The challenge of lead for the first time
When someone called me asking if I wanted to apply for an IT Manager Job, I had many concerns about it. The first thing that I though was the age, am I enough older to lead an area? Most people should say that the age doesn’t matter, that is all about the experience, and that’s probably true, but the age keeps being a factor and if not, the next question was if I had the enough experience to do it, the technical knowledge. There are many things that came to my mind, mostly doubts and questions.
There is a key to be a good Manager?
Probably you can read a lot of texts about leadership and IT management, but in practice its a bit different. So here are some tips that I think are important to build a team instead of a group and that are helping me to constantly learn about my team and about myself.
1. We are a team
Make your people part of a team, lead projects, but apply leadership in horizontal ways, make them part of the decisions, their recommendations are really important. This is a must if the members of your team have more experience that you in some important topics, for example, if you join the company after them. This lead us to the second point.
2. Some have much more experience than you
If it is your first time leading a team and you are young, it is likely that you will have people with much more experience than you. Listen to them, always keep them in mind because they will teach you a lot.
3. Meet, meet and meet
Organize meetings, group meetings, individual meetings, follow up on your team. This will allow you to know what they need, how they want to continue developing their career and above all it will allow you to establish group dynamics that will add value to the team and the organization.
4. Be Organized
Lean on methodologies to manage projects and people. At the end of the day, you must fulfill the job if you want your team and your organization to grow. Do not forget that work is important and that there are goals to achieve.
5. Feedback
Feedback is one of the most important tools, especially if you do not have so much experience leading teams, this will allow you to know how you are doing and how your team perceives your leadership. It is also important to recognize your team and tell them what they could improve.
6. Study, study and more study
There is always something new to learn, you need to study, read about leadership, about development, learn to make feedback, build a network that allows you to consult doubts and improve. If your team sees you studying, sees that you are looking to improve in order to do the job better and better, they will be inspired by you and most likely want to do it too.
7. Trust
Not everything is about work, we are people, therefore we have problems and it is not easy to separate personal life from work life. Build trust, you have to empathize, no one likes to be led by a person who is not able to put himself in our place. Trust is key to understand each person on your team, this will also generate a very good dynamic.
8. Be Humble
This is the most important for me, be humble, humble to listen to your team, to listen to those who know more than you. Each job and challenge is a new opportunity for learning and development, humility will allow you to learn and also teach. If you do not know how to do something, ask those who have more experience.
I do not have a lot of experience leading teams, I do not have a recipe either, I’m just a young man who was given the opportunity and the challenge to lead a growing team, a team that is part of a great organization.
I hope this may serve a little to those who are taking these kinds of challenges.
Technology lover, student in constant learning. Trying to apply strategic leadership and developing new technologies.
