The Magic Process Of Becoming A People Leader

Let’s talk about the magic process of becoming a people leader today, shall we? Because there is many bosses out there, but in my opinion not as many true leader. So, what’s the difference? Well, let me share my thoughts and you’ll be the judge.

And a spoiler upfront – if you are willing to put in the work, the result can be truly amazing, maybe even magic. But if you expected this to be a simple magic trick or thought it comes automatically with a promotion, you could not be more wrong.

I am working in Corporate and that definitely has advantages and disadvantages. I have worked in many start-up companies as well and what I am talking about today, is definitely not unique to Corporate at all. Corporate is just so much bigger, that you might encounter it more often. Which might create the impression of this being a Corporate “issue”. It’s not.

Becoming a “boss” usually happens through a promotion or because one applied to a position and landed the spot. But let me be very clear, in my opinion, you can’t be promoted into being a people leader. Having been promoted into a role, that includes leading a team, does not make you that teams leader. Not by a long shot.

And the same applies, when you are applying to a role, that has people report into it. This is purely a reflection of an organizational chart. The company’s official reporting lines.

It was hard work to get that promotion? Well, the real work begins now. For those of us, who do not want to do reporting line maintenance (aka being bosses), but want to become people leader.

I always have to smile, when I am hearing about roles that require experience in “leading without authority”. What it means is, you are leading people that do not have a (solid) reporting line to you. They are not your “Direct Reports” in the company hierarchy. Vendor Management usually has this requirement. If you are looking at it from a hierarchical perspective, this seems to be logical, or does it?

I think, there is absolutely no leadership without authority. But the misunderstanding is, that the authority does not come from a direct reporting line, a title you are holding or your position in the company, at all. You have to be authorized to lead – by the people you are attempting to lead.

Uh? Let that sink in! The people, who are making the decision about your promotion, are not the ones making the decision whether you are a) actually having the capacity to be a leader and b) will be authorized (or accepted0 to lead the team assigned to you.

They probably made the decision based on results you have delivered in your previous role. Or if you applied from external, based on your previous work experience and references. An interesting approach, that I have seen backfire over and over again. No, not everyone that has been delivering great results is necessarily a boss rather than a leader. Of course not!

However many great leader are overlooked as leadership skills have not been part of the selection process. Senior leader would look at results vs. looking at how these hidden leader have been able to collaborate, drive collaboration, lead projects with no issues or dropped balls. How they might not have the top results, because they made it a point to take the rest of the team with them and look out for their colleagues, so that the team result would be great.

They might not be the star of the department, but they might, maybe in the absence of a leader managing the team, be the hidden leader holding the team together or making a team out of a group of individuals.

I have worked in the BPO environment for quite some time. Now I am working with BPOs for our outsourced servicing. I have seen the above happen over and over again, when CCPs (Customer Care Professionals) or Agents are landing Team Leader or Supervisor roles.

Actually I even experienced it myself over 20 years ago. Back then I was working as an Agent in a BPO, servicing customers of a Pay TV provider in Germany. I did a great job. I had good results and the client liked that a lot. Which in return the leadership team liked as it secured the clients loyalty to them. So I got promoted to Team Lead.

Don’t get me wrong, I was a great Agent. I was no Team Leader at all. I was focused on achieving our goals. That is what I cared for. I knew how to do it, I had done it myself. So I really did not understand those Agents, who did not do it the same way.

But, that did not lead to me losing that position, as true leadership was not, what bosses in the Customer Service BPO environment usually look for. They are usually more looking for someone, that is pushing for results. I definitely did that. I definitely did not create a great work environment, provide the framework and support to be successful or anything like that.

Many, many years later, I realized that I was merely a boss back then. And I did a lot of the things I so genuinely disliked from bosses I have worked for. And I definitely met many bosses. It took me a long time to understand that and also, why I was still following those. Check-out what I learned about myself here .

So when I became a people leader, after I moved to New York and started my new role with American Express, I did not have a master plan. But I knew, I wanted to be a different kind of leader, than the bosses I had experienced.

And this is the first step, when you are aspiring to be a people leader. You need to understand, who you are. As person, as an employee and as a potential leader. Who are you? What’s your preferred leadership style and why? You have hopefully experienced leader that can be role models. Or you have at least experienced bosses that are not. Learn from both and build your leader identity.

The next step in the magic process of becoming a people leader is, you need to partly forget your preferred leadership style. Say what? Well, it will remain your preferred style. But unless you are leading yourself, you need to most importantly understand, the leadership style, each member in your team needs. You have 4 team members? You might need 4 different variations of your preferred leadership style.

