There is no formula how to be assigned to a management position, it depends on several things – the company, your colleagues, your superiors and favorable circumstances. The fact that you are assigned to this position, however, does not mean that you are a manager already, just a chance. I’ve seen enough accidental people holding high posts (and I am sure you met a few as well) to have illusions about this being based on merits or abilities. Anyway, if you happen to hold such position and you are willing to listen to what I have to say, here are several advices to make it easier for you (I sincerely hope that they will help). Here’s how to get started:
- Delegate
Regardless of who you think you are, you will not be able to complete everything yourself. That is why your team exists, to work with you, under your coordination – the objective is to complete the tasks together. Trust your team-mates – believe me, they will do the technical tasks much better than you, and you will have the time to do the work for which you are paid for. That is to help the people, doing the actual work, to do it better.
- Make compromises
Don’t delude yourself, that everything will go as you planned for it and that you won’t make mistakes. The manager is a busy man, there are a lot of tasks to be taken care of and in order to complete them, he has to make compromises with the quality. The less they are, the better, but it is imperative. This means that it will be important for you to prioritize your tasks and to appraise which deserve more time than the others. And don’t blame yourself too much about the compromises you made – when time goes by you will become more effective and more capable to assess which tasks deserve compromise and which not.
- Be good willing
Don’t presume that by holding up your nose, swaggering and strutting around the office you will get there. Nowadays it is important to motivate people, not to give orders. If you act as the warden, you risk to end up as the scarecrow, which all the colleagues mock and laugh at, even behind his back. Is this what you want? And finally, never forget where you started from – the memories you have as a worker, and the bosses you had, are priceless. They will remind you of what is right and what is not, what you can and what you can not afford to do. Listen to the people you work with – they will share their experience as well, and it will provide you with many useful ideas of how to make the job smoother and more useful as whole. And don’t forget – regardless of what you read or heard, the management is a science of how to work with people and they are the biggest asset you will ever have.