Content area
Full Text
As a group leader, you might lead a geographic unit, or one based around a specific project, client, industry or discipline. You don't manage the whole firm, but head up, coordinate, manage, lead or facilitate a part of the firm. You're not people's boss, and even if you are, you don't want to act that way. You have limited, if any, powers to issue instructions, commands or orders, and if you have such authority, you rarely use it. To be effective, you must act as primus inter pares, the first among equals.
Since you are managing a group, and not your whole firm, you probably still have client work to do. You must be (simultaneously) a player and a coach. Prior to becoming a group leader, you were probably expected to focus on your own performance alone. Now it is also your responsibility to worry about (and influence) the performance of others, many of whom were, until recently, your peers (and certainly still consider themselves so). You must also forge a cohesive team out of a group of autonomous individuals.
To succeed in your role, you will need a...