I can honestly say I learn something new every day I am here and grow in my role. There is no such thing as hitting a plateau at JEB! I am going through a huge period of growth right now as I am transitioning from doing all the technical work on my accounts to managing an assistant. This shift in my role has been exciting, but also challenging.
In my time at JEB I have been an assistant manager on accounts and also managed my own accounts, but have not had an assistant helping me with those accounts. I’ve grown accustomed to doing all the work for the accounts myself – big or small. However, this is no longer the case when I received an assistant manager. My assistant is now the technician and I have transitioned into a managerial role of coaching and guiding my assistant with the work that was once mine. Moving into this role allows me to have a broader scope of our clients’ programs. Since I am not immersed in the tasks, I can take a step back and strategically think about each program and what we can do to achieve the goals in place. This is vital to the success of the programs my team manages.
As wonderful as it is to have help with what seems like an ever growing to-do list, it is not as simple as giving away tasks and no longer worrying about them any more. I have to take a moment to think if I have given the assistant the knowledge to complete the task I have assigned. If not, will I need to take the time out of my day to train them on this? Will I have to check over it once they have finished for mistakes? If I have to do all that, why not just do the task myself? I’ve realized that having this mindset is not conducive to mine or my assistant’s growth in our job roles. How is the assistant manager supposed to grow if I am not allowing him to take on new and more challenging responsibilities? How am I supposed to grow as a manager if I am swamped doing menial tasks that consume all of my time? The answer is, neither of us will. I will be stressed and overwhelmed and my assistant will be bored. And most importantly, my clients will not be getting as much out of my management team as they should.
Learning to let go has been a difficult adjustment for me but one that I realize is important for myself, my assistant, the accounts we manage, and the company as a whole. During this process I have been working on changing my mindset to focus less on the tasks I will get done in a day to more about the success of our team. I am now making a conscious effort to take as much as possible off my plate and delegate it to my assistant. When a new task comes in, I think of giving it to my assistant instead of doing it myself, even if it would take only a minute for me to do it. I am also constantly asking for advice from the directors and other managers here, as all of them have experienced my exact same position and have given me some amazing tips. I also have realized the importance of strong communication. Daily meetings to map out our to-do list for the day and weekly meetings to discuss what both of us can improve to work more effectively together have been essential! I’ve realized that my focus needs to be less on doing tasks and more on showing the assistant manager how to do tasks and working on their progression here at JEB. The goal is for them to be able to manage their own accounts someday, and my job is to help them be as successful as they can when that time comes.
While it is not an easy road, I know the training and time I put in now will pay off in the future. Our team will be able to take on more responsibilities and complete tasks in less time, and this will give us the opportunity to do what is most important of all… growing our clients affiliate programs.
