Managing Expertise

Name: Managing Expertise
Author: Robert Badowski

Learn how to manage experienced people.

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 4 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

(light music) Welcome to Managing Expertise. In these lessons, you'll uncover what managing other managers involves while discovering your own management style. You'll also learn what to expect when managing other managers and how to notice and value the expertise other managers have. Managing expertise can be a rewarding yet challenging responsibility. The ability to be introspective, respect others' expertise, and handle challenges are key to building a cohesive and productive team. Management involves a wide variety of skills. Henri Fayol, a developer of business administration, identified management as planning, controlling, organizing, coordinating, and commanding, but is that all there is to management? Managing a team is much more involved than these five elements alone. Management becomes increasingly more difficult when you have responsibilities to manage other managers. So how do we work with other managers who may or may not have more experience than you? One of the keys to managing experienced people is to first understand your own management style. By gaining personal insight about who you are as a manager, you can examine your strengths and opportunities for growth. You can ask yourself, what type of manager am I? What's my management style? How does my management style affect the people I manage? Does my management style work in every situation? What management successes and failures have I had? How can I improve as a manager? How do people perceive me? Am I approachable? And do I give challenging but reasonable assignments? Once your self-assessment is complete, it may be helpful to ask people who you're currently managing or have managed before to answer these same questions. They may provide some interesting information on how people look at you. A good way to do this is to set up an anonymous survey. By making the survey anonymous, employees may feel better about answering the questions honestly and openly. After both sets of data are collected, compare your own self-assessment to what your employees said about you. Do the answers align at all? If so, then you have a grasp on who you are as a manager and how you are perceived. Gaps or inconsistencies in the feedback may point to areas of where you need improvement or enrichment. Next, it's best to learn more about the people you're managing. Having personal conversations to learn about the individuals you're working with is a useful way to do this. You can understand what makes these employees tick by asking questions like, what are their skill sets? What's their background and experience? How have they managed others? How do they like to be managed? What level of autonomy do they like? Do they work well under deadlines? How do they want to be acknowledged for their work? What kind of feedback do they find helpful? And how do they handle positive or negative feedback? There are countless questions to examine when you're working with experienced people. Getting as much upfront information as possible will help you put together your own managerial frame of reference. By beginning the process with an introspective approach, you can learn to understand yourself and how you react to people in situations. Then, by having conversations with the people you manage, you can start to learn about how they like to be managed and how they'll react. Does your own style mesh with their working styles? Or do you need to adjust something that you are currently doing so you can better accommodate your team?

Intermediate Provider : Robert Badowski 4 Lessons · 13m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Course Description

Employees have many levels of experience. As a manager, it’s important you understand what type of experience they have and how to best utilize that experience to create a productive and cohesive work environment. Managing people who have been managers or who have extensive prior experience can be extremely rewarding, but doing so isn’t without challenges.

In these lessons, you’ll learn techniques on how to manage other managers, ways to acknowledge these managers' specific expertise, and how to use that expertise to its fullest potential. Finally, you’ll learn about some challenges that you may face in managing experienced managers.

What You'll Learn

Discover the importance of acknowledging experienced managers
Identify common challenges of managing experienced managers
Develop a plan for approaching experienced managers
Apply techniques for managing other managers
Acknowledge and respect employees' specific expertise to use it to its fullest potential

Key Takeaways

As a manager, understanding what type of experience employees have helps you best utilize it to create a productive and cohesive work environment.
Managing people who have been managers or who have extensive prior experience can be rewarding but is not without challenges.
Acknowledging experienced managers' specific expertise allows you to use that expertise to its fullest potential.
Approaching experienced managers effectively benefits from developing a plan for doing so.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this course for?

It is for managers who need to manage other managers or employees with extensive prior management experience.

What does this course cover?

It covers techniques for managing other managers, ways to acknowledge these managers' specific expertise and use it to its fullest potential, and the challenges you may face in managing experienced managers.

What skills will I gain?

The course covers skills including Management, People Management, Team Management, Management Styles, Staff Management, and Talent Management.

What lessons are included?

The lessons are Managing Other Managers, Acknowledge and Respect Expertise, Challenges of Managing Experienced Employees, and Test Your Knowledge.

What are the learning objectives?

To discover the importance of acknowledging experienced managers, identify common challenges of managing experienced managers, and develop a plan for approaching experienced managers.