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Being promoted to a leadership role is a great accomplishment and recognition of one's skills and potential. However, with greater responsibilities and higher expectations come greater challenges, including a heavier workload, more meetings and a need to be constantly available for direct reports.
Juggling all these demands can be stressful and overwhelming for rising team leaders. To help, a panel of Forbes Human Resources Council members explores some practical tips that can help team leaders keep up with their growing to-do list, manage their time more effectively and balance their leadership responsibilities without burning themselves out.
1. Learn To Triage And Delegate
I have found that being able to both triage and delegate are equally important. Read messages or listen to enough conversation to allow yourself to triage the importance of the issue or need. Then, work the flow accordingly. In the workflow, allow yourself to delegate. Delegate an overabundance of work to others who also want the opportunity to grow. - Cathy Smith, Fairfield Chair Co.
2. Support Your Team First
The most important thing to remember is you are there to support your team. Make time for them before anything else. Then align the rest of your time with the priorities of your department. What are your top five priorities that have the highest impact on the business and its employees? If those are not clear, get clarity from your leader. - Sophia Nardelli, Bath Fitter
3. Encourage Workforce Growth
A rising leader should remember that it is their responsibility to set the direction, coach their staff to succeed and coordinate their efforts, make sure everyone is playing their part, encourage workforce growth, look after their mental health, promote diversity of opinions and evaluate their performance. To achieve it, discipline, self-study and emotional intelligence are the winning factors. - Nara Ringrose, Aquila Nuclear Engineering
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4. Give Leadership Roles To Rising Leaders
Delegation is key! Help rising leaders reframe their roles through the lens of people development—seeing how when they take work off of their own plates, they’re growing the talent on their teams and ultimately positioning themselves for higher-level contributions. And, the hybrid world demands even more, so managers must create cultures of trust with open dialogue, both in-person and online. - Helene Lollis, Pathbuilders
5. Practice Continuous Learning
Be open to learning on an ongoing basis and adjust their leadership style and approach to match their new role and demands. The approach you've had in the past, likely won't serve you best in your new role, but knowing how to succeed and being open to feedback, learning and new leadership and management techniques will go a long way in helping you up-level your success. - Melissa Anzman, bettHR
6. Have Your Priorities Straight
There are a few things people need to learn as they're moving up. Probably the most important is prioritization. Some things are simply more important, so figure them out fast. Secondly, you have to trust your team and delegate tasks. Your team will appreciate the opportunity to showcase their skills. Thirdly, some things in your inbox will never rise to the level of priority. Recognize them and drop them. - Gordon Pelosse, CompTIA, the Computing Technology Industry Association
7. Schedule Work Blocks
The two most effective ways to avoid burnout in a new management role are to use your calendar and create work blocks. By maximizing your calendar, you can carve out 15 mindful minutes between meetings to avoid back-to-back meetings, take notes from the last meeting, prepare for the next meeting and be present. The next step is to implement work blocks, each at least an hour, minimum twice a week to actually get the work done. - Cat Colella-Graham
8. Balance Leadership Responsibilities
I think the key is to balance tasks with leadership. Leveling up may bring increased responsibility to lead and different tasks or projects to take charge of, but it should not mean keeping everything one is used to doing in addition to leading others and adding new responsibilities. Part of leading is learning to delegate and mentor others on their journey so that we have a strong team. - Christina Hobbs, Force Scaling
9. Ask For Help When Needed
Be honest with yourself and your leaders about what you can and cannot manage. We are often asked to do more with the same or fewer resources, especially in HR. It is imperative that we are transparent about what is reasonable and what isn't. Ask early for resources and be prepared to share how not having those resources will impact your effectiveness. - Alba Anthony, Grey Group
10. Educate Your Team
Developing your employees and sharing knowledge creates a strong relationship and increases performance allowing you the ability to cascade down making the workload more manageable. A happy team is a productive team. - Veronica Oubayan, CarepathRx
11. Trust Your Employees
Learn the power of leading—it's delegating. I know it's hard to pass down tasks that are highly important especially as you prove yourself during your promotion. However, it's essential that you trust your team to carry out the responsibilities. You have to let go of perfection and be fine with satisfaction. Trust is an attribute that long-term leaders embody. - Nakisha Griffin, Neustar Security Services
12. Create Healthy Boundaries
As the age-old saying goes, "What got you here won't get you there." Simply put, you have to adjust to every job and environment and use it as an opportunity to build more muscle in new areas. That could mean hiring really good bench strength, better delegation, prioritizing rigorously, coaching people instead of directing and creating healthy boundaries between you and your work. - Katya Laviolette, 1Password
13. Invest In Lifting Others Up
There is a rule of thumb that I apply “what got me here may not help me to grow from here.” Hence, in order to allow oneself the time to have new experiences to learn and develop one must first invest in lifting others up, involve them and delegate with authority. Then approach new things with a curious mind to evaluate existing practices against set business priorities and outcomes. - Rohit Manucha, SIH AGH
14. Grow High-Potentials
Stay focused on mission-critical work and take time to grow high-potentials. From sheer inexperience, rising stars often fail to set boundaries. Result: overflowing to-do list. More than that, they typically still have an "I can get it done better and faster myself" and fail to invest in growing their team. The result equals the same as above and that will include disenchanted employees. - Laci Loew, XpertHR (a division of LexisNexis)
15. Manage Both Up And Down
Mindfully manage down and delegate much of your workload to your direct reports. However, make sure you’re presenting it as an opportunity for growth and development, and offer plenty of support. You will also need to manage up by letting your manager know areas you feel competent and areas where you need support and mentorship. - Lisa Shuster, iHire
