Young and Leading

March 16, 2006 11:29 AM

I have been promoted within my company to run customer service. I have worked here for two years and have divided myself between customer service and operations. I am now going to be a leader in a department where I have been a near equal among my coworkers. Any tips on making this transition? Another challenge is that I am 24 and happen to be half as old of the people that I will be leading. Any adivce on how to make my mark as a leader and not allow age to get in the way. I'd like to hear from young leaders as well as anyone who has had experience with a younger boss. Thanks for your input!
posted by ieatwords to Work & Money (13 answers total)

Depending on how mature you are (and not just how old you are), you need to be able to clearly seperate the personal from the professional. This comes into play when you're trying to manage people who are your age or older, whom you've shared an equal status with. Ideally there's already some kind of mutual respect going on between you and your co-workers. If not, making the distinction, if only in your mind, is even more important to respond to someone who questions your authority. If you can back it up with a professionally sound reason for making the decisions that you do, it doesn't matter if they have something against you personally. This isn't personal.

(This is from 4 years of a similar situation. I was 18. Good luck! They hired you over everyone else for a reason.)
posted by margaretlam at 11:53 AM on March 16, 2006

There are going to be people who simply will not accept your authority. Don't waste too much time trying to "convince" them that you're good enough-- going to a superior is not a failure. My experience supervising people much older than me in a few different environments made me realize that no matter what I did, some people just wouldn't comply.
posted by miss tea at 12:09 PM on March 16, 2006

Been there.

margaretlam gave some great advice, and I'll just add one thing to it: You have to earn it every day. You want their respect, you want them to follow you, to listen to you, to do what you need them to do, and you have to earn it every single day. You can't rest and say, "well, when I was in your position, I..." You have to show that, even at your age, you deserve to be where you are. (And while I mention your age in that last part, I think this is true of all leaders, at all stages of their career.)
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 12:09 PM on March 16, 2006

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got in making the transition from "one of the guys" to "the guys' manager," was to hold a meeting(s) right up front that just lays everything on the table in plain English. "My job has changed. I am now your supervisor. That means my focus and our professional relationship has changed. My job is to lead this department and reach XYZ goals. Here's how I'm going to be doing that. Here's how you fit into these plans. Here's the reward we get for reaching XYZ goals."

This isn't a gorilla pounding on the chest "Me leader" kind of meeting. It's just a professional appraisal of the landscape that provides people with a level of certainty -- they now know what to expect when they deal with you.

You need to do this right away -- like Day One.

Re: the age thing ... another tactic that worked for me was to again admit everything right up front. "I don't have all the answers. You guys have tons of experience. We will need to rely on that experience, just like a young Army lieutenant needs to rely on the experience of his veteran sergeant. I need to give you the tools to do your job, then get out of your way and let you do it like you already know how to do. But I am the supervisor -- I am ultimately responsible for the team's performance."
posted by frogan at 12:20 PM on March 16, 2006

The only advice I can give is the same advice my mentor gave me when I was shoved in a similar situation.

There is only one rule you need to follow to be successful in managing other people: Look out for your guys.

Everything flows from this basic idea. You take care of your people, go out of your way for them everyday. Shield them from as much corporate/business stupidity as possible. Even the people who initially didn't give you the time of day will usually come around. When your guys see you busting your ass for them every day you come in they will make you successful.

The rest of it you just make up as you go along.

so far it's worked flawlessly for me

On preview what NotMyselfRightNow said is right on the money.
posted by ordu at 12:22 PM on March 16, 2006

Act like you know what you are doing. Really, that's it.
posted by Ironmouth at 12:37 PM on March 16, 2006

Okay, Upper Management 101.

1) Managing up and managing down

There are two distinct parts of managing a group of people in an organization.

The first is generally called "Managing up" and covers your relationship with your boss -- that includes things like your group's reputation in the company, budget concerns, and in general anything that will cause your the rest of the company to notice that your group exists in anything other than a positive context. This is also where and how you can make your mark as a leader.

"Managing down" includes your employees and everything having to do with them. This is where transitioning can make things tricky (but not as tricky as you might think).

(hardEarnedExperience)
To be effective in the long term you will have to both of these. I personally find "Managing up" to be much harder as there's a part of me that believes that if I just manage my employees well then the rest of the company will take notice. Unfortunately that's not the way it works. Your group has a reputation, make sure you manage it.
(/HardEarnedExperience)

2) Managing employees

First and foremost, respect. Your relative ages won't matter that much if you are scrupulously respectful of your employees. That means asking for opinions from people (particularly the older ones) and giving them consideration even if you eventually decide otherwise. I've managed people twice my age and definitely found that the older people get, the more important respect is.

3) Employees who get it, and those who don't.

There are two broad classes of employees, those who get it and those who don't.

Employees who get it are the ones who understand that you are just another human being, (hopefully) doing your best to balance the needs of the employees against the needs of the company. Older employees often (but not always) fall into this category, which is another reason they're easier to manage. You won't have transition issues with employees who get it, because they will likely continue to view you as a coworker, albeit one with different responsibilities.

Employees who don't get it are ones who have a whole mythology built up around bosses. People who used to bitch TO you about the chronic incompetence of management will now be bitching ABOUT you. A surprising number of people will want you to act the parent -- resolve squabbles between themselves and coworkers, kiss booboos, and provide sage advice on things you know nothing about.

For the employees who get it, management is about providing air support. Basically just stay the hell out of their way, and only get involved when absolutely necessary. Make sure they don't feel ignored, but that can be as simple as dropping by their office every few days and asking if they need anything.

