Making the move from team member to team leader can be tough. But making the move from team leader to leading leaders is even tougher.
When you lead a team, you are still part of the team, you can still get involved hands-on and steer the tasks, or help do the work.
Yet when you move to leading leaders it’s different, you’re not in the role because of your technical experience, you’re their to enable those leaders, to influence them, to support them in their leadership roles.
Many struggle with the step up because they still want to be involved hands on. They want to be a hero, helping drive the success.
The challenge is, that in this role it’s your job to create more heroes, to enable them, to help others be successful. That’s your contribution!
When you try to get involved hands-on it can undermine the teams confidence, it can actually dis-enable them, it can make them dependent.
But when you make a team dependent on you, then you need to be involved and you become a limit to what you achieve as you can only be involved in so much.
When you create independent teams, teams that be successful without you, then your role becomes creating visions, setting direction, providing support and giving recognition. When you can do that there is no limit to how much you can achieve. Not only have you created enabled teams, but you have also enabled yourself.
But it requires you to give up some control. It requires you to give up wanting to be the hero, but being comfortable creating new heroes and giving them the spotlight.