The truth is that while having more responsibility means getting more rewards, it also can be scary and stressful. There are a few things that you should remember when you're expected to manage others:
1. Their mistakes are your mistakes
When the people you are responsible for miss things it's your responsibility to be right behind them fixing them. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't rely on them to get things done, but you need to be able to train them well enough that you can expect a high quality of work out of them. You need to be a great teacher and a great mentor because if you aren't there to help them then you can't fault them for making mistakes and those mistakes don't reflect on them, they reflect on you.
2. You need to be available to your people
Remember when you could just glide through your work days without being bothered? Well now you need to spend your time getting your work done and managing others. This includes helping them when they have questions, teaching them things and staying on top of them to make sure that you're getting deadlines met. Luckily for me, I really enjoy teaching and mentoring. It's very rewarding and once you teach them things it takes a load off of you!
3. You need to pick up their slack
Guess what, if the person who works for you doesn't deliver then your deadline doesn't change. You still need to get your product in on time so that can mean doing the persons work for them. Of course, this isn't ideal and doesn't show signs of a good employee but guess what, the person you work for won't want to hear excuses as to why something isn't done. You still have someone to answer to so when worst comes to worse you'll need to pick up the slack.
4. You need to be their friend, but also their boss
Okay, so not everyone will feel the need to stress the friendship part but let's face it, I'm no CEO, I really have no need to spend my time worrying about my work/personal life divide. I have no problem with being friendly with my co-workers. I also work from home, as do all of my other co-workers, so we really don't have to worry about crossing any boundaries. The point is that you should make your employee feel comfortable with you but remember that they work for you. You need to be able to reprimand them if needed or tell them if their work isn't up to par.
5. Don't be afraid to get anyone in trouble
If your employee isn't working out for you and you can't seem to get across to them then you need to tell the next person up from you. Sure, you may be worried about getting them fired and that feeling is understandable but if they don't deliver then you can't deliver and their work will affect your work.
Most of all, you should enjoy the added responsibility. It means you're doing something right!
From the desk of:
Taylor Brown
Semi-Responsible, Still Low on the Food Chain
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