WHEN I was interviewing someone for an opening in my team, I asked the applicant a common question that most people are asked in an interview: “Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?” He replied enthusiastically, “To be in your position.” I was a bit taken aback, so I asked, “What do you mean?” He went on to explain that he hoped to grow professionally and to develop his managing skills so that he can push me up to a higher position. I knew he meant well but it made me a little uncomfortable thinking that he would replace me someday. He eventually got the job, but I did not stay in the organization long enough to see how he did. Last I heard, he was already managing his own team.
One of the most challenging and rewarding parts of managing people is to help them grow into their full potential. It is also the most threatening, especially if you have someone in your team who is more intelligent or has a better understanding of the technical aspects of the work. But leading people is not just technical know-how. In one of the management classes I attended, I discovered that the higher you go up the corporate ladder, the higher the need for people management skills than technical know-how. And since your manager is focused on managing you and other teams, your role is to ensure they have all the important details they need to decide.
It makes sense to think that the best person who should replace you is someone from your team. In the same manner, the best person to replace your manager should be you. If you plan to be promoted, you need to help your manager get promoted first. Of course, there are insecure leaders who limit the growth of their team members because they feel threatened, or are concerned with how they are perceived by their peers. But the true test of leadership is when managers replicate themselves in others, make others believe in their vision, or equip others to create a vision for themselves. And when these leaders inspire others to become the best versions of themselves, they will become better at what they do and ultimately replace them.
It then follows that to replace your manager, or get promoted for that matter, you have to know your manager well and anticipate what they need so you can provide the support they need to succeed. Leaders will choose and groom their successor based on how aligned someone is to their own values and way of thinking. And if you want to be that person, you need to anticipate what your leader needs. One of the things team leaders fail to do when presenting issues to their leaders are their recommendations on how to address the issues, and their insights on how the team will react given a certain direction. Your manager should be able to trust you to provide those. And when they discuss it with you, you need to be ready to provide alternative solutions. While I agree that two heads are better than one, it is only true if the two heads are thinking with the same goal in mind.
One of the unspoken roles team leaders need to understand is to make their manager look good. This means not just doing their work well, but also adopting a mindset that whatever comes out from the team is a product of the team’s collective effort even if only one person did it. Whether you like it or not, your manager represents not just your team, but all the other teams under their watch. Team leaders need to ensure that whatever their manager asks them to do, it will help put their team in a good position to work with other departments.
This is one of the significant lessons I learned from my previous senior manager who taught us that the work of one is the work of all. Before we sent out any material, we ensured it conformed to our team’s quality standards. And when in doubt, we check with key members of the team who can provide valuable input. When your manager sees that you are placing the team’s welfare above your ego, they will start to realize that you are ready to take care of others.
Being a team leader entails dealing with top executives and translating their vision into operational terms. This means helping your team deliver as expected but also managing your manager’s expectations by advising them not just on what your team can do, but, more importantly, on what your team cannot do. There are managers who overcommit to whatever their top executives tell them to do without first consulting their team. This will unduly burden your team into burnout and exhaustion. You need to help your manager understand how their actions and decisions might possibly affect the entire team.
To help manage expectations from top executives, help your manager by providing him or her an overview of what your team is currently doing and your priority deliverables. This will prevent them from overcommitting your team, and at the same time they will be able to negotiate with top management on which projects can be deprioritized. It would be best to create a dashboard that your manager can check from time to time, so they know the project status immediately and inform top management on projects that need their guidance. By providing a mechanism where you keep them in the loop on what is happening in your team, they are in a better position to make decisions and see you as an invaluable asset.
Regardless of whether you want to be promoted or not, you need to have a good working relationship with your manager because, ultimately, they will be the one to evaluate you. But this does not also mean you should be obsequious. On the contrary, you need to be your manager’s sounding board and look for ways to improve your team’s processes so you can provide recommendations that will benefit everyone in the team. When you understand that your success is built on the success of your team, you will also understand that in order to succeed, you must lift others up by doing your work well.
Image credits: Amy Hirschi on Unsplash