Unlike middle management where a promotion usually means managing more of what you already know, in senior management you are increasingly operating from outside of your comfort zone.
You are often involved in things that are not within your area of technical expertise.
There is also less time to get into the details, so decisions are commonly made based on summarised information.
To succeed at this level, you need to become more comfortable with picking your battles and embracing imperfection.
But it's a worthwhile thing to do.
As you are building your own confidence, you are empowering your people rather than micromanaging them, which builds their capabilities and increases the organisation’s chances of success.
By making others look good, you look good, too. It’s really a win-win.
And you don’t need to wait for a promotion to the executive level to start working in this way. You can start today by finding ways to step outside of your comfort zone.
Here are two things you can try.
If you tend to micromanage but want to be a better leader, try gradually turning your focus from directing your team to enabling their success.
Start by making sure everyone is clear on what really matters in their roles and that they have a roadmap for achieving these things. Work with your team to develop a business plan with objectives, key actions, timelines and measures of success for the year.
Agree on a check-in frequency with your team members. Resist the urge to ask about progress before the due date or the date of the next check-in meeting. At the meeting, let your team drive the agenda and brief you, instead of grilling them on progress and taking over the conversation.
Build mutual trust with your team by prioritising organisation over chaos, clarity over ambiguity and simplicity over complexity, whenever possible.
Work on projecting calm, resilience and resourcefulness, instead of doubt and frustration.
After all, isn’t that what you would expect from your own boss?
If you have a fear of the unknown but hope to progress through the ranks, put yourself in new environments or situations, within the safety of your own organisation.
Join a cross-divisional governance committee or working group that deals with topics you’re not very familiar with.
We all have something to bring to the table and it’s not always important to have in-depth expertise. As an external facilitator, I am happy to be the self-proclaimed ‘dummy in the room’ since it encourages my workshop participants to try to communicate things in a simpler, non-technical way.
Maybe you could be that sounding board for the other group members - the common sense person rather than the subject matter expert.
Being part of such a group will also expose you to how group decisions are made, how formal consultation processes work and how to work with stakeholders with different agendas and interests.
Another thing you could do is temporarily change reporting lines or your physical environment. You could apply for a secondment in another division or, if you’re in an internal service role, work from the client’s site once a week. This will help you establish new relationships and improve your adaptability. (Plus, it may give you access to new gossip. Win-win!)
I hope this is helpful.