📣 First up, a shameless plug: I’m officially on the hunt for a Product Manager to join my team, International Products & Platform, at Twilio! 🇬🇧 London/ UK remote, 🇪🇸 Madrid, 🇩🇪 Berlin/ Munich are our priority locations, but if you’re within 2 hours of GMT time zone please do hit me up for a discussion 💬.
The first time I became a manager was a disaster 😱. I was the unofficial second-in-command. When my then-manager took an internal mobility opportunity, I was asked to step up. Looking back, it shouldn’t have been a surprise. I was part of the succession plan all along, but the timing of my manager’s departure was unpredictable and I certainly was not geared up to takeover. Being inexperienced 👶🏻 but incredibly flattered, I misconstrued the offer as a recognition 🏆 of my performance. I said yes to the challenge with eagerness and asked no questions when in fact I had little idea of what I had signed up to.
I had only been in the team for around a year when this happened. There were other members there with longer tenure 👩🏻💼. I was elevated in a peer group of 4 who all held the same corporate title. In effect, I was asked to lead the team without formal authority.
No one discussed with me what it meant to transition from an individual contributor to a team manager. No training 🏋🏻♀️ or resources was offered even though they were available. I thought the change merely meant I now got a few more meetings 📅 to attend and reports 📝 to prepare. Boy was I wrong 🥺.
First up, not everyone bought into the new team structure. Unclear communication made it worse. My authority was challenged ⚔️ from time to time. For the most part I was confused over whether it was my work or leadership being questioned.
As I had little appreciation of what the move entailed, I under-estimated the workload, its difficulty, and what it meant to my day to day responsibilities. I made my first new hires while in this position, little did I know how much of a time sink ⏰ hiring was.
One of my staff lacked motivation and under-performed 😩, who had to be put on a performance management plan. Just imagine the tough conversations that got us there.
Another staff was a fresh graduate, very green, and put herself under ridiculous pressure to perform. Tears 😢 were shed after a small tumble 🙅🏻. I had no idea how to comfort her without turning into her friend.
Before I became a manager, I was oblivious to how helpless a junior manager was. It didn’t occur to me while a manager may appear to hold all the power 💪🏼 in front of their staff, most things were in fact out of their control.
I struggled with staying abreast of my team’s progress 📊, micro-managing and jumping in to help. I sucked at rallying the troops, setting expectations, holding people accountable and giving feedback. I talked way more than I listened; I prescribed way more than I empowered. Heck, I didn’t really know what all of these meant 😵!
I did not understand what it meant to be a manager. (I’d argue not everyone wants to, or is suited to be one. As to whether people management ought to be a natural and necessary step in career progression, that’s a debate 🗣 for another day.)
I failed to measure my skills and experience against what it took. I wish I knew what questions to ask 💭 and sought support; but it was nearly impossible to even start given my ignorance. I was stuck in the ditch of “you don’t know what you don’t know”.
I had almost nothing in my tool shed to resolve issues as they arose. Yes I did to varying degrees ‘worked things out’ and I attempted with the best intentions, but my inexperience meant ‘best efforts’ still was not good enough 😫.
No doubt I learnt my lessons the hard way 💥, but I am grateful to have stumbled into my first managerial duties by chance. Being thrown into the deep end forced me to mature rapidly, all of which have made me a more thoughtful and competent manager today.
In my next post, I will dive deeper in to my lessons learnt along the way as a manager. Stay tuned!
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