Managing technical teams, without a technical background

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I remember the response my old college accounting teacher gave when I told him I was working for Xero…he laughed!

I know why too. In college I wasn’t particularly good at accounting. Balance sheets almost always had a ‘Miscellaneous’ category to balance things up….visually it looked correct, but it rarely was. That was good enough for me.

So now, some 25 years on, I’m leading a team full of talented people with accounting degrees as well as accounting & bookkeeping experience. So just how does a Team Leader, with no accounting background or experience, manage a team that knows it all?

Accounting skills are not what makes a good team leader

Deal with it. Admit to yourself, and your team, that you haven’t got the skills/knowledge they bring to the table…there’s no point in pretending you’re something you’re not (or your team thinking you are).

But you are their Manager. This means your team looks to you for support and guidance based on your experiences.

I’ve got 15+ years as a Team Leader or Manager. I’ve dealt with plenty of complaints and angry customers and I’ve got a pretty good idea on how to deal with them. So while I may not know enough about how to fix their problems in Xero, I know a thing or two about how to turning angry customers around. So use and abuse (in a nice way) my experiences to help you positively manage the customer’s expectations.

Be approachable

Get to know your team and what makes them tick. There’s a lot more to them than just their accounting background that can help you understand what drives them and what they want to achieve.

Make an effort

While you’ve not got the knowledge and experience they bring to the table, you can still try and make an effort to learn. Your team will recognise the effort positively. Xero Certification is a good starting point.

Build up the trust

If you promise to do something, do it. If you’ve booked a catch up or team meeting, make it happen. They may only get to formally catch up with you once a fortnight or month, so putting it off gives the feeling you’re not interested in what they’re doing.

Being a manager doesn’t mean you have to be the expert. The manager hires the right people or the experts and enables them to get on with their job, with guidance, help and direction as they need it.

As a manager, my job is to guide and mentor my staff. I also do all the other distracting stuff managers have to do to allow my team to perform to the individual strengths of the members. Just as a conductor of a symphony orchestra doesn’t have to know how to play every instrument, he or she knows how to get the best combined sound out of his or her expert players. This is the same for any manager of technical teams.

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