Typically as a leader you have 4 major goals: to maximize individual performance & growth, team performance, your own performance, and your company’s performance. But how do successful managers achieve them?
Here is a list of your main responsibilities and activities as a leader:
Work on your direct reports > Maximize individual performance & growth
- (Bi-)weekly catch-ups & feedback sessions: preparation + meeting
- Review work documents and give feedback/advice
- Occasionally join key meetings as ‘quiet listener’ when possible
- Quarterly performance review & definition of (career) goals
- Give feedback instantly (whenever you see something to improve or also done well): praise in group, criticise in 1:1
- Help out operationally if needed (avoid as much as possible)
Work on your team > Maximize team performance
- Hire the right people that complement the existing team
- Share your (company) vision and principles/values
- Define and align on OKRs
- Ensure knowledge sharing / documentation
- Organize team events
- Conduct team meetings to facilitate knowledge exchange and communication
- Share management updates regularly
- Improve processes, synergies, introduce/test new things
- Align and exchange with other leaders from your company
Work on your own > Maximize your own performance
- Ask for and implement feedback from your team
- Read books, attend events
- Exchange with other leaders to help each other on challenges
Work on company level > Maximize the company performance
- Exchange with management on high-level topics, create alignment, resolve issues
- Represent company externally (mentor, speech)
If you recently started in a leadership position, I recommend to do the following 3 things first:
- Set up Weekly’s with your reports (more on that in part 4)
- Define goals for your team (more on that in part 3)
- Set up performance review process (more on that in part 3)
Allright, by now you gained some basic understanding of leadership responsibilities and characteristics.
Next, we’ll take a look at leadership frameworks that can help leaders provide more guidance and structure to their role.