Episode 33 - New Series Introduction
What happens when you're managing managers, but you've never really been taught how to manage?
It's something I've been talking about with coaching clients quite a lot recently.
They're experienced, capable people who've progressed into more senior roles. They've become good managers through experience, trial and error, and watching what other people do.
But they haven't necessarily had much formal management training along the way.
And now they're managing other managers.
Which brings a whole new set of challenges.
In this episode of Management Matters, I'm introducing a new series in which we'll explore some of the practical management skills, approaches and ways of thinking that can make a real difference to how our teams operate.
When management has been learned through experience
I think a lot of us have developed our management skills quite intuitively.
We've seen someone handle a situation well and thought, "I'll try that."
Or we've experienced management that didn't work particularly well and decided to do things differently.
Over time, we've built up our own approaches to managing people.
And often, those approaches work.
But because we've learned through experience rather than structured training, we might not have the language or frameworks to explain why something works, why it doesn't, or what needs to change.
That can become particularly challenging when we move into more senior roles.
Managing managers is a different challenge
When you're managing people who are themselves responsible for teams, your role changes.
You're still accountable for the work being delivered and for the conditions in which people are working.
But you've delegated the day-to-day line management to someone else.
So what happens when there's a problem in one of those teams?
How do you support the manager who's dealing with it?
How do you work out what's actually going wrong?
And how do you help them improve the situation without stepping in and taking over?
These are the kinds of questions that come up regularly in my coaching conversations.
And sometimes, answering them means going back to what might seem like fairly basic management practices.
Why the basics still matter
We talk a lot about leadership development, particularly as people progress into more senior roles.
But I've noticed that when clients come to coaching to work on their leadership, we often end up spending quite a lot of time talking about management.
Because that's where the friction is.
It's the day-to-day management practices, expectations and ways of working that are creating challenges.
And if we don't have a clear understanding of those things, it can be difficult to work out what needs to change.
That's why I think it's worth getting back to basics.
Not because experienced managers should already know everything, but because many of us were never properly taught these things in the first place.
What to expect from this new series
Over the coming episodes, I'm going to explore some of the practical mechanisms and approaches that underpin good management.
The idea is to give you something you can use in whichever situation you're in.
You might want to reflect on your own management practice.
You might be trying to understand what's happening in a team you're responsible for.
Or you might want some language and practical ideas to help a manager who reports to you.
You could even share an episode with someone in your team as a starting point for a useful conversation.
We'll be getting underneath some of the everyday management challenges that can be surprisingly difficult to untangle.
What would you like me to cover?
I'd love this series to be useful to the real challenges you're dealing with.
So if there's a management topic you'd like me to explore, or a question you've been wrestling with, please send it my way.
What feels harder than it should?
What keeps coming up in your team?
What would help you, or the managers you manage, to do a better job?
You can email me at [email protected].
Because management really does matter.
And I think we could all benefit from having more practical conversations about how to do it well.
