Management, A Man and His Bicycle

Team celebrating victory in an office — Photo by **Andrea Piacquadio** from **Pexels**

What Does Victory Look Like?

Our management recently asked us what we think victory looks like for our teams as well as for our department as a whole. The request was to support a wider briefing to upper management on last year’s performance as well as planning for the coming year, including addressing upcoming challenges. Instead of focusing on specific deliverables and project milestones, I decided to respond in broader generic terms of how I define ‘victory’, since I believe the details like meeting or exceeding milestones are a natural result of accomplishing the vision of what victory looks like.

Each of the supervisors in our department shared their ‘defining victory’ responses with the others and the department manager, since that fosters collaboration and helps spark additional insights that we otherwise might not have considered. Based on the positive feedback I received from my colleagues, I figured it might be useful to share some of my thoughts with a broader audience, since I think these can apply to just about any team in a business environment.

Defining Victory: My Team

We consistently meet or exceed our schedule (and budget), demonstrating technical excellence and delivering high quality products while living the company’s core values; we adapt quickly and effectively to address challenges and changing conditions
Team members feel pride in accomplishment and fulfillment in their work / career; we work hard, but have fun doing it
Our customers have deep trust in our ability
Our work pipeline remains full
Team members have mutual respect and trust, while also holding each other accountable
All team members consistently demonstrate proactive initiative and extreme ownership (employee pull, vs. supervisor push)
Our products meet or exceed expectations throughout manufacturing, test, and deployment

Defining Victory: Overall Department

Cross-functional collaboration
Working towards a common purpose as a single team

Obviously there is more to defining victory than this handful of thoughts, but I believe these points are critical to long-term success.

How do you define victory? What does success look like for your team? Visualizing it, putting it into words, writing it down, and sharing it help develop alignment throughout the organization, as well as improve the odds for achieving victory.

Disclaimer: These opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer.

Why do all the other managers seem to know what to do and how to do it all the time, when I don’t? That was the question I asked myself repeatedly when I accepted my first management position in late 2015.

Honestly, I struggled with the decision to even apply for the position (not only was it my first management job, the project we were tackling was in rough shape). After I got the job, I wondered why everyone but me always had all the answers. I felt overwhelmed and inadequate, lacking in confidence.

After probably several months, I came to a critical realization. All those other managers, at all levels of the organization – they don’t always have all the answers! Often they just had more experience in handling the ambiguous situations, decision making, and leadership than I did. And sometimes I think they were just winging it.

This realization has made the job much easier for me, on two levels. First, I stopped being so hard on myself, like there was something wrong with me – it reduced my personal stress level. Second, it gave me a better perspective on the behaviors and decisions that other managers were making. Some are certainly better at management and leadership than others, for sure, but now I could see other managers as ordinary people, just like me. I became less intimidated by management.

If, like I did, you struggle with confidence as a new manager, consider that you’re not alone. You’re not the only one who feels that way. And managers are not all-knowing. There is a good chance that they may be struggling also – their job might be much harder for them than it appears. Learn from them and how they solve problems, make decisions, and lead, but remember they are just like you.

Category: Management

Defining Victory

What Does Victory Look Like?

Defining Victory: My Team

Defining Victory: Overall Department

Managers Don’t Have All the Answers All the Time