Transitioning from Individual Contributor to Manager

Transitioning from Individual Contributor to Manager, Enables an individual to perform all Manager’s tasks well.

You have been working as an Individual Contributor till now but now you have moved on to become a people manager. A manager is not only responsible for managing his own work but also managing the work, performance, motivation levels, and overall success of his team as well. This is where the basic difference in attitude, skills sets, and functions to be performed between an Individual Contributor and a Manager comes in. A Manager will need to perform the following and develop some skills to become successful as a Manager than when he was working as an Individual Contributor:

The expectation of Team from Manager

Communication

Body Language Skills

Role Model & Motivation

To ensure optimum use of existing team members.  To assess the performance level of each team member. To determine the level of development and training required by each member of the team. To provide control measures to ensure that required organizational goals are met.

Managers must strive to improve relationships between their team members as:

•It helps to retain valued employees

•It helps to create an environment in each employee contributes all his talents and skills to the success of organizational goals

•It helps to create a highly motivated workforce

Every individual is hungry for recognition. A manager needs to acknowledge the hard work of employees and appreciate them in front of others. This way, employees feel motivated to deliver better results and also feel attached to the organization. Give them their due credit.

Every employee expects his/her manager to be polite with him/her. Never shout at your team members. Being a manager does not give you the authority to be rude to your subordinates. Lend a sympathetic ear to their problems and help them whenever possible.

Employees expect their managers to act as a strong pillar of support for them. As a manager, you need to stand by your team members under all circumstances. Motivate them to come up with innovative ideas and improvement solutions. You need to be a strong leader who is capable of providing direction to your team members.