On Becoming the Boss

Taking over as the new boss is hard, but it doesn’t have to be. Managing people who used to be your colleagues is one of the biggest transitions in the life of people at work. According to Linda A. Hill, author of Becoming the Boss, a researched based publication with HBR, it’s a transition made even harder by misconceptions that managers have about their new role. These misconceptions are based on a set of ‘truths’ about the job of the manager that have gained the status of urban myths – popular, but false. These myths are:

Myth 1 - Managers have a lot of authority

Myth 2 – The manager’s authority comes from their position

Myth 3 – Managers must control their staff

Myth 4 – Managers must focus on making good individual relationships.

Myth 5 – Managers must make sure that things run smoothly

What makes all myths powerful, is that although they are simplistic and incomplete, each has a grain of truth in them. However, if new managers can acknowledge the misconceptions in these myths, they have a chance of making a successful transition to effective management.

What makes Myth 1 almost believable is that managers have some authority, and so have an illusion of power about them. What is closer to the truth is that managers, as Kotter says, are dependent upon others for their results. Managing is also about managing these dependencies. This means that managers must foster good working relationships where a dependency exists.

Myth 2 is credible for some of the same reasons as Myth 1. However, most of a manager’s results come through influence and not authority. Staff members are influenced by the integrity and good example of their leaders, not their power. Accordingly, new managers who do the ‘right thing’ and live out a positive mission, can expect to influence their staff more effectively than through the exercise of power.

Control is listed as a typical activity of managers. However, managers who emphasise control run the risk of stifling all the creativity and innovation that exists within their people – this is where Myth 3 typically falls. People who buy into the mission and who are trusted by their boss will usually do the right thing. In addition, they will go the extra mile when needed, often without being asked.

Myth 4 ignores the relationship that managers must forge with the team. This is done by understanding the effects that ‘deals’ done with individual staff members may have repercussions for relationships with the rest of the team. Managers often give little concessions to boost their relationships with individual team members. All well and good. However, the rest of the team members may have ‘views’ regarding the fairness of the manager’s decisions. Leaders must be sensitive to the knock-on effects of seemingly innocuous moves on the wider team.

Myth 5 suggests that the job of the manager is to keep everything the same. Nothing could be further from the truth. Managers are there to manage change. In fact, the term ‘change management’ should be seen as a tautology – the word ‘change’ is unnecessary in the phrase. Managers must constantly change the organisation to deal with the wider pressures for transformation that flood in from the environment.

Hills’s recognition of the 5 Myths won’t cure all the world’s ills. But if newly appointed managers can acknowledge these untruths, they stand a chance of making a successful transition to effective leadership.

Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash