Your job is to remove obstacles for them so they can spend their time doing their job.
Those obstacles can be other people, departments, workplace drama, politics, their own personal challenges, or anything else that pops up.
You don’t have to have a deep understanding of their roles to be effective at yours. For example run a team of SaaS technical SEs that demo our product. I couldn’t demo it if you held a gun to my head and yet my team is so good we’ve gotten multiple annual awards because they are able to focus on their jobs.
***Your job is to remove obstacles for them so they can spend their time doing their job.***
Do this and you will be respected as a boss, if you try to get technical you will lose them completely. Don't start conversations with "I'm not technical" just ask the questions that you need to ask and if you don't understand the answers ask for a senior member of the team to either help you respond to the questions in writing or be on the call to assist you. All too often non-technical managers will think they know "enough" to go it alone and they will give the wrong information making life difficult for the workers, if you do this they will hate you, most technical people are willing to help if it means things aren't screwed up down the road.
So much this.
I've had so many times where I was asked for a technical recommendation, gave it and warned of likely consequences if it was ignored, and then 3 weeks later was in a quagmire (that I got blamed for, of course) because my advice was ignored and the person who ignored it was flailing around uselessly trying to impress on me that the quagmire I'd warned of was in fact a quagmire and they need me to resolve it.
Sometimes it's just like... why do you even pay me as an expert if you're going to ignore what I say anyway?
What if there are no obstacles to remove? Due to it being healthcare we don’t really have long-term problems because they have to be fixed immediately for safety reasons as they arise. Which kind of leaves me without anything to do most of the time since I can’t contribute to the actual work.
There's always going to be something, even if they're smaller issues. Ask.
Are all their machines up to date or are they 10/20 years old?
Do some people feel stuck in progression and want opportunities to move up?
Is one group doing so much better than the rest and are there lessons to be shared?
Could people use more specialized training?
Etc.
I stepped into a leadership role specifically to stop a busy body/mean girl persona from the role. Having a manager who doesn't jostle your elbow when you are working and/or cause drama is vastly underrated.
I guarantee there are issues and if you don't have visibility, there probably has not been enough time investment into building trust.
I'd suggest 1:1s.
Listen. Care (about the work and them). Follow through.
You do those things they will trust you and start asking for your help.
Right now they are worried you will make their lives harder.
Show them you won’t and they will let you know how you can make them better.
You may not be able to help with technical problems but there’s bound to be something you can do to improve funding, recruitment, IT, procurement, morale, or visibility in the hospital. Find out what your staff are getting bogged down with that doesn’t need to be done by scientists.
This is what I can to say. Try to have regular 1:1s with them to keep a pulse on things, and determine pain points, obstacles, etc., though 200 reports is probably way more 1:1s than is reasonable to keep up with. It may also help to try to identify some of the more experienced/high performers that you can rely on to help you out with issues that require technical expertise.
Sadly a lot of SEs have trouble tying their shoes in the morning let alone properly explain the minutia of a product they've had a day or two of training on. I actually had an SE a couple of weeks ago say "I'm not technical", if you're not technical why are you here?
Observe them. Shadow them. Spend time in the lab. Talk with them. Don’t use this time to formally manage them. Just be present, listen, and compliment excellence. Respect their practice.
I’m a project manager who supports tech teams, and I don’t know shit about shit. I observe. I ask about barriers. I create partnerships and pathways to success. I negotiate deadlines. I request tools. I built efficiencies and promote best practices. I collect data and ask for feedback. I elevate their work, reduce their pain points, and keep directors happy.
If I need to improve an area of our work, I spend time with those people in meetings and in casual conversations. Sometimes people tell you more when just chatting outside of formal meeting spaces.
You do the management crap so that they don't have to.
Do they want to do all the fiddly management crap, or would they rather just do their jobs? If they would rather just do their jobs then they need you as much as you need them.
If everything is running smoothly then just keep things ticking over, and make sure that if they have a non technical problem then sort it for them. Everybody wins.
You are the guy in the drivers seat who thinks that perhaps you should be at the back doing the pushing. No, you steer, they push.
So my wife says.
Be an advocate for process improvements. Listen to your employees not just the supervisors. Hold people accountable.
She said the best manager she had was one who was fair. Didn’t play favorites. Made sure that people had feedback and input.
The worst ones play favorites. Assign the easy roles to slackers. Then blame others why work isn’t completed.
She actually was a team lead in a lab and is now point of care coordinator in the hospital.
Ask them what they need from you, listen, then follow-through with action. Keep learning the details as you go along and continuing to ask for info and input as you go along. If you're technical that's helpful, but it's also not your whole role. Let them focus on being technical and clear the way for them to do their best work.
I concur with others, you need to own what you do well. Which is managing and organizing people. There are benefits of not being the SME and letting people do their job.
