Challenges in Transitioning from Individual Contributor to Manager

When I started leading a high-powered recruiting team, I had the traits of the TYRANT leaders I now call out. Here's why: Despite my degrees, certificates, and ongoing professional development, nothing prepared me to transition into leading. I still had an individual contributor (IC) mindset, which unintentionally led me to compete with my very capable team. At the time, I engaged in behaviors like: Taking over projects instead of developing my team. Working long hours, thinking it showed commitment. Making unilateral decisions vs collaborating. Giving orders instead of providing clarity and context. Hoarding information instead of communicating transparently. Prioritizing my metrics over team goals. A month in, my boss at the time sat down with me and told me to own my transition and to stop taking over work when someone asked for help. (she's one of the best Leader's I've ever had) To transform my mindset, I sought out a few internal sponsors and observed how they managed their teams. I also asked my team for feedback on where I could do better. Once I made the changes: mindset and action, I began demonstrating new leadership behaviors: Coaching my team and developing their problem-solving skills. ↳Created an authorization matrix to empower them to make decisions. Promoting work-life balance through prioritization and delegation. ↳I stopped working on vacation to set a better example. Making collaborative decisions to increase buy-in. ↳They worked on the reqs, so I asked for their ideas and where I could implement them. Painting a vision and equipping the team to get there themselves. ↳I translated the organization's vision down to how it affected our team goals. Openly communicating to build trust and transparency. ↳I promoted democratic decision-making and explained when it needed to be autocratic. Aligning on and championing team goals over my individual metrics. ↳I held weekly reviews where I celebrated their success because it was OUR success. Here's what I want you to take from this: 1. Develop your team's skills rather than trying to be the expert. 2. Delegate decisions to increase buy-in and leverage diverse perspectives. 3. Openly share information rather than hoarding knowledge and insight. 4. Recognize and elevate your team's contributions rather than taking individual credit. #aLITTLEadvice #leadership

I'm delighted to share my newest piece for Newsweek-out today-on how to successfully navigate the transition from individual contributor to people leader. Too often, stellar individual contributors are promoted into people leadership roles without adequate training, development, support, or recognition that the skills that make people talented individual contributors are distinct from those that make them successful people leaders. Here, I share high-impact strategies that dramatically accelerate success for new people leaders: 🎯Recognize that you're moving into a new professional role and identity. Understanding the differences between successful individual contributor and people leadership skills is an important first step, as is learning to work on a more strategic versus tactical level. 🎯Develop your leadership values, voice, and vision. Understanding what guides you as a leader will help you better prioritize the day-to-day actions and ways of working that help you embody the kind of leader you aspire to be. 🎯Prioritize relationship building within and beyond your team. New people leaders often make the mistake of prioritizing day-to-day work over building relationships. But relationship building and creating alignment is central to success as a leader. 🎯Be strategic about how you and your team invest your time, energy, and resources. Learning to move from time management to priority management is a high-impact investment. Setting aside a weekly planning meeting to prioritize your and your team's work and defaulting to 85% rather than 100% effort will help you and your team deliver the highest impact results while protecting against burnout. 🎯Invest in and prioritize your own professional development and growth. Carving out regular time to deepen your skills as a people leader on an on-going basis will help you continue to develop your leadership skills and support your success as you grow into your new role. Recognizing that your own ongoing professional development is foundational to your success rather than taking a when-I-can-squeeze-it-in approach is critical. And, whether you're feeling confident, excited, overwhelmed, uncertain, anxious, or any of the other very common and normal mix of emotions, don't forget to make time to celebrate this significant career milestone! #LeadershipDevelopment #LeadershipCoaching #NewManager #NewManagers #WorkSmarterNotHarder #CareerAdvice

