In this short video, I share insights about the difference between expectations from a middle manager and a senior manager and how can one navigate this shift in expectations, which at times is extremely difficult.
You get invited to the so called big boys table when you do exceedingly well at your tasks and show the potential to be a good leader. This required you to be able to have exceptional task focus and to a large extent be detail oriented.
However, once you transition to a senior leadership role, the focus needs to shift from tasks and details to relationships and systems and the most difficult part of the role is the constant need to make decisions – small and large, reversible and irreversible and everything in between.
What can help you here is to have pre-defined rules that you can follow. We need to become intentional about what is it that we will not compromise, come what may and what are areas where we are more flexible.
What are areas or what kinds of decisions are we more relaxed about and what area or kinds of decisions are we (for the lack of a better word) adamant about.
And depending upon the change that you see in your organisation, it is better to revisit these rules on a regular basis to update them.
By making these decisions in advance, you can reduce the overall cognitive load on you about making decisions significantly.
If we are able to share this with our teams and the rationale behind them, they can make most of the decisions by themselves, making your teams agile and efficient, while at the same time giving you time and attention to focus on the most important things that you need to focus and work on.
