Hilary Dudek- Unlocking Leadership Potential: Strategies for Supporting New People Managers
Hilary Dudek, the Senior Director of Customer Support at Sana, is a passionate leader who excels in team building, operations management, and customer support. With expertise in cross-functional team leadership and customer service management, Hilary is dedicated to creating a fantastic customer experience and nurturing the growth of individuals in their support careers. Hilary is particularly enthusiastic about remote culture and driving excellence in customer support.
You definitely don't want to miss this must-watch video featuring Hilary Dudek our upcoming speaker for November's Leadership Summit, where she dives deep into the exciting world of managing managers and shares valuable insights on the challenges and strategies involved. This video offers a sneak peek into the compelling insights Hilary will be sharing on stage in Oakland. Be sure to watch and get a taste of what's to come!
Hilary Dudek:
My name is Hilary Dudek and I'm the Senior Director of Customer Support at Sana Benefits.
Scott Tran:
We're talking about managing managers, when was the first time you were in that situation? How long has it been?
Hilary Dudek:
So it's been over a year, I think, closing on two years now.
But at that time I just had one manager, and it was somebody that I had worked very closely with in the past. We have moved very closely in our careers together, and so we were already very well-versed to working with each other. So it wasn't really a challenge, but in October of last year, we also promoted two new other managers.
And that's where things became a little bumpy. I realized, brand new managers that are just coming into this that I maybe don't have that type of relationship with, that are new to remote support. We all remember how rocky that transition is from IC work to people managing.
They need the tools and the resources to be able to do this well. And it's a nuance that I have not experienced yet as a people manager. So, I think there's an art to it as well, managing managers. So that's what I'm excited to talk about.
Scott Tran:
And what are some of the differences between managing ICs versus managing managers?
Hilary Dudek:
Managing ICs, especially at the more junior level we're talking within the context of supporting junior agents. Not that they're selfish, but they're far more focused on them,, on the individual, and on their individual growth. Whereas as a people manager now, you're managing a collection of folks.
And so for me, managing a collection of people who manage people, they now have their own unique needs because they're navigating that transition from IC to people manager, but they don't quite have, the traits and the leadership that I'm looking for. But now it's helping them hone and define and find themselves within that identity, while also keeping their entire team afloat and helping them manage that.
So it's quite a challenge.
How do I coach them on delivering feedback to an IC? How do I coach them on delivering a performance improvement plan that they have never done before? So now I have to coach them on writing it, executing, delivering. But also helping them support their IC, it's a whole, it's a whole nuance.
And then they'll multiply that by three so it's a lot.
Scott Tran:
What are some of the things, that you've seen people struggle with when they get into that role? Because I think it is a different set of skills what are some common things where people need help?
Hilary Dudek:
I think a lot of times, once they get over the glow of the promotion, maybe not imposter syndrome, but they certainly feel like, oh my gosh, am I really cut out for this? Can I actually do this? So supporting and boosting their confidence levels, that's definitely something that I've noticed.
I'm a Zendesk expert, and so realizing, oh, I need to teach you how to do all these things, the infrastructure that I've built. So tooling has definitely been a struggle as well. And then just making sure that they're acclimated to that particular company's processes when it comes to different discussions, performance reviews, comp reviews.
All those sorts of things. They haven't been sitting in those manager meetings with the people team. I'm lucky in my company to have a super supportive people team, but you may not even have that at some orgs. And so now you're also playing the role of HR a little bit as well.
Scott Tran:
You've been working with these managers for a while, how has that relationship changed? What's different?
Hilary Dudek:
I definitely had to focus on building or even rebuilding trust, we started small. I've scaled this team, so at one point I managed most of them directly. So, rebuilding that trust to show that they're aware that they can come to me for these problems. I don't consider it a waste of time.
I don't expect them to figure it out on their own. They're not senior directors. They're not senior managers. So, them having the trust to come to me and say, I don't know how to navigate this. Can you help me? And, me sitting aside, whatever I'm working on, prioritizing them because, they're impacting the team, which is impacting the customer experience.
Scott Tran:
A key difficulty is for them to, know what to come to you with. And being comfortable with that.
One of the challenges from a person going from IC to manager is, is that shift of you were mainly responsible for, and in many ways judged for like your individual performance, but as a manager, that's not the most important thing. Now it's your team's performance.
Hilary Dudek:
That's definitely been a mindset shift. For example, as an agent on live support, you have to be very mindful of where you're spending your time and flag when you're not going to be in live support.
And that behavior, I don't need to know every time my manager needs to step away. I trust you. I have promoted you. You do not have to tell me. Trust me, when busy season comes, you'll be working a little bit overtime. So if you need to take an hour here or there, I trust you right now. Even just those little behavior changes I didn't anticipate how much those would surface right away.
Scott Tran:
Can you share, how'd you know that you had issues and that, you needed to put more time into working with these new managers?
Hilary Dudek:
So Sana has a very strong feedback culture so that certainly helps. They felt comfortable giving that feedback. Also, the types of questions that were being asked, much the same way we analyze the questions that our customers are asking. When I keep seeing questions about scheduling. Or about their workflows, I'm like, okay, clearly we need some more.
Yeah. More help. Some documentation, some policies, some reassurances of trust, whatever the case may be. So I think those were the two biggest flags for me.
Scott Tran:
On the flip side, what are you looking for to know that they're getting the support that they need?
Hilary Dudek:
Depending on what it is, so behavior shifts. I've certainly seen more informing posts now, for example, with the time-off example, Hey, I am gonna be out of the office for the next 90 minutes doing X, Y, Z. Great. Thank you for the heads up.
You're not begging for my permission, you're just telling me.
I am being more intentional about resources and making sure that I'm just starting from ground A, when we're having like a sync or something, Hey, let me actually walk you through this or walk you through our policy on this.
I continued to ask and seek for feedback and I continue to receive it, which is great, so I can adjust accordingly.
Something else that I did that I had not done, and this is a sneak preview, y'all, for the talk.
How to work with me, a management document here's what I expect of you in this new role, and here's what you can expect from me.
Let's have a discussion about it. But having that documented so they can refer back to it as well, I think has been really helpful.
I think this is just really fresh for me being a new manager of multiple pupil managers. And so I might as well solidify my learnings into a talk and also share it with other people that might be about to go through the same thing or are going through the same thing.
Scott Tran:
As an attendee, what are you looking forward to? Why do you like coming to our conferences?
Hilary Dudek:
So I've been to only one expo. The rest of them have been leadership summits.
I really liked it… especially the Portland one. Just being able to talk to all these folks that I know or have heard of and share best practices and being able to relate, it's so nice to hear you're not alone in things and that your struggle is not unique to you at all.
It's incredibly reassuring. So that's one of the biggest things I get out of that. I love the talks, I love the information that's shared, but I think those one-to-one conversations are small group conversations, I get a lot of value from those.
Check out the video now featuring Hilary Dudek our upcoming speaker for November's Leadership Summit