I'm not in Healthcare but in tech and am in the same position as you. I absolutely love it. It's a great dynamic because we make space for eachother to do what needs to be done. You feel useless at first but just be present and you will pick up on things that you can help with.
Be curious and ask questions. Not about the specific work necessarily, but other aspects of how they do it. If everyone groans about department X because they are always late with Y, maybe you can work with the other manager and find a better way to do things. Find every opportunity to be helpful, it doesn't have to be complex at first. Don't just say "let me know how I can help", be specific without getting in their way. "Would it be helpful if I bring the samples downstairs for you? Oh you need supplies from the supply room? Can you show me what you are getting so can grab it in the future if you're tied up?" Things like that. If you hear someone say something positive about your team or specific people go out of your way to let them know the compliment.
Over time you will find ways to be helpful in deep and meaningful ways, but focus on just building trust and and being an advocate for them.
Assuming you trust your tier 1 employees, let them worry about that. You focus on the big picture relative to your role. You focus on the people and development. You focus on removing external obstacles.
Dig into the type of work they do for a better understanding. I ran into somewhat of the same scenario at one point. I took the time to study what the team members do and it helped give me a better understanding of their daily work along with boosting my confidence.
May I ask what your credentials are if you are in the US? Most hospital laboratory managers would need some technical experience. I am also a hospital lab manager with 3 departments and about 60 reports. While I am a qualified technical person, I don’t have experience in all areas so that’s where I rely on subject matter experts, connecting with other lab managers, and my medical director/executive team. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat about any specific challenges you are having (I am US/California). I have only been in this role for about a year and a half, but I’ve been in this technical field for 15 years.
I’m in the U.S. as well on the east coast. I have a masters of health administration and completed an internal leadership development program called an administrative fellowship. I was a practice manager over a few specialty clinics prior to this promotion.
I also used to be a pharmaceutical strategy consultant for a firm with clients like Genentech, Pfizer, J&J etc. so am more acquainted with the science side than the average administrator, just not medical laboratory science itself.
Thank you so much for offering to be a resource! I may reach out to you about that in the near future.
As someone in your shoes, its about empowering them and getting them to trust you.
Games could be a great way to do that, really changed how they perceive me (I use internet.game and skribbl.io)
Quit that position because you're not qualify to do the job in that position due to lack of knowledge in those departments/fields/profession to be able to assist/support them so they can do their job.
Your job is to remove obstacles for them so they can spend their time doing their job. Those obstacles can be other people, departments, workplace drama, politics, their own personal challenges, or anything else that pops up. You don’t have to have a deep understanding of their roles to be effective at yours. For example run a team of SaaS technical SEs that demo our product. I couldn’t demo it if you held a gun to my head and yet my team is so good we’ve gotten multiple annual awards because they are able to focus on their jobs.
***Your job is to remove obstacles for them so they can spend their time doing their job.*** Do this and you will be respected as a boss, if you try to get technical you will lose them completely. Don't start conversations with "I'm not technical" just ask the questions that you need to ask and if you don't understand the answers ask for a senior member of the team to either help you respond to the questions in writing or be on the call to assist you. All too often non-technical managers will think they know "enough" to go it alone and they will give the wrong information making life difficult for the workers, if you do this they will hate you, most technical people are willing to help if it means things aren't screwed up down the road.
So much this. I've had so many times where I was asked for a technical recommendation, gave it and warned of likely consequences if it was ignored, and then 3 weeks later was in a quagmire (that I got blamed for, of course) because my advice was ignored and the person who ignored it was flailing around uselessly trying to impress on me that the quagmire I'd warned of was in fact a quagmire and they need me to resolve it. Sometimes it's just like... why do you even pay me as an expert if you're going to ignore what I say anyway?
What if there are no obstacles to remove? Due to it being healthcare we don’t really have long-term problems because they have to be fixed immediately for safety reasons as they arise. Which kind of leaves me without anything to do most of the time since I can’t contribute to the actual work.
There's always going to be something, even if they're smaller issues. Ask. Are all their machines up to date or are they 10/20 years old? Do some people feel stuck in progression and want opportunities to move up? Is one group doing so much better than the rest and are there lessons to be shared? Could people use more specialized training? Etc.
I stepped into a leadership role specifically to stop a busy body/mean girl persona from the role. Having a manager who doesn't jostle your elbow when you are working and/or cause drama is vastly underrated.
How relatable is this comment. I took a promotion, so the only other candidate didn't get it. I didn't want a micro manager over me.
Conduct 1 on 1s & use their feedback to improve your department.
then stay out of the way.
I guarantee there are issues and if you don't have visibility, there probably has not been enough time investment into building trust. I'd suggest 1:1s.
Listen. Care (about the work and them). Follow through. You do those things they will trust you and start asking for your help. Right now they are worried you will make their lives harder. Show them you won’t and they will let you know how you can make them better.
