Frustrations of being a new manager
The process of transition will bring about many frustrations; let's look at some common ones now.
Teaching a man how to fish
One of the biggest problems to overcome for a new manager is the thought process that says, "I can do this myself, better and faster". Every time there is a task to be done, you have a choice to make regarding whether this work should be delegated to somebody else, or whether I can do this myself. As an individual contributor, it is natural to take on work that comes to you and the mindset is still largely the same when you transition into a manager.
Here's what happens.
A certain work, say, preparing a document on design, needs to be done. Now the choices are:
- If you assign it to another member, Tom, then you have to do the following:
- Explain what you'd like to be done in there
- Monitor when it's being done
- Review what's done
- Take a deep breath and go back to step 1 for changes
- Continue the cycle till you are satisfied
It is very tempting to just take it on and do it yourself, especially if the work is exactly in the same area that you owned as an individual contributor. It is indeed true that it will be faster and easier if you do it yourself. Here are some more reasons why a new manager will not let someone else, say Tom, take on the task:
- Tom has not done this kind of design work before
- Tom has other things to do
- The last time you gave something to Tom, you had to explain it many times
- It's just faster otherwise
- This work is too important to be given to someone else
- Let me just get it over with
But here's why it may be worth letting Tom take it on:
- Tom learns the design process.
- Tom learns your thought process and creates alignment.
- Tom builds on the work he did last time. You get to leverage the groundwork you did last time.
- Tom gets a boost of motivation to be part of an important assignment.
- Tom and you strengthen a trust relationship.
- Next time, Tom can be even more independent.
- You get to do more of something else.
- Though the initial document may be done quickly by you, everything takes many revisions. The next iteration may need new hi-fi diagrams, which may require even more time from you.
- You get the satisfaction of coaching someone.
At times, it may require extreme patience to see things move slowly and mistakes being made, but that's part of the natural learning process.
Teaching a man how to fish makes him into a food provider and possibly capable of feeding not only himself, but also many others. Your work actually decreases when you have many hunters in your team.
A manager needs to be a coach too and would need to spend the time to develop the team and build the skill sets required to deliver. A coach's primary job is to teach his/her teammates how to play. The success of the coach is in how well the students play. Anybody who has taught would know that it requires patience and empathy. These are some of the qualities a manager would need to develop to be able to take on a larger scope of work and rise up in the management chain.
Also, a manager needs to coach the entire team and not just a few core members. Many a times managers tend to get close to the top performers, and work closely with them and lose out on the opportunity to influence and develop the entire team and build a trust relationship with them.
A slow world around you
While you are geared up to produce the results and deliver more, it seems like the world is geared up to slow you down. Everything seems to take more time than it is supposed to take, and for no apparent reason, but some might be as follows:
- People take too long to respond to you
- People take too long to make simple decisions
- People are slow to understand what you are saying
- People take too long to finish simple tasks
- Processes are slow
- The hardware and network is slow!
All of the previous points can be partially true. However, it is likely that you are expecting everything to be faster than it is. It would be great if everybody could be paced the same way, but that is never the case. The organization has its own pace, and some of it can be influenced by you, but most of it would not be. Truly, a faster pace may not be required, or may not be desirable, given the circumstances.
However, as a new manager, you are likely to be working hard and would like to see things move faster to see results faster.
I don't get enough information
You work in a very connected world today with multiple sources of information, but may still feel that you don't get the information you need. You may feel a lack of timeliness and quality in the information you get.
Here are some information gaps:
- Not enough detail being given by your team when reporting their statuses to you:
- You hear, "It'll take some more time", instead of, "It'll take two more days"
- Your manager doesn't provide all the required details and background when assigning you new deliverables
- People respond with short sentences:
- You asked the architect's opinion on something, and he responded, "It'll work"
- The data is incomplete and comes without enough context
- People just forget to update you
Your information needs are much higher as a manager, as you are supposed to gather information and disseminate information, but you may be fumbling for information all the time, especially for the information that you really need at that point in time.
Information is useful when it's timely and it can be relied upon. You may need to understand and set up the channels of information, such that:
- You can sift through it quickly
- It has enough context
- It is accessible when you need it
I can't get no satisfaction
Imagine a 400 meter steeplechase, which really tests everything you got. It's long enough that you need a lot of stamina and short enough to run hard and it has got the obstacles to jump over. Now imagine you being the guy who is just one meter behind the leader and pushing hard but not getting there, no matter what you do.
Sometimes, a new manager may feel just like that runner in close second place. You are doing everything right, running hard and keeping stamina and jumping over the obstacles, but just not getting there. It's a feeling of helplessness, as you have exhausted your abilities in all departments.
Some of the manifestations are:
- I'm pushing hard, BUT people are not responding equally
- I'm getting the support that I need, BUT some more would really be great
- We made the deadline, BUT it would be better if we finished with some time left to review more
- I'm happy with the work, BUT we can do even better
New managers can be hard on themselves and on the people around them because they have a point to prove and they may be bursting with ideas having watched all their managers as an individual contributor.
I'm running all the time
Your day starts with looking at e-mails and picking out the work items from your manager and some follow-ups from past deliverables. While you are trying to figure out how to do those, one of your team members comes by and wants to have a one-on-one as he is very demotivated. Meanwhile, you look at your calendar and see that you have been invited to two meetings, one from administration on relocation from your current place and another from a dependent team to discuss some design interfaces.
At the end of the day, you end up doing only half of what you wanted to. You feel helpless and appear to be running from one thing to another. You are always trying to complete tasks that others have imposed on you (either your manager, or your team members, or supporting teams, or peer teams). You seem to get little opportunity to implement all the good things that you wanted to.
As a new manager, it is easy to get overwhelmed. You may try hard to finish as many work tasks as you can, but more keep showing up. These untimely work items take precedence over other initiatives that you had in mind for yourself and for your team.