No one is fully prepared to become a manager.

When people take on the new role they are ambushed by the fuzziness of people-related issues and new levels of uncertainty. After the rigorous world of technical matters, it’s quite a change.

I know these challenges from first-hand experience. I went through this journey and it was quite a bumpy ride. I didn’t have enough support, or sometimes it was available, but I was afraid to admit I needed help.

‘Was it worth it?’ I asked myself from time to time, especially toiling long hours when it seemed to me, my team members didn’t pull their load.

But I persevered. For more than 5 years, I worked with beginning leaders as a manager, coach, trainer, and mentor. A lot of highly talented people were literally in quiet desperation because they were not ready for what followed after the promotion.

What they wanted was to:
– Do a meaningful job without burning out
– Be successful, fulfilled, and recognized
– Be confident about the decisions they make rather than always fear making a mistake
– Have influence and authority to make a difference

But they were far from there. And it wasn’t clear how to get there.

Solutions in many situations are blatantly obvious:
– Be respectful and good with people so they trust and help you
– Constantly clarify expectations of your many stakeholders: ask, don’t assume
– Don’t avoid difficult conversations
– Stop doing what you shouldn’t be doing anymore

But some people focus on the problems so much they just cannot see the way out. And you can be one of them.

If this is you, then I invite you to check what I offer.

You need to have a systematic way to slow down and reflect. And this program will help you with that.

This program is the epitome of more than 5 years of my experience of working with beginning tech leaders as a coach, trainer, mentor, and manager. And it will help you to go through the major milestones of transitioning to a successful leader.

When we work we cover the following:
– Strategy. We explore your goals, your motivation, your purpose. It’s important to understand what kind of leader you want to be and why.
– Success factors. There are stakeholders whose expectations you need to take into account to succeed. We find what they expect from you. We also make sure they recognize your accomplishments.
– Strengths and Gaps. We find the skills you have and the skills you need to develop. Importantly, we determine if you rely too much on some of the skills you no longer need.
– Practice. We practice your new skills in a group setting and then plan how you can apply them in the real world. Small steps. Low-stake mistakes.
– Reflection. We continuously reflect on what’s working and not working. That helps to develop the mindset that fits your new role better.
– Accountability. You will be distracted and carried away by other stuff. So we create the best system for you to be accountable to yourself.
– Adjourning. We prepare you for future sailing on your own. We find which resources and support you will need in the future. You learn to be your best coach.

Here’s my side of the deal.

You need to make a deliberate effort to achieve your goals. There’s no other way around it. I cannot do it for you. What I can do is to help you apply your efforts efficiently.

I will not tell you what to do. I don’t know what you need to do. But, on some level, you do. I will help you see your situation in a new light so that you uncover your own answers.

I will be there not to please you but to serve you. I will support you and challenge you. Which means telling you things others don’t dare say.

I will be there to celebrate your smallest steps and mistakes you made. The more mistakes you make, the quicker you learn from them.

Do you want to learn more?

I’m not the coach for everyone. And this program is not for everyone. So before enrolling and paying for this program, we need to really know that there’s a great fit and you’ll get value for your money.

If you want to learn more then let’s talk. Email me at alex@alexmartynov.com to book a free exploratory interview.

Here’s what will happen next:
1. Exploratory interview. We will have a 15-minute conversation to talk about your expectations and goals and see if you are a good match for this work. If there’s a good match we go to the next stage.

2. Goal-setting session. We will have a 1.5 hour session to explore what you are trying to achieve, how you measure it, and why it’s meaningful for you. We will put together a draft of your roadmap. You will leave this session with more clarity about what you want.

If we find the real goal, there will be some excitement and apprehension. If you are not scared at least a bit, probably your goal is not ambitious enough. If you are not excited, your goal is not important enough.

If you have a goal like this, I want you to have a day or two to let it percolate. Then we can go to the next stage.

3. Follow-up call. We will have another call to discuss whether both of us are inspired to work together on your goals.
If we feel there is no strong match or we feel that you can work on these goals on your own, that’s fine. No hard feelings.
If we feel ‘Hell yeah, let’s do it!’ only then it makes sense to for you to pay for the program and we will discuss terms and conditions.

4. Coaching program. We will work together for 16 weeks. We will spend this time instilling a new mindset, practicing new skills and habits, and building a system that supports the change.

How the program is structured

There will be a limit of 6 members in the group.

The group meets for 90 minutes every 2 weeks for 16 weeks. Additionally, each group member will have 4 individual 1-hour sessions. That’s a total of 16 hours for each group member.

Agenda will be driven by you as group participants. You will bring the cases and challenges you face. We will be discussing them and see how you can learn from them. This learning will help you meet your personal goals.

If you commit to show up and do things differently, changes are inevitable.

The group starts on November, 16th at 12AM ET/9AM PT/6PM CEST. And we will meet biweekly at that time.

The price is 23,000 CZK or 900 EUR.

Email me at alex@alexmartynov.com to book a free exploratory interview.

Here is some feedback from previous participants:

I wanted to change my attitude towards 1:1 meetings. Now I started enjoying 1:1 meetings and became more confident.

I adjusted my own focus to spend more effort on people relationships. As a result, the team dynamic improved. People started to act more like a team than individuals.

Team Leader, Czech Republic

It’s interesting how many of the answers are inside, and can be extracted by correct questions. Among highlights for me was to see how other people in the group experience sometimes the same issues at work when you thought it’s only your problem.

Overall, I reached my initial goals and even more: moved focus from being a developer to being a manager, gain confidence in conducting 121s, gain overall confidence and calmness at work, improved ability to speak up.

Team Leader, Czech Republic