Firstly, making that transition from being an awesome problem solver (because face it, you are) to leading and managing others is hard. This applies to your team, your kids, that friend of yours that’s always coming to you with their problems but never seems to get anywhere… And it is a PROCESS that takes time. Fortunately, there are things you can do to make it easier and speed it up. The foundation to making this switch is mindset. So how do you change mindset? By thinking AND doing, differently.
What you can do:
Flip that mental switch to let go of your old role. You got promoted because you were excellent at your job but now you need new skills. That’s a tough thing to let go of – all the things you were brilliant at. I used to be such a good supply chain planner. But once promoted they needed to be brilliant at helping others be such good supply chain planners.
Practical exercise To Help Change Your Mindset:
Create a bullet list of things that only you can do because of the role you have. i.e.
- Create opportunities for Anna to contribute to key projects.
- Encourage Bjorn to speak up in meetings.
- Ask the team how they plan to tackle the problem and use your questions to help them create insights and creative solutions*
Notice how none of this includes you doing anything operational? Exactly.
*warning! this is not the time to secretly sneak in your solution with leading questions. EVERYONE WILL KNOW. If you do have an idea, and you really can’t keep it to yourself, throw it into the brainstorm after everyone else has suggested at least one idea.
What’s great about this
You are focusing on helping by being a leader
You will immediately start creating those leading behaviours that eventually form your new habits
It gives you something constructive to do.
This tip is for the Leadership Skills Checklist item: You’ve switched from doing the tasks yourself to enabling others to do the tasks.
This post is part of my special Coaching Tips Series. This series was inspired by my clients and the core themes in their challenges. When we can apply these tips, we bring a lot of ease into our lives and step into our leadership. Want to talk it through with me? Use a free Experience Coaching session and I’ll help you.