It’s time to abolish the Magic Weekend

The Team Leader is here to stay. “Supervisor”, except in some special sectors of the economy, is pretty well a defunct species. “First Line Manager” has never really had the cachet, never really caught on as an answer to “What do you do?” Team leadership has become an established, even transferable skill set, albeit differently levelled in different organisations.

“Magic Weekend” refers to the practice some organisations still have of informing an employee on a Friday that from Monday they will be Team Leader, (or Trainer, or Supervisor). The expectation seems to be that over the weekend they will magically be transformed into a fully competent Team Leader, reporting to work fully equipped with new skills, and ready to perform.

With almost continuous re-structuring and a host of other pressures, it is increasingly common for organisations to need to recruit new Team Leaders quickly. Organisations tend to recruit Team Leaders from their existing teams. There are good reasons for this; the likelihood of recruiting someone who knows the job is very much higher. The elevated team member knows the organisation, or at least knows the part of it they are working at, so induction is attenuated. And they know the people, so should have a head-start in personal relationships and communications.

But this recruitment practice – indeed, if “recruitment” is the right term – produces some new challenges. An external appointee will nearly always be a previously in-post Team Leader, with skills and experience. For promoted internal staff, these are not in place, and the confidence that goes with them can be absent. For the internal promotee, becoming a team leader is a more difficult and significant step than many companies realise.

It is, to be sure, a real career step onto the ladder that may lead one day into management. More significantly, it is a significant step away from the security of the work group, its protection, its collective views of management, and its habits. It is often the fear of this parting, and the uncertainty of the meaning of the new role, that employees cite when asked about their views of “becoming a manager”.

There is a tension between the needs of the organisation quickly to fill a Team Leader position, seen by the organisation as a small step, and the need of the promotee to understand the meaning, and rules of, the new role. Training for the job may well be provided, but at initial appointment this is often quite a distant prospect, to follow “in good time”. What about the immediate support internal promotees need?

For the new Team Leader to make a confident start on the role, they need to be given this crucial support before they start. Basic guidance about the job, as well as what it is not. They can’t be expected to have deduced all this from their experience as Team Members – they probably weren’t plotting and planning to get the job!

Just as over the years the consensus on the key roles of management have emerged, so there is general agreement about the qualities and initial skills organisations want to see in new team leaders. They need to be told the “Six Rules”.

Rule one: “Don’t try and do it for them”. You are not expected to be a “super employee”, doing everything. Your responsibility is to ensure it is done, and done properly, by the team you lead.

Rule two: “Let go of the old job”. Your old job will change, and you just can’t keep up with it. You are actually starting a different job, and you will be using new and different skills.

Rule three: “Stop being the expert”. Technical expertise now resides in your Team. You know that they will not appreciate you trying to be a “know-all”. It is a matter of respect to acknowledge that the team are the experts.

Rule four: “Just be yourself”. There is no magic cloak called “Leadership” you can put on when you come to work. The organisation appointed you, not an impressionist. Remember, no one likes a phoney.

Rule five: “Establish the right boundaries”. You needn’t abandon your between proper confidentiality with friends. It is fair and reasonable to work out what these are with your colleagues.

Rule six: “Don’t expect to be brilliant on Monday”. All new Team Leaders will make mistakes. It’s called “learning the ropes”. The important thing is to acknowledge them, learn quickly from them, and move on.

Organisations spent a long time believing that “sitting by Nellie” was ”training”, until it finally dawned on them that Nellie was passing on as many bad habits as good ones. Nellie has now largely been “re-educated”. Surely now it is time to address that other bad habit, belief in “The Magic Weekend”, and give our internally appointed new Team Leaders a fighting chance of success!




The “Six rules” are from “The Magic Weekend Handbook – Practical Advice for your first day as a new Team Leader” ISBN 978-0-9555097 -0-4 , published by George Edwards – Knowledge Management, at £3.25 post free, £25 for 10, from http://www.thegeorgeedwards.com/, or 01423 883557.