is probably a mixture of former colleagues, young talent from the lower levels of the organization and experienced people from the market.
Do I guarantee your success? Certainly not. The success of business strategy depends on many factors which you cannot directly influence. I am sure however that even in the case of failure, you will have a clear conscience, the leadership will understand that you have made the right moves and your reputation as a manager will not suffer.