A message for new managers

Each time a group of Radio Flyer employees (or Flyers) are promoted to manager level, they have an opportunity to build their leadership skills through our Wagon U New Manager Development Series.

Becoming an effective manager takes real practice and learning – it requires what are often new skills from the ones that helped you succeed as an individual contributor.  To acquire the tools you need to start managing a team, project or even a single direct report, it’s crucial to stay laser focused on exceling in the following 3 areas.

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is so important to becoming an effective leader, but mastering it is incredibly difficult. As a leader, it’s crucial to understand that despite the never-ending narrative running through your head – the one that helps to justify each of your actions – those around you can’t hear this story. They only see what you actually do, and hear what you actually tell them. You must start seeing yourself as others see you, or risk coming off as clueless. You must endure the temporary pain and the cringy moments of facing how others see you to be an effective leader by soliciting feedback. 

 One of my favorite tools for achieving this is anonymous 360-degree feedback to hear from everyone with whom you work to get a complete picture of how others view you.  By seeking out feedback on yourself, you start to see yourself as others see you and only then you can improve. 

 Listening

It is really easy to gloss over this one – it seems like a no-brainer. But, do you actually know how to be a good listener? Take a minute and think of someone in your life that REALLY listens to you. Do you like this person? Do you tell them more than you would someone else? Do you trust them more? Do you respect them more? The answer to these questions is almost certainly “yes,” and it’s because they listen so well. 

To be an effective leader you have to be an effective listener. Not only because you need your team to trust you, but because you need to understand what is going on – what’s happening with your customers, your suppliers, and the other people on the team. Bad listeners miss all kinds of data that is critical to success. Great listeners have deeper insights, better ideas, and more effective relationships by a longshot. 

 Leadership  is a Skill

 Something that’s important to understand when taking on a management position is that leadership is a skill that everyone can build. Sure, there are likely some natural-born leaders who are more inclined to succeed in this area than others, but leadership is in fact a skill that can be learned. 

Building and developing the team, setting shared goals, and facilitating ideas are skills that can be practiced and great leaders master them. One of the biggest obstacles to accepting this are the longstanding, societal architypes of “leaders” that we’ve been fed for so long – a leader needs to be charismatic, extroverted, tall, of a certain age or gender, etc. The truth is that great leaders come in all shapes, sizes, and personality types. The thing that good leaders have in common is that they are good leaders. Everyone can become a more effective leader; you just need to believe you can and to commit deeply to building your skills to become one.