what's the biggest challenge you faced when you just transited from individual contributor to a team manager?
what tips u would give to new managers?
I was an individual contributer for the first 8 years of my career, I then led a team of 4-5 pax for 5 years and I'm now leading 8 pax since 2021.
I've seen bosses come and go and have also gone through some hits and misses on my own. These are the 5 most important things I've come to realise:
1. Its important that you know how to do the work before you delegate it to your subordinates.
2. You must never allow only 1 person to know how to do a certain task - if they leave, you're screwed, or psychologically, they can blackmail you - related to my first point.
3. Your subordinates are the pillars of your position. The people you trust most and who can deliver are those you need to keep close to you for as long as possible. If they all leave, you're screwed. You better treat them well. When me and my peers left our previous organisation one after another, my boss tendered within 6 months after the last of us quit.
4. Your relationship with your boss, you need to have leverage, a hedge in case they intend to use and discard you. Knowledge is power, use it to your advantage; if your key members are on your side, thats even more powerful.
5. Always leave a way out for yourself. It can be things like networking, making friends with other departments bosses, heck - even storing as many annual leave as possible works in case you need to leave quickly. But you know what's the most powerful networking move? If you can become friends with your boss's boss.