Picture this: you've just been promoted to a leadership role after years of excelling as an individual contributor. You're eager to make your mark and prove your worth. You know how to get things done quickly, but you also want to be perceived as strategic. How do you strike the right balance? One of my coaching clients faced this exact challenge. As an IC, his reputation for getting things done quickly and avoiding “decision by committee” was always his strongest asset. But he quickly came to the realization that leadership required a different approach when promoted to report into the company’s CTO. He struggled to adapt and recently when a high-stakes decision came his way related to employee performance calibrations, they relied on their old approach: act fast, be decisive and figure it out yourself. But by moving too quickly, he failed to get input from a key stakeholder. The result? Confusion at the C-level, frustration, and a missed chance to show his team's value as thought partners instead of order takers. Through our coaching, my client learned a valuable lesson: Leaders need to know when to make a quick decision and when to take time for careful consideration and seeking input from the right people. Moving from an IC to a leader means knowing when to slow down, gather information, and involve others. Approaching situations with humility and openness to feedback is key to making choices that align with the company's long-term goals. With this new mindset, my client started to change their approach. They worked with their manager to set clear guidelines on when to move fast and when to get input via the RAPID model. They actively looked for ways to collaborate with colleagues and understand the company's needs better. As they found their footing, they realized that success as a leader meant balancing speed with strategic thinking. By staying humble and adjusting their style to the situation, they were able to provide the guidance and support their team and executives needed to make informed decisions. The path from top performer to effective leader is rarely a straight line. But by learning from experience and being willing to adapt, anyone can navigate the challenges of leadership with skill and impact. #promotions #strategicthinking #managingup #executivecoaching

It was unbelievably painful. When I became a first-time manager years ago, I made all the mistakes in the book. I thought I was on the right track. In reality, something had gone awry. By avoiding hard conversations about quality of work, I hadn’t setup my report for success. And when her presentation to senior leaders fell flat, I felt devastated. I knew it was my fault. Here’s 3 things I wish I knew as a new manager: 𝟭/ 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗿 I focused on building rapport (good manager), but delayed giving candid feedback to my report about her work output (bad manager). I was avoiding confrontation—procrastinating until the “right moment” struck (never did). Since then, I’ve learned to lean into the discomfort. If there’s a performance concern, sit down privately with your report, explain the concern openly, point to specific pieces of work, share examples of what “good” looks like, and invite them to give their feedback. 𝟮/ 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝘆𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹 The beauty and curse of managing people is that each person is a unique combination of skills, motivations, and behavior. While I can “get out of the way” for certain skilled and motivated high-performers, the same approach would be a disaster for reports who are struggling due to weaker skills. The challenge is to listen and observe your report intently—so you understand which style to use to help them perform at the next level. 𝟯/ 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 As a manager, my reports frequently raise concerns about other people. Early on, I would immediately jump into problem-solving mode. This got me overwhelmed. Fast. Later, I learned to first ask, “Have you talked to the person about your concern?” 80% of the time, the answer is no. Then I would make it my mission to coach my report to independently resolve their conflict. If I succeeded, they’d be empowered to handle a wider range of situations on their own. **** P.S. If you’re making a change, I coach tech professionals to make career transitions and build wealth abroad. Slide into my DMs and join my past clients at companies like Google, Meta, Square, & Stripe.

Are you struggling to transition from a high-performing individual contributor to a manager role? I've been there and have worked with many rockstars struggling with this transition. Why do we struggle so much? To achieve high performer status, you have to get stuff done, be better than other people, and in most cases, you believe that "to get things right, I need to do it myself." This is where it gets tricky. Just before you become a manager, you are likely managing larger projects and other people indirectly and it's tough to balance the IC work and the manager work you need to do. Here are a few tips: ➡️ Separate your IC vs. manager time on your calendar. Literally, block time to do the IC work and to manage people. ➡️ Learn how to manage people without doing the work for them. If someone says, I need this report on return on our advertising spend. Don't think you need to do it yourself. Instead, ask the person in charge to create that report for you and give them feedback. Yes, they will make mistakes at first and you'll learn that your first few requests won't be super clear, but you gotta try. ➡️ Get feedback on your performance as a manager. Ask the people you are managing and your leader. These people will have insights and potential blindspots that you can work on. ➡️ Keep at it. I know some people who've decided they prefer to remain an IC and that's 100% ok. My point here is, don't give up just because you don't feel like you are good at it in the beginning. ➡️ Read this book if you have time. I read it in business school a while back, and I still recommend it to high performers on my team making the transition. I love helping people develop into great leaders. I'm still a work in progress myself, but aren't we all? #leadershiplessons #teamdevelopment

