The traps of first-time leaders and how to avoid them

If you have recently been promoted to a team manager – or a team leader – for the first time, congratulations. It is quite a privilege to be one.

When you are a team lead for the first time, there is a lot to learn (which is why this website exists!). In this post, we would like to spotlight certain three traps that first time leaders may fall into. And suggest how you can avoid them.

You don’t need to do everything yourself

We wrote a post about effective delegation some time ago (you can read it here).

Howerver, there is a certain trap that first time leaders may fall into related to delegation – or its lack of.

Before your promotion, you were expected to carry out the tasks or assignments given to you.

Now that you are a team leader, you need to learn to stop doing everything for your team. It’s time to swap the responsibilities.

What does it mean? It means you may hesitate to ask your (new) team members to own tasks and actions. And you may feel convinced that you will do them better or faster. Therefore, you will need to learn to let go of controlling how things are done.

The shift to ‘being in charge’ from ‘being the doer’ can be tricky. So how can you help yourself and the team?

• You need to be deliberate with setting ways that works for you to enforce the change in responsibilities. For example, you can make it a rule for yourself that you always outline to your team what needs to be done, and ask who can pick up which tasks.
• Ask your own manager how they navigate delegation and don’t take on too much. This may be an opportunity for a conversation about how your manager can support you, or maybe they need to delegate some tasks to you!
• You can try being honest about the need to change the mindset, and that you need the team’s help to do so. For example, you can ask your team to point out when you are taking on tasks that they can do.

You don’t need to look over everyone’s shoulder

We all know micromanaging is bad. And yet, this is often the trap that first time leaders fall into. Why is that?

Mainly because they feel that checking and double-checking on the progress of a task shows that they are good at managing their team. New team leaders may think that by not knowing every detail they will come across as not doing good enough job themselves.

It is not easy to step away and let the team do their jobs without looking over their shoulders. Especially if not so long ago you were doing the same tasks yourself. So how can you help yourself in your new role?

• It helps to explain to the team your role has changed, and this means that your focus is less on doing the things you used to do. The team is likely to welcome hearing this from you.

• To help minimise the urge to micromanage (even unintentionally), set the expectations with the team on how you are going to keep them accountable for the things you ask them to do. This helps with setting parameters on what good looks like, on due dates and frequency on checks, on support methods etc. And minimises the urge to either do the task yourself, or perform countless checks. (we wrote a post about keeping your team accountable – have a look)

Photo by Richard Ciraulo on Unsplash

Don’t forget to give credit to the team

First-time team leads may fall into the trap of wanting to look good in front of their bosses.

While the team has done the job, it’s the team lead who presents the findings to e.g. senior leaders, and takes the credit for the work.

Remember last time someone took credit for your work? It wasn’t a great feeling, wasn’t it?

It’s not just first-time leaders who do that, in fairness. Managers at all levels take the credit of others’ work, whether deliberately or not.

What can you do to avoid it?

• Make sure that the name of the person who produced a document is on the document.
• Practice using inclusive language. This means deliberately naming collaborators and contributors to the delivered work.
• Intentionally check your assumptions on who created a plan, authored a document, or provided the essential data that made all the difference etc. Sometimes it’s the quiet person in the room that needs the spotlight.

I personally love giving credit to the team members who came up with an idea or did the work. It simply makes me happy to shine the light on them.

---

Settling in the role of a team leader for the first time takes time and patience. Can you think of other traps that new team leaders may fall into, and how they can be prepared for them? Let us know in the comments!

Feature image: Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash