Managing
for the first time
By Daryl
M Williams
Beaded
sweat on my forehead drips on the small of my back, sleep wracked by erratic
motion and an inability to relax, doubt plagued thoughts imagining catastrophe
and ruin.
Not the
beginning of a poem, if it were it wouldn’t be one of my better examples, but
this is a slight exaggeration of how I felt the days and nights leading up to
my first step into the managerial arena. Why was I so despondent when this is
something I wanted, badly? I’ve always considered being in management the
opportunity for ordinary people to have
an EXTRAORDINARY responsibility. Now, I didn’t join the police or become a
firefighter, I didn’t become a Ranger, Delta Force or the team lead on Seal
Team Six but I realized I potentially had the opportunity to decide the
following:
1.
Who
was interviewed
2.
Who
was hired – Are your kids eating today?
3.
Who
was fired – Will the rent/mortgage be paid?
4.
Make
work passable if not fun and/or challenging
5.
Make
work miserable
This
scared me. Like many, I’ve had a bad boss or two, perhaps not to the extent of Horrible Bosses, the movie, but I’ve had bosses
that made work challenging and not in the sharpen your skills, get your
thinking cap on way. I DID NOT want to be that guy.
What to
do? I decided on servant leadership. I thought about how I wanted to
be treated, what I respected and appreciated and how I intended to treat my
team. My goal was to ensure that no matter the decision made, I would do my
best to ensure the following: Business not personal. I didn’t want
to allow my emotions to drive this car. Level-headed, clear thinking and
focused on treating my team like the adults they were was and is always my
goal. I also did the following things through word and deed:
1.
We
are a team – amazing how expressing that sentiment can help it become so
2.
You
can ask any question you want, just be prepared you may not like the answer
a.
We
had an occasional ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ meeting where I would
share even more information
3.
Focused
on what my team, individually, wanted from work
a.
Set
up informational interviews
b.
Worked
on resumes and interview skills
c.
Acted
as a reference (Sorry Human Resources)
This won
me a couple of awards at that first job for going above and beyond and customer
service. It led to associates on other teams feeling comfortable enough to
confide in me and it made me value the importance of relationship building.
Turns out I did have an EXTRAORDINARY responsibility but I
didn’t shrink from the moment and instead reveled in it.
Daryl M Williams, MBA,
M.S., is an adjunct professor, teaching Career Planning and Management as well
as being a Career Coach. He is passionate about providing information to assist
friends, family, students, alums, and even frenemies (really) in professional
development and uses his management experience in Fortune 500, non-profit and
private corporations to inform his decisions. Feel free to connect via LinkedIn.
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