If you are just starting in people management or if you are a junior/mid-level manager wanting to go up the corporate ladder faster than normal then this post is for you, so please read along… One of the clumsiest phases of a corporate career is when you transition from being an individual contributor to a role that needs you to manage a team in some capacity. You will quickly find out that it’s a lot easier to do things yourself than try to convince other people to do things!  In this phase some people immediately give up and go back to individual contributor roles and others struggle not understanding when and to what extent to push the team and when to let go and let them do their own thing. Most junior managers tend to over manage. They are like brand new parents who are naturally overprotective, and they get involved in every little detail of what the team members are doing. In doing so they quickly consume all their time managing a small team. Knowingly or unknowingly, they create a model where everything has to be routed through them making themselves the most important person in the team. And in that process the entire team starts fully depending on the manager and don’t start developing any sense of direct ownership of the work they are doing.  What the junior manager fails to realize is that if they make themselves the most important person in the team, then while their job is safe, they are also now stuck in that role and hence they are hampering their own growth. if they consume all their time managing a small team, how can they find time for their own personal growth? The trick is to transition from a new manager to a good manager and make your currently role redundant as quickly as possible. A good manager hardly manages anyone…good manager gives full ownership to the team members, plays to the strengths of each team member, finds and fixes problems and removes any roadblocks along the way and puts the team in the front and leads from behind. When the team starts taking direct ownership then they are naturally more self-driven and more productive and naturally that means the manager will have more free time for his/her personal growth. Also, if you as a junior manager can demonstrate to your company leadership that you can create and manage a highly productive team of 10 people by using only 10% of your time, that means you are now ready to manage another 10 team like that and hence you get promoted…it's as simple as that. Some of my friends ask me, how do I find time to write all these posts? Well, you give me a 1000 people team to manage, I will still make every attempt possible to make my role redundant, which leaves free time for my personal growth and also to stick my head out more frequently from day-to-day operations and look at the big picture and develop strategic thinking and innovation in my organization….and yes, it also creates time for myself to write posts like this in the middle of a work day😊

Why is it so hard to make the transition from individual contributor to manager?  First, the definition of success drastically changes. There’s a shift from “me” to “we.” Instead of cranking out work as an individual, there’s a shift to empowering collective success as a team. For a lot of new leaders, this challenges their self-worth. They don’t always feel like they are contributing in huge value-add ways to the company because it’s not how they’ve previously contributed. Second, the actual work being done changes drastically. Managers tend to spend way more time in meetings than they did as an individual contributor. It’s because you’re spending time with people trying to clear roadblocks and accelerate their individual success. You need a completely different skillset as a manager than you do as an IC. So what can we do to make this transition easier? 1️⃣ Document processes and expectations for new managers. What are the things you expect from all managers in your organization? Are they responsible for 1-on-1s, approving PTO or timecards, giving feedback, or having career conversations? If they are, make sure there’s a central place where they can go to see everything that's expected of them. It should also include best practices and templates for each item. Last, make sure to link any systems they might need to use. (I love a tool like Trainual for this!) 2️⃣ Help provide resources so they can get real skill development to thrive as managers. Most commonly, these are things like: - Self-awareness - Delegation - Building trust - Decision making - Managing Conflict - Delivering Feedback - Setting Expectations I’ll link a super cool resource that anyone seeing this can use inside their organizations. It outlines some of these skills and how to get more development on each of them. I’m super grateful to have partnered with Trainual to make a resource like this free and open to anybody to use! Overall, let’s set up new leaders for success by clearly outlining expectations, giving them tools and resources, and helping them gain the new skills they’ll need in a new manager role. I want to know from you, LinkedIn: What do you think is so hard about this transition? And how can we make it easier?

"It's a challenge to ensure everything is perfect, and sometimes I want to do it all alone". This is a very common situation with newly promoted first-time managers. Every first-time manager encounters this daunting feeling of responsibility and the desire to excel in every aspect of their role. The transition from an individual contributor to a leadership position can be overwhelming, but it's crucial to remember that this is a typical problem experienced by many new managers. Acknowledging this challenge is the first step towards growth and development. As experienced managers know, our performance is not measured solely by our individual achievements. Instead, it revolves around the success of the teams we lead. The true measure of our leadership lies in empowering and supporting our team members to achieve exceptional results collectively. 📊 Manager Output = Team Performance + Leadership Support 🌟 💼 Let's take Anahit, a new manager responsible for a marketing team. Instead of evaluating her performance based on her individual contributions, we assess the team's performance under her leadership. Anahit's role includes guiding the team, providing resources, and fostering collaboration. As a result, the team has successfully launched two successful campaigns, gaining higher engagement and brand recognition. Anahit's leadership support has been instrumental in these achievements, showcasing her effective management skills. 💡 To further illustrate this concept, let's consider Armen, a first-time manager overseeing a software development team. Armen recognizes that his team members have varying levels of experience and expertise. By understanding their task-relevant maturity, Armen tailors his management approach accordingly. For more experienced team members, he provides autonomy and trust in their decision-making, while for those still developing their skills, he offers more guidance and support. The result is a well-balanced and motivated team that consistently delivers high-quality projects. 🌱 There are couple of things that we can do to support our new managers: 1️⃣ Focus on empowering and nurturing your team members' growth and potential. 2️⃣ Foster a culture where diverse ideas are celebrated, and teamwork is at the core. 3️⃣ As experienced leaders, offer mentorship and guidance to help new managers flourish in their roles. 4️⃣ Emphasize the importance of continuous improvement rather than seeking perfection. 5️⃣ Recognize and celebrate collective achievements, reinforcing the value of teamwork. In conclusion, being a first-time manager comes with its share of challenges, but by focusing on team success, embracing growth, and providing the right support, we can empower new managers to thrive in their roles. #Leadership #Management #FirstTimeManagers #TeamSuccess #PerformanceManagement #GrowthMindset #Empowerment #HighOutputManagement