No, I don’t mean for you to give up your identity. But you will have to adjust. I am i.e. German and I prefer straight forward, super direct and clear feedback (positive! as negative). Being honest and direct with feedback but then also forgetting about, what went wrong, is one of my preferred leadership attributes. But, not everyone is comfortable with this style. Not right away, anyways. So you need to get to know the team you are attempting to lead and adjust your style accordingly. Why?

Because you can only lead with their authority. And believe me when I am saying, trust is the stepping stone on the way to receiving this authority. And it’s a step you can’t skip or bypass. Telling someone they can trust you, does not make them do it. You need to prove your worth, first.

Trust is like a house. You need to build it up from the ground, step by step. Carefully and thoroughly. And just like a house, it will only sustain strong winds (aka challenging situations), if you have worked diligently and also done proper maintenance.

I once took over a team, because my Director peer left the company on a short notice. We had worked in partnership before, but we did not know each other well. I asked my peer and friend for all the things I needed to know about them. And then I actually put in the work and got to know them. There was one colleague, that was very introvert. She was super shy and an expert in the process she was managing. However she was not an expert managing a vendor to run the process for her.

I cared for her, as I did for all my team members. And I saw her work so hard, to make sure the vendor did things the right way. However she was used to managing in-house processes and not as used to holding people (especially vendor) accountable for mistakes they made. She would take the blame and try to make good on it.

We had a situation where the vendor made a huge mistake and she worked tirelessly to resolve the problem for them. She was completely overworked and shortly before crashing. I had to do something. I knew, she would only be able to overcome her “friendliness” towards the partner and take a tougher approach, when I managed to get her angry.

So I did something, I knew she as an introvert would not like. I gave her very direct and clear feedback on the shortcomings, that had happened and the bad situation it had put us in. Told her, that this was a really bad spot for us to be in and our reputation in the company was at stake. I scared her. She turned quiet and felt like I was going to throw her under the bus. And that finally made her angry. She told me, she was not used to such a direct approach and did not feel comfortable with it.

And that was my very first success in becoming her leader. She opened up about her preferred style of being led. And she then went on to let me know, she did not make the mistake here. That she had been working tirelessly to resolve the mistake.

And that was my cue, right there. I thanked her for her openness, especially about my direct approach and also about her situation. Then I told her, that I was absolutely aware, how hard she was working and that she was such a fantastic project manager. That I cared for her a lot and could see, she was about to crash as she was taking responsibility for something, that she could not possibly have avoided or done differently.

It surprised her, a lot. After my direct feedback she had expected for this to end completely differently. Instead I told her, we needed to work together, to hold the people, who should have known better, accountable. That she needed to learn, to hold others accountable for their mistakes instead of trying to resolve them all by herself. And that I was there purely to help her with that.

Of course I saw that she was struggling. But instead of only caring for the impact of her struggles on our goals, I actually cared about her struggles and how overwhelmed she felt. I knew she wasn’t struggling “on purpose”. She struggled, because managing a vendor was new for her. Holding people accountable, instead of just taking over their job, too.

As a boss, I would probably have taken over. I felt strongly, that understanding her struggles and most importantly helping her understand them, would be the better way. Had I taken over, she would have given up. Instead she started trusting me and our collaboration was even better afterwards.

You do not care as much for people (yes, people in general, not just specific persons), don’t bother “leading” people. It will not work. You can’t fake care. You can’t talk about “caring” if you are not also walking the walk. It’s uncomfortable at times. It’s painful, as you will see people suffer and care for helping them. Even when your ability to help will be limited. However, if you do not care for anything, but your results, you can at best be a boss. Someone that was promoted in the next hierarchical position. Not more.

They say, great leader do not create followers, but leader. I agree. Partly. It’s not about “follower-ship”. Great leader do know every individual they are leading well enough, to understand if they want to be a leader themselves or if, at this point in time, they prefer to do a great job as an individual contributor. And a great leader will value both – the Rockstars and the Superstars. And know how to develop them individually. Rockstars and Superstars? Check-out what I am talking about here.

I found my understanding of Rockstars and Superstars after I read one of my most favorite leadership books. If you are interested, you can find it here on Amazon. I am sure your favorite book store will carry it as well (I am not paid for sharing this link!).

Most importantly, as a leader you have enough self-awareness to understand (really understand), you do not know it all and definitely not always better. You are surrounding yourself with people, that know many things much better than you do. Because you have understood your job is not to tell them, how to do their job. Your job is, to provide the environment, help them develop, grow and thrive. And to simply have their back, whatever happens. Including and especially, if they make mistakes.

So when you get promoted or are applying for a role, that includes leading a team, enjoy the ride. Enjoy the magic process of becoming a people leader. Remember, it’s not a reward. It’s a price you have to set your mind on winning and then put in the hard work of building the trust and earning it.

And never stop caring!