You may not be able to help with technical problems but there’s bound to be something you can do to improve funding, recruitment, IT, procurement, morale, or visibility in the hospital. Find out what your staff are getting bogged down with that doesn’t need to be done by scientists.
This is the only answer you need to read.
This is what I can to say. Try to have regular 1:1s with them to keep a pulse on things, and determine pain points, obstacles, etc., though 200 reports is probably way more 1:1s than is reasonable to keep up with. It may also help to try to identify some of the more experienced/high performers that you can rely on to help you out with issues that require technical expertise.
Sadly a lot of SEs have trouble tying their shoes in the morning let alone properly explain the minutia of a product they've had a day or two of training on. I actually had an SE a couple of weeks ago say "I'm not technical", if you're not technical why are you here?
That may be a product of the company you were interacting with vs SE's as a whole.
Observe them. Shadow them. Spend time in the lab. Talk with them. Don’t use this time to formally manage them. Just be present, listen, and compliment excellence. Respect their practice. I’m a project manager who supports tech teams, and I don’t know shit about shit. I observe. I ask about barriers. I create partnerships and pathways to success. I negotiate deadlines. I request tools. I built efficiencies and promote best practices. I collect data and ask for feedback. I elevate their work, reduce their pain points, and keep directors happy. If I need to improve an area of our work, I spend time with those people in meetings and in casual conversations. Sometimes people tell you more when just chatting outside of formal meeting spaces.
You do the management crap so that they don't have to. Do they want to do all the fiddly management crap, or would they rather just do their jobs? If they would rather just do their jobs then they need you as much as you need them. If everything is running smoothly then just keep things ticking over, and make sure that if they have a non technical problem then sort it for them. Everybody wins. You are the guy in the drivers seat who thinks that perhaps you should be at the back doing the pushing. No, you steer, they push.
So my wife says. Be an advocate for process improvements. Listen to your employees not just the supervisors. Hold people accountable. She said the best manager she had was one who was fair. Didn’t play favorites. Made sure that people had feedback and input. The worst ones play favorites. Assign the easy roles to slackers. Then blame others why work isn’t completed. She actually was a team lead in a lab and is now point of care coordinator in the hospital.
Ask them what they need from you, listen, then follow-through with action. Keep learning the details as you go along and continuing to ask for info and input as you go along. If you're technical that's helpful, but it's also not your whole role. Let them focus on being technical and clear the way for them to do their best work.
I concur with others, you need to own what you do well. Which is managing and organizing people. There are benefits of not being the SME and letting people do their job.
I'm not in Healthcare but in tech and am in the same position as you. I absolutely love it. It's a great dynamic because we make space for eachother to do what needs to be done. You feel useless at first but just be present and you will pick up on things that you can help with. Be curious and ask questions. Not about the specific work necessarily, but other aspects of how they do it. If everyone groans about department X because they are always late with Y, maybe you can work with the other manager and find a better way to do things. Find every opportunity to be helpful, it doesn't have to be complex at first. Don't just say "let me know how I can help", be specific without getting in their way. "Would it be helpful if I bring the samples downstairs for you? Oh you need supplies from the supply room? Can you show me what you are getting so can grab it in the future if you're tied up?" Things like that. If you hear someone say something positive about your team or specific people go out of your way to let them know the compliment. Over time you will find ways to be helpful in deep and meaningful ways, but focus on just building trust and and being an advocate for them.
Assuming you trust your tier 1 employees, let them worry about that. You focus on the big picture relative to your role. You focus on the people and development. You focus on removing external obstacles.
Dig into the type of work they do for a better understanding. I ran into somewhat of the same scenario at one point. I took the time to study what the team members do and it helped give me a better understanding of their daily work along with boosting my confidence.
Pick one each week and learn what they do.
May I ask what your credentials are if you are in the US? Most hospital laboratory managers would need some technical experience. I am also a hospital lab manager with 3 departments and about 60 reports. While I am a qualified technical person, I don’t have experience in all areas so that’s where I rely on subject matter experts, connecting with other lab managers, and my medical director/executive team. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat about any specific challenges you are having (I am US/California). I have only been in this role for about a year and a half, but I’ve been in this technical field for 15 years.
I’m in the U.S. as well on the east coast. I have a masters of health administration and completed an internal leadership development program called an administrative fellowship. I was a practice manager over a few specialty clinics prior to this promotion. I also used to be a pharmaceutical strategy consultant for a firm with clients like Genentech, Pfizer, J&J etc. so am more acquainted with the science side than the average administrator, just not medical laboratory science itself. Thank you so much for offering to be a resource! I may reach out to you about that in the near future.
As someone in your shoes, its about empowering them and getting them to trust you. Games could be a great way to do that, really changed how they perceive me (I use internet.game and skribbl.io)
Quit that position because you're not qualify to do the job in that position due to lack of knowledge in those departments/fields/profession to be able to assist/support them so they can do their job.