They won’t listen to you if you don’t play the part
I was recently named as the team leader at my job. I’m only the lead for seven other people, but I have never been in a leadership role before.
I was asked if I wanted to take on the extra responsibility. It was between me and two other people. I’m not sure what their exact requirements were, but they ended up giving me the position.
It felt good to see my name in the group when the team was being informed of the change. Then reality set in.
There are people who have been at the job longer than me and people who are more than 10 years older. I am now their team leader. It’s not a huge deal, but it hurt a few egos.
What this means is, if they have an issue or any kind of problem they come to me to fix it. If I can’t fix it, I escalate it up to the higher powers at work. I also changed a few minor things that I thought would add to the predictivity level and make things more smooth.
While everyone congratulated me in our group chat, I realized that not everyone was alright with listening to someone who was younger than them and had less experience.
It didn’t take long before people were jumping over me and heading straight to my boss. Then, my boss would ask me why I didn’t handle the problem. I had to explain that no one came to me.
He explained to me that I would need to be more forceful if I wanted people to listen to me. He said just because I had the title of team leader now, it didn’t mean people would see me as a leader.
This thought had not occurred to me before. I guess I thought that soon as I was awarded the position, people would listen to me and respect my decisions.
This was not the case.
So, I knew I had to do something. If this continued, it would be the standard I set for myself as a leader. I would be saying it’s alright for people to go above me any time they wanted.
I crafted a text to send the group chat that night. It must've taken me at least an hour to write. I kept editing it and wanted it to come out perfectly.
I thought some parts were too aggressive, while other parts were too nice.
This was my first text.
“Hey all. I would appreciate it if when you had an issue you came to me first, and not Bob (name changed). Please try to remember this in the future. Thank you for all your hard work today and see you all in the morning!”
I felt this text was too nice and did not send the right message. After the conversation with Bob, I knew the text needed less fluff.
The following is the text I sent out.
“Hello all. If you have an issue with anything, you need to come to me first. If I can’t help you, I will send it up. Thanks.”
I liked this better for a few reasons.
- It went straight to the point while still being respectful.
- It wasn’t full of unnecessary words like “please” and “appreciate.” While these may seem nice, sending the first text would not have helped my situation.
- The second text sends more of a message that it was not alright to go above me and that it will not be tolerated in the future. In comparison, the first text sounds like I didn’t really care but had to send it because Bob told me to.
- The second text is me taking more responsibility. I mention how I will try to help them first. Then if I can’t, it will be sent up through the proper chain.
It’s been a week, and so far it has not been repeated. I have been able to solve any problem so far. I am starting to gain the respect of my group.
I think this text had a great deal to do with it. It established a standard. I mentioned it the same night that it happened. I am competent enough in the job to handle most problems. All of this is needed to lead.
I hope to learn more about leadership the longer I am in the position. I’ll learn more, and I’ll make sure to share it here.
