For a lot of people, the idea of their boss taking another job can be grounds for celebration; the mean old ogre is finally going to live in a new forest. In my case, it’s a different story entirely. Today being Wednesday, my current boss’s two week notice comes to a close the day after tomorrow and I’m a little uneasy about it. Mostly, I’m upset because this is the second time in my life that this person has been my boss and both stops have been both challenging and fulfilling.
In total, we’re talking about just a little less than nine years that she and I have worked with one another. I am happy for her and a little sad for me. But alas, the work must continue to get done. Since we’re losing a leader and I am the next most senior person on the team, in a mere 48 hours it will be my job to make sure that the work does in fact continue to get done. For two weeks now, I’ve done quite a bit of thinking about what this means. Here’s a brief set of suggestions that may serve as a survival guide should you unexpectedly find yourself promoted from first mate to captain.
The emotional jolts continue to be daunting at times. But, emotions are temporary. At least they should be for most of us. I didn’t actually learn this life lesson until I was in my 30s and I really wish someone would have taught me that when I was a teenager. Nevertheless, I’ve been visited by fear a few times in the last couple of weeks. Other emotions have shown up but fear seems to be the most frequent uninvited guest of all. I can only assume that other people, when put in my circumstances, would also experience fear. Each time I felt that tingle, I let the feeling run its course and then I did some analysis. What was the origin of the fear? I made a list and it is short. What if I mess this up? That was the theme of the things on my list. The translation of the theme is almost silly: I’m going to try to make this work and I’m going to do smart things. What if that isn’t enough? What if I am just not that good? I suppose anyone in my situation could have their own set of thoughts if put in this situation. Mine centered around failure. About an hour later, I found myself thinking about the failure and I made a decision: I would work hard and do smart things unless I could observe that things weren’t going favorably. Then, I would make changes if the situation called for it.
It occurred to me that with a productive member of the team now gone, the work remained and someone would need to do it. Not all of it will get done. The next best thing to results is effort. Effort is easily overlooked when stakeholders are anticipating completion. When effort doesn’t produce desired results, it’s critical that stakeholders be frequently reminded of the efforts. Can’t give them output? Then let them see the input, repeat. Just be sure to limit yourself from accepting Monday-morning-quarterback advice. You have a job to do and while being under-resourced, transparency is critical. Becoming someone’s errand-boy might seem like a cordial way to earn friends but it’s an invitation to dismissal. Along with judiciously communicating to stakeholders, I also go out of my way to make sure that my interim boss is kept well informed. If stakeholders don’t get what they are expecting and can’t get a remedy, they do what anyone else would do: they escalate the grievance. Don’t let the interim boss be on the receiving end of an escalation and that be the first time the interim boss hears about it. You want your most powerful ally to find out from you.
The final tip relates to innovation. Acting as an interim boss also comes with at least a little bit of opportunity. If carefully planned, communicated, and executed, you have a chance to implement something new. If there are process-improvement opportunities, now might be the time to explore one. My only word of caution is, whatever you select that you want to improve, try to keep it on the simple side for your first go-around. I’d also recommend being absolutely certain that you get buy in from others and that you know in advance that it will truly make something good out of something that is currently just OK.
Finally, do your best. It is not an easy time and others know that. Teamwork is vital and this is an opportune time to enlist the help of others to distribute the workload. A win benefits everyone.
So, there you have a few tips for how to deal with a situation almost everyone will face at some point in their career. I hope it helps.