The Leap I’ve been talking with leaders a lot recently about that big leap: individual contributor to manager. It’s a fundamental change in how you provide value to the organization - in the role that you play. It requires a completely different set of skills. What got you to this point will not propel you forward. The first trick is to truly internalize that how you provide value has changed and be comfortable with that. This is hard; you’re going to want to direct work and play the expert whose skills got you promoted. Resist. Be comfortable in the discomfort and ambiguity. The next trick is to get good at doing the things that provide value in your new role. You’re going to suck at it. You’re going to screw up. You might even ruin someone’s life or career. (Big responsibility, huh?) Humility is your friend. Embrace the suck. Apologize when you need to. Be human. If you’re lucky, your company will support you with training and mentorship in this transitory phase of your career. (Most likely, they won’t.) Read books. Listen to podcasts. Watch TED Talks. Find a mentor. Hire a coach. Use the expert skills that got you promoted to a leadership position to conquer the monumental task of becoming a leader worth following. First, write down the kind of leader you want to be. Do you know? Do you know the type of leader you don’t want to be? Try new approaches. Get feedback. Tweak your approach. You’ll get through this. When you’re on the other side, you’ll likely find that what held you back in the hard times was that you didn’t actually understand how you provided value to the organization and that, in those moments of weakness, you let your fears and insecurities drive you to stray from your path to becoming a leader worth following.

I went from IC (individual contributor) to people manager as a Google PM. Here's a 5-part blueprint how you can do the same: 👇 1. MANAGEMENT If you've never directly managed people and teams before, take the time to learn. People management adds significant workload and responsibilities and you need to know what you're doing to succeed. Don't take the rest of these steps before you learn the key concepts: vision, leadership, organization, delegation, career development. 2. JOIN GROWTH TEAM Take a hard, honest look at your current team and business unit. Is there significant growth happening in terms of business results or other metrics? Is there a reasonable chance of significant growth coming over the next year? If not, this whole exercise will be an uphill battle. Growth means there is opportunity for the business -- if only we had more people. No growth means the business unit is more likely to consolidate, rolling up more and more people under existing people managers. You *can* still carve out headcount with significant effort, but execs will mostly be concerned with survival instead of expansion. So if there is no growth on the horizon, get yourself to another team. 3. CONTRIBUTE TO GROWTH Get as close as you can to the growth engine: find the parts of the business that contribute to growth and carve out a niche within. Start thinking -- how can you contribute to some aspect of the team's plans? How can you unblock or assist the engines of growth? Which areas could use additional PM support? What could you accomplish if you had another PM on your team who could work on projects of your choice? Identify these opportunities as "stretch goals" and get your team's input on them. 4. MANAGEMENT WITHOUT HC Continue ideating and building a list of specific projects and activities your new team member could take on. If you're working for a big company, find a group of people who want to become product managers. These folks are looking for a "PM rotation": a 6+ month period where they officially stay on their manager's team but work under another manager (you). Look for candidates in your current XFN team -- you can discover who has aspirations of becoming a PM during regular 1:1s with various team members. Start unofficially interviewing interested candidates for a "PM rotation" on your team. Define the scope + deliverables. Define the plan and get agreement from the rotator, their manager, and your manager. 5. MAKE A PLAN + REQUEST HC Now create an org plan of your manager, you, and the team you're building. Draft a document outlining the benefits and opportunities of the proposed headcount investment. Start by demonstrating the impact of one new PM reporting to you, with the potential to expand to three. Get support from your XFN team and manager. Be patient & persistent. If you enjoyed this post: 1. Follow me Alexander Rechevskiy for more PM content 2. Repost to share with your network 🙏 Thank you!