Recently, I pinged a colleague to ask how his new job was going. His very senior, but definitely individual contributor, non-manager job. He said “actually, I could use your advice! I seem to be a manager now? And things are pretty chaotic...”
Here’s how his first two weeks went: the person who hired him departed, they handed him a bunch of direct reports, told him they were about to do layoffs. As if starting a new job wasn’t stressful enough, he also had to stabilize his team, remind himself how to be a manager, and produce a “roadmap” which, of course, was poorly defined by the org. All without context and the person who he thought would be guiding him.
He called me and asked for some emergency readings, specifically quick reads for stabilizing his team in this chaotic period. Here’s what I sent him.
These might be useful to anyone trying to support a team through chaos and upheaval...which seems to be all of us, all the time these days.
Hi [redacted],
here are a few helpful links that came to mind. Theme: quickly stabilizing & orienting—both yourself and your team
• Resilient Management (book by Lara Hogan). If I had to recommend just one thing it would be this. It's very short, and lots of tools around understanding core needs (yes, including BICEPS), getting to know people quickly, building trust, etc etc.
• Is it tacky to recommend something I wrote? Probably! Anyway, here's my rant about the importance of Predictability in which I link to Emphasize What Will Stay the Same which could also help give people some Predictability.
• Even though your team won’t be hit much by the layoffs, don’t underestimate the impact on who’s left: Data Leadership After a Layoff and How to Handle Layoff Survivor's Guilt
• Re: roadmapping, the word seems to mean different things everywhere, and the expectations around fidelity, accuracy, ambition, and format vary widely. My advice is to talk to people who’ve been through a planning cycle already, especially folks the execs point to as successful. To go deep, a classic book is Good Strategy, Bad Strategy, but while you’re stabilizing, talking to someone would be more time effective.
I've got lots more on deck for all sorts of other manager topics 📚🤓 so just say the word when you want to dust off a new area! And happy to be a sounding board any time.
You got this!
-Sasha
p.s. Not in the scope of what you asked, but just as important imho: what things help YOUR resilience? Exercise/fun/music/etc? They tend to get pushed to the side by the exact situations where you need them most. Put on your own oxygen mask etc etc etc.
I say this not to make you feel bad if you dropped them, but to give you the nudge to defend the space for yourself ASAP, even though people want things from you. They will always want things from you.
It’s tempting to “wait until things die down” but my own personal experience of management was that things somehow never actually die down, so with that mindset I always struggled to prioritize my own needs against those of the team. So in my next role I plan to have better boundaries around this no matter what's happening. YMMV!
What readings would you recommend to someone in this situation? Leave your suggestions in the comments below (free registration required).