01 - Amy’s Story

Amy had been the strongest performer on her team. She knew it. 

So when their boss was promoted, it came as no surprise to those outside the team that Amy was selected to take over as the team lead. For the others inside the team, there was outward support and, certainly, some inward jealously. Not unexpected if you’ve ever been in that situation.

It was her first managerial position and she wanted to get it right. And she was smart enough to understand that it wasn’t going to be easy taking over the team. 

So she read about leadership. And she read about management. 

And, she was automatically enrolled in the company’s “New Manager Training” course. That was 2 hours every afternoon, for a week.

The training was straight-forward. Managing relationships. Leadership styles. Emotional intelligence. Giving and receiving feedback. Running meetings. And so on.

So, that’s what she did. 

She implemented every piece of advice. 

She held team meetings and tried to build consensus around projects and scheduling. That worked, sort of. It was going well right up until Edward said “Yeah, maybe that’s the right direction. I guess we’ll see.” Her confidence dropped a notch. And, as the meeting was ending, Suzanne said “So, we’re having these meetings every week now? I thought the old schedule was pretty effective.” Another small punch in the gut. 

She also scheduled weekly one-on-one meetings with each team member to go over any issues they were having. Since, until a few weeks ago they had been peers and, in some cases, friends, that was awkward. Some of the people were friendly and supportive. Others were business-like. And that changed from week to week. Amy wasn’t sure if anyone was really sincere. She certainly didn’t know who she could trust. And she didn’t even know if she should try.  

It was scary,  frustrating, and lonely. She was working every night until long after everyone else went home.

When Eleanor, her new boss and Division Head, called her a few weeks later to see how she was doing, Amy put on a smile and said “Great!”. Eleanor was the one who offered Amy this opportunity in the first place. So, she was clearly in Amy’s corner. But that didn’t make her any less blunt. Eleanor continued, “I’m not so sure. We seem to be falling quite a bit behind. If I’m lucky, the reports that used to arrive every Monday morning are now showing up in my inbox by Thursday. Seriously, how’s it going?”

Amy cracked a little, “I’m working hard to develop rapport with the team. Maybe it’s not going so well. I have meetings and schedule one-to-one’s. But there’s a lot of tension from my promotion and I’m having trouble dealing with it.”

Eleanor responded with “Look. I know it’s tough. It’s always going to be tough when you take over a new role. And I’m happy to talk about it further. But here’s one piece of advice. You know how to deliver results. That’s why you earned this opportunity. Just remember that you’re not there to make your team happy. They exist to help you get things done.”

That call with Eleanor didn’t exactly calm her down. Later, as she lay in bed unable to sleep, her gut churning, she thought about what Eleanor said. “They exist to help you get things done.” 

“Damn right,” she thought. “I know what Eleanor needs. I need to stop trying to be a super-leader. That’s not me. Not yet. Just keep it simple. Just get Eleanor what she needs.”

The next day, Amy took a firm step in that direction. No meeting to announce anything. She simply published and shared one document with everyone on the team. It was her own goals. And she labelled it “Here’s what matters.”