(Partner article) Do you feel at a turning point in your career, where your employees expect more from you, without you really knowing where to find the resources to go from the expert you were to the leader you have? opportunity to become?
For ten years, Cecile Nocerino is a coach for professionals in the scientific sector who are going through similar transition periods and who wish to be counseled in the transformation of their state of mind and way of life to support their professional ascent.
Here she lists the 3 main principles to be accepted in order to go from expert in her field to recognized leader.
I met many people in companies telling me about their difficulties in moving from a traditional management position in their area of competence to a leadership position, that is to say a more strategic, international management position or bringing together people from different cultures or different formations. Because this new assumption of function is not only a change of scale, as one might believe, but a much more significant and especially more destabilizing change, and the good old management recipes no longer seem to work, as if the machine was seized. Many experts, especially engineers or doctors, are very little prepared for this upheaval and what their new position will ask them, the training is interesting but is not enough to guarantee that it will work, because it is not not just a question of knowledge, but of a change of mind, a new way of being. So nothing seems to be taken for granted, their managers are unhappy, the employees are more confident and a whole system suffers. And yet those who want to can do it. But for this there are first of all three principles to know and integrate:
- That will take time.
Any process of change takes time, with a classic transition to different phases: shock, denial, anger, fear, sadness, then acceptance, and finally the quest for meaning to look to the future. Depending on the extent of the change, the environment and the person it goes more or less quickly with more or less easy steps, but one thing is certain, you have to accept to change things to make it work. “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” (Marshall Goldsmith) In other words, what has worked so far will not necessarily work anymore. - We will have to get out of our comfort zone.
This is logically the consequence of the first principle and it is all the more destabilizing that it is not a question of new knowledge to learn but probably of new behaviors to adopt, new reflexes to acquire such as:
– Take the height, have a vision and knowledge of the issues at several levels (staff, team, company and external),
– Know how to listen better, because it is impossible on some level to be everywhere at once,
– Better delegate and avoid micromanagement which can lead to burnout,
– Communicate using the right communication channels, the right information, at the right time, to the right people and know how to ask the right questions,
– Encourage, congratulate, give feedback to motivate teams, and develop people,
– Be humble and receive feedback: take responsibility for your mistakes, be aware that the expert is no longer necessarily you. - Don't be alone.
Again this is the consequence of your new mindset of the second principle. Whether you are asking for help setting up an action plan with your team, talking to your manager about the different options, whether you have a mentor or a coach, you will likely need help at some point. You will want to consider other perspectives, or all possible options and it is complicated to do it alone. It's not shameful to ask for help, it's just to realize that you don't know everything and that with help you will see more clearly, you will have other points of view or other perceptions, or even that you will go faster in your journey. As Albert Einstein said: "You cannot solve a problem with the same way of thinking as that which generated the problem".
So take the time to think, ask the right questions, and take care of yourself and others.
Book your free non-binding discovery session with Cecile here.
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Note: the “partner articles” are not articles of the editorial staff of French Morning. They are provided by or written to the order of an advertiser who determines their content.