For employees who don't get it... well, that's where the fun is. Your working relationship will be drastically altered with them, and on average if you show any signs that you are not the daddy-god-boss they want, they will be unhappy. These folks want to hear that you know what's going on and that you're in control. Let them know that you are, and provide them the comfortable illusion that the upper management of the company knows exactly what it is doing, even if you know better.

(PersonalNote)
Maintaining a balance between respecting your employees and misleading them is extremely difficult, and is the reason I'm no longer in management. I'd rather be respectful of people than be an effective manager.
(/PersonalNote)

Your hardest employees are going to be the ones who are much older than you, but also expect you to be a daddy-god-boss. I have no general advice for dealing with those -- you'll have to handle those case by case.

Last but not least I leave you with the words that my father (an experienced upper management type) gave me when I first became a manager: "People are always going to be bitching, because that's what people do. The best you can hope for is to influence what they're bitching about, and to make sure it's not you."
posted by tkolar at 12:42 PM on March 16, 2006

You will avoid 70% of the possible problems by watching your language and avoiding "youthful" slang - which is to say, vocabulary which levels the playing field in a colloquial way. Don't call anybody "dude." Don't ever say "whatever." You may feel you are speaking a stilted language, but older workers will immediately recognize that you are trying to give them some respect, and will treat you as an equal. Otherwise they will go home after some minor conflict and fume about being told "OK, dude, whatever!..."

Been there, done that, and now I'm 50....
posted by zaelic at 12:44 PM on March 16, 2006

I'm going through the same thing right now and find myself managing folks who have worked in our library longer than I've been alive.

The best way to get the department to listen is by actions. Start proving why you were selected to be the boss (hopefuly you're not some senior partner's boytoy) by getting stuff done. Have there been any little gripes that bugged you all when you were together in the trenches? Fix them. One of the best things I've done to show I'm in charge and earn respect was to swap out an annoying to use cashbox for a new one. It cost my budget all of thirty bucks and would have been a steal at ten times the price.

People may still come to you with petty gripes and general kvetching like they once did when you were peers. Listen to them, then when they're done ask what would fix the problem. If it's doable, fix it. Over time even the older folks who may not respect now as much as you'd like will see you as a guy who gets things done. Once that happens, you've got'em.

Your job is to make sure that your team can do its job. This means that you may have to dive infront of middle management to stop crazy ideas from rolling down the hill towards your group. It may mean that you will have to deal with problem employees. Whatever you do, make sure that it's clear to all that you're there to fix things, not just meddle of meddling's sake.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 12:47 PM on March 16, 2006

When friends of mine have had younger bosses, one thing that drove them crazy was when the bosses didn't recognize, respect, and value the experience that they (my friends) brought to the workplace. Meaning they (the bosses) were too busy trying to prove that they were The Man, and failed to listen to input and or ask questions about things that they didn't know the answers to. These bosses were referred to as "punks."

Other bosses, regardless of age, who did recognize the experience and knowledge of their team, and who would recognize the limits of their own knowledge and ask for input when needed, weren't referred to as anything. They were just felt to be good bosses.
posted by tentacle at 2:22 PM on March 16, 2006

If you've never had any supervisory or management training, at least get some business books, and read them, as a formal exercise. At a minimum, you should understand the 5 functions of management, and how first line supervisors in your organization participate (or don't) in each of them, and how higher management levels operate within the organizational hierarchy. As a new supervisor, you should also know and understand your company's policy and HR manuals, cold. If you don't, study them until you do. Become self-critical about what you say to employees, and don't make broad statements or unqualified promises to employees that you may not be able to fulfill. Ask policy questions of HR, but do your best to take the answers back to the employees yourself, even if the answers are not easy to deliver, or what the employee expects.

Usually, as first line supervisor, you will spend more time coordinating and directing than anything else. You may do little long range planning, and your contribution to the controlling function may be limited to providing daily or weekly service level reports to upper management or doing some basic accounting work for your department. But what you do in each of these overall management areas is important to the success of the company, and you will, I think, find it helpful to have a theoretical understanding of these topics to guide your practical activities in daily work.

Your upper management probably does the major planning for your company, but you may still need to do weekly or monthly plans to layout activities you need to accomplish in project based functions. That brings up another topic you need to be familiar with, and know what your companies view of itself is, which is whether your company is seen by its leadership as a project based organization, or a functionally organized operation. Understanding the underlying philosophy of the leadership of the business is crucial to being successful in fulfilling the expectations of your management, and if they see you, as a young leader, putting forth effort to understand what their process is, they'll have greater confidence and respect in your decision making and judgement.

As a first line supervisor, you're in the position of making or breaking your company with customers, employees and vendors, more than you may expect. You are not "where the buck stops," but you should be stopping most "bucks," proactively, that are coming your way. Doing this smoothly and gracefully, with appropriate sensistivity to personnel and policy issues, and with a clear understanding of the limits of your responsibility and authority, are the keys to being successful as a supervisor.
posted by paulsc at 2:49 PM on March 16, 2006

I've had or witnessed managers in similar situations make the fatal mistake of believing that the way to show their authority during a crisis was to resort to threats, blaming, yelling, even full-out tantrums in order to facilitiate results. Losing your cool like that is never particularly effective, but especially for a new/young manager with employees significantly older, it makes that manager look positively weak -- weak because he/she is demonstrating that he/she doesn't actually have the maturity to be in charge, nor the leadership and problem-solving skills to draw on during crunch time.
posted by scody at 3:56 PM on March 16, 2006

And when you're done absorbing all that great advice above, watch this very enjoyable light comedy about a young guy newly hired to shake things up in an office where everyone is much older. It will also tell you lots of things not to do. And it's got a good soundtrack too.
posted by extrabox at 7:53 PM on March 16, 2006