Moving Into Management Navigating the Neutral Zone Craig Rosenberger Team Leader, Student Systems Administrative Information Services Michigan State University.

Moving Into ManagementNavigating the Neutral Zone

Craig RosenbergerTeam Leader, Student SystemsAdministrative Information ServicesMichigan State University

Today’s Program• Introduction and Background• Change and Transition• Some Thoughts on Management• Questions• A “Bonus Track”

Copyright ©2008 Michigan State University 2

Background

• Technical– Slide Rules, vacuum tubes, discrete

transistors, very early integrated circuits.


Source: Wikimedia Commons



Background



– First computer programs, 1966, IBM 1620, machine code, FORTRAN I, and 1620 Assembler.



Source: Wikimedia Commons• IBM 1620 Model I• About $90,000 (1960’s $$)• 1 Mhz CPU• 20,000 decimal characters magnetic core

memory (40,000 and 60,000 options)• No Operating System• No Printer• All I/O on 80-column punch cards• One program at a time• Debug code using console lights• Music!

• IBM 1311 Disk Storage• About $150,000 (1960’s $$)• 2 MB capacity• Exchangeable “Disk Packs”

(about 10# each)

Background



– First computer programs, 1966, IBM 1620, machine code, FORTRAN I, and 1620 Assembler.

– IBM 360, 1968, 360 Assembler, COBOL.

– Many (many…) years in Mainframe Tech Support.

– Non-Mainframe Technology, 1994.


Background• Management

– Datacenter Manager, Ingham Intermediate School District “Regional Data Processing Center”.

– Manager, Storage and Performance Management, Michigan National Bank.

– Team Leader, AIS Student Academic Records Team.– Team Leader AIS Student Systems Team.


Change and Transition

• William Bridges: “It isn’t the changes that do you in, it’s the transitions.”

• Change is situational.– Responsibilities changing from “technician” to “manager”.

• Transition is psychological.– Letting go of the old.– Moving through the “Neutral Zone”.– Making a new beginning.

7Copyright ©2008 Michigan State University

William Bridges’ Transition Model


The Neutral Zone

• Fuzzy edges.• Irregular, changing shape.• Gray interior.

9

• More than one!• Possible “bad weather”.

Copyright ©2008 Michigan State University

The “Bad Weather”• Grieving.

– Letting go of familiar duties and responsibilities.

• Disorientation.– Out of the old “comfort zone”. It looked so easy from a distance…

• Anxiety, Self-Doubt.– Before: Success achieved through your own efforts.– Now: Success achieved through the work of others.

• Weaknesses emerge.– Exercising new “muscles”.

• Overload.– Planning, coaching, counseling, assigning, hiring, evaluating…!


• You’re starting a new job.• Keep perspective and a sense of and humor

“If you look at highly successful people, they make the same number of mistakes as others, but they recover quickly. They don’t sit around moaning about what they’ve done wrong.”

Jim McCann, CEO, 1-800-Flowers.com

Surviving the Zone


Surviving the Zone• Take care of yourself! Keep life in balance.• Commit to the change, but give yourself time to adjust and

learn.• Recruit mentors and a support system.• Apply the skills that got you this promotion to mastering your

new responsibilities.• Actively seek education to develop key skills:

– Coping with stress.– Communications.– Supervision.– Sales.

• Get involved, but start gradually.


Surviving the Zone• Accept ambiguity.• Accept that you’ll be tested.• Accept that relationships will change. • Let go of past responsibilities.

– Yes, that means the technical detail.• You’re not alone in the Zone!

– Your team is in there with you.– Your management is in there with you.– Your family and friends are there, too!

• Are we creating a supportive, “risk friendly” environment for new managers?


Leaving the Zone

• “Your mileage may vary...”– Gradual change.– A ‘key event” occurs.

• “Ownership” replaces “Stewardship”.• “Comfortable in your own shoes”.


Before I step into the swamp…


It’s About the People!• Technology is complex, but almost always rational, logical, predictable, controllable, understandable. It’s neat and orderly.• Human behavior is even more complex, and very often irrational, illogical, unpredictable, barely controllable, difficult to understand. That’s what makes it interesting.• To be an effective manager, I believe you must genuinely like people.• As a manager, you will have significant and lasting impact on people’s lives.


Management Statement

• Be intentional. Think about the kind of manager and leader you want to be. Develop a written Management Statement.

• Establish clear, achievable expectations for yourself and your team.

• Idea: Think in terms of behaviors that are driven by your core beliefs.– For example: “Because I believe that people want to do

their jobs well and be successful, I will treat honest mistakes as learning experiences.


Management Statement• “The Basic Principles”– Focus on the situation, issue, or behavior, not on the

person.– Maintain the self-confidence and self-esteem of

others.– Maintain constructive relationships with your team,

peers, managers, customers, and suppliers.– Take initiative to make things better.– Lead by example.

Source: Adapted from the Zenger-Miller “Frontline Leadership” Program


Management Statement• Reflect what you want your team environment to be. Some

suggestions:– Calm.– Open and accessible.– Respectful.– Truthful.– Insist on ethical behavior.– Good, positive communication.– See the whole person in everyone.– Sensitive to individual needs.– Promote personal growth.– Promote work/personal life balance.– Revel in success!


Management Statement• Reflect who you want to be as a manager. Some ideas:

– “You only succeed when they do”.– Be the manager you always wanted to have.– Acknowledge your “learning experiences”.– Back your team up.– Observe the Golden Rule.– Don’t micro-manage.– Keep your promises.– Advertise other people’s success.– Distribute credit freely.– Be aware of generational differences.


Management Statement• Make a commitment! Write your Management

Statement down and share it with your team and your management!


Closing Thoughts


“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”

Jack Welch, retired CEO, General Electric Corporation

“I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.”

Everett Dirksen (1896-1969), former US Senator

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”Stephen Covey

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.

Peter Drucker

Suggested Reading• Managing Transitions, William Bridges

• Our Iceberg Is Melting, John Kotter, Holger Rathgeber

• The 360 Degree Leader, John C. Maxwell

• When Fish Fly, John Yokoyama, Joseph Mitchell

• The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book, Travis Bradberry, Jean Greaves

• Leading With Soul, Lee Bolman, Terrance Deal

• Leadership Is An Art, Max De Pree

• The Servant Leader, James Autry

• The Art of Possibility, Rosamund Stone Zander, Benjamin Zander


Questions?


Craig RosenbergerTeam Leader, Student SystemsAdministrative Information ServicesMichigan State [email protected]



Moving Into Management Navigating the Neutral Zone Craig Rosenberger Team Leader, Student Systems Administrative Information Services Michigan State University.

Documents

michigan national bank

background change

bonus track copyright

discrete transistors

vacuum tubes

wikimedia commons ibm

early integrated circuits

old comfort zone