Promoted to team leader - advice?

The One Doctor

Hi all,

I've been promoted to team leader over a customer support team of 15 people. It's a fairly large Irish company and I haven't dealt with that team before, and neither do I have any real team leader experience. I got the promotion on the strength of the interview and my previous 'management' experience.

This may seem silly, but I'm a little concerned as I have no formal management training. I have some previous experience in managing certain aspects of people's jobs - giving them work, monitoring their overall performance and reporting on it, interacting with them and making sure they know what the priorities are etc. This was in another much bigger IT company though. Frankly I think I got the promotion because they knew I have worked for two very popular multinational IT companies and assumed I'd be great at the job. A slightly farfetched assumption imo.

Essentially, does anyone have any good practical suggestions regarding managing teams or individuals? Also, a few tips about managing workload wouldn't go amiss. I'm eager to do a good job, however I very much want to balance my workload and ensure I'm not in the office until all hours.

Any and all advice is appreciated as I'm not starting the job for another few weeks.

Boom_Bap

Get in touch with HR about getting TL training, it shows that you are being pro active about your new position.
In relation to balancing your workload, get some sort of oraganisational framework in place now, and then develop your organinisational technique/methods as you grow with the role.
For example, you say you have a team of 15, create some sort of file on each and thier clients and some basic metrics on where they are. Then grow this as you get to know them better.

The One Doctor

Boom_Bap wrote: »

Get in touch with HR about getting TL training, it shows that you are being pro active about your new position.
In relation to balancing your workload, get some sort of oraganisational framework in place now, and then develop your organinisational technique/methods as you grow with the role.
For example, you say you have a team of 15, create some sort of file on each and thier clients and some basic metrics on where they are. Then grow this as you get to know them better.

Thanks for the advice, unfortunately the company doesn't have that sort of TL/management training, believe me I'd have taken it like a shot if they did. Establishing some baseline stats for each team member is a great idea.

Boom_Bap

The One Doctor wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, unfortunately the company doesn't have that sort of TL/management training, believe me I'd have taken it like a shot if they did. Establishing some baseline stats for each team member is a great idea.

They should be able to arrange with an outside agency that deals with training.....or at least you can ask

The One Doctor

Boom_Bap wrote: »

They should be able to arrange with an outside agency that deals with training.....or at least you can ask

I did ask, it's a non-starter, sadly. 'Budget pressures etc... just muck in and learn the job first hand.'

You can imagine why I'm concerned.

ElleEm

Is there an opportunity to shadow the person who held the position previously, or can you find a mentor who can help you find your feet?

thejaguar

If there's no formal training available then it might be an idea to share your concerns with your manager.
Make sure they put in place some sort of development framework or goals so you have something to aim towards achieving and a way to measure your progress.

Sometimes, in at the deep end can be as good a way as any to learn. If you've never managed people before, the best advice I can give is to get to know the people and get to know what they're doing. While they're all on the same team, the will all have different ways of doing what they do.

A file for each person, kept regularly updated, along with input from the person themselves is a great way to keep on top of things.

Boom_Bap

I'd also ask for a list of targets/objectives that need to be achieved in X period of time.
That way starting out, you have your goal.

Rhys Essien

You could do this free online 'Preparing to Manage-Skills and Practices' course.And you will even get a cert for it.

http://alison.com/courses/Management-Strategies-for-Business

http://alison.com/courses/Management-Strategies-for-Business/factsheet/348

Full list of free managment courses
http://alison.com/learn/management

Mrs OBumble

Firstly, look to your own KPIs: as a team leader, your responsibility is to achieve results through your team: if anyone is failing to achieve, then it's your fault for failing to manage them. So basically you need to behave in a way that creates attitudes and environments where people can succeed.

You need to suss out the company's approach to HR issues, and know who to approach in HR for advice. Looking back to my first sentence - in some companies this means that you cannot give bad performance review, while others take a different approach.

Your manager should be providing you with regular coaching about how to do the TL job.

The same way you will be making sure that you team members get regular coaching about how to do their jobs. (You should be doing the soft-skils side of this, but if the technical work is stuff that you don't know how to do, your responsibility is to ensure that it happens from an appropriate export).



Good luck with the job.

blindsider

Mrs O's post is very relevant for you IMO.

Consider asking your boss for some extra time in the 1st month or two - e.g. 3 x 30 min slots on different days during the week - this could reduce over time. It could even be at lunch if s/he is willing. Have your questions ready for these meetings.

KPI's are important - as are your targets (Key Target Activities) e.g. answering x no. calls per day/week etc. These get distributed by you to the team. So, you need to really understand these very well.

As you know, Call-centres are all about the metrics - Availability, Wrap-time, Call-time etc all need to be monitored. Try to make goals etc SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound.

Consider asking more experienced members of the team to coach the newer members (do this slowly & with the right people) - it's good for all of you - win-win-win.

This may also come in handy

http://www.businessballs.com/problemsolving.htm

It's a good web-site.

Ray Palmer

Always say please and thank you to people. Seems minor but it makes a difference.

You are as good off reading a book on the subject as doing a course. I have 3 or 4 management certs and realistically they were pretty pointless.

Try to have some form of KPIs to understand productivity. You may very well manage somebody you personally dislike but you have to treat them the same as everybody else. An objective indicator allows you look past you own personal tendencies.

I had a guy working for me and I truly disliked him and his views on life. Ultimately I had to objectively see how his work was and how he worked with others. He was objectively a good employee even though I found him narrow minded and had objectionable views verging on insulting.

One thing is you will need to know the HR manual inside out.