Ways to overcome the challenges in group 1

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pandemic amongst my informants became very clear. Finally, I was a bit sur- prised, because there appeared to be less challenges per informant than I had anticipated.

Table 2. Summary of the main challenges faced by the informants (the less prevalent challenges are marked with (X)).

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how much time the managerial work takes and also be more honest than op- timistic about this required time. The other explained that he tries to sched- ule and balance with the workload. He also mentioned that reflections during management courses preceding his first managerial role had helped him cope as well as peer support within his organisation. He emphasises the im- portance of the preparation time before starting as an FTM as well as organ- isational support:

Somehow, I want to highlight the advantages I got when I had time to stop, had time to bring forward the message of the im- portance of [managerial] work, and that in a company one is prepared for it well enough. That one is given the chances to do managerial work well.

-Informant 6, quote 27 Only one of the three informants had clearly put effort in managing the work- load through creation of a personal work system and agenda management.

Interestingly, she was also the only one in this group to have received good organisational support when starting in her first managerial role. Also, she seemed self-efficacious and mentioned, that her personality and tolerance for pressure gave her confidence to take on the challenging role. She recalled:

I would say that the combination of my personality and toler- ance for pressure -- were the perhaps decisive factors that made me confident that I'll manage [in this role].

-Informant 10, quote 28 She stated that a key in managing her workload was becoming more system- atic in her work than ever. In my opinion, her actions in this respect were exemplary. First, she created a system for managing work which encom- passed two main components 1. An Excel workbook which helps her keep up with her mid- to long-term tasks and 2. A systematic way of dealing with her email-inbox. The Excel tool allows her to plan and monitor weekly the wide variety of responsibilities she has, find out the people she needs help from to complete different steps and prioritise each task as needed. She explained how the prioritising works:

There can only be three ones there at a time -- when those things have progressed – say to a certain phase, I'll take another thing – in this way I can keep on track about what things need to be [done].

-Informant 10, quote 29

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The systematic way of dealing with her emails has helped her to ease her daily burden by keeping track of her progress even though there would be inter- ruptions. Therefore, she does not need to worry that she would forget some- thing. She checks her emails only twice a day instead of having it open all day long which would distract her. The rest of the day she deals with the tasks.

Also, she uses the Eisenhower Matrix (for details, see e.g., ProductPlan, 2023) to sort her emails to four different categories: 1. Urgent and important, 2. Non-urgent but important, 3. Urgent but not important and 4. Non-urgent and not important. She starts with the category 1 emails, delegates category 2 stuff and deals with the rest later or deletes some.

Secondly, she started doing agenda management systematically by planning her schedule always two weeks ahead. She books time for concentration, the tasks in her Excel workbook as well as leaves room for possible changes and slots for others to book for e.g., one-to-one meetings. Also, as she travels a lot, she leaves time for bookings and other arrangements needed. This sys- tematic way of managing her agenda has reduced her stress a lot because her agenda is now set and clear. It means people cannot anymore book meetings freely in her calendar and they also must reflect on how urgent their matters are and whether they really should be dealt with as soon as possible.

Informant 10 mentioned that the FTM training program and a leadership book she read during it were the two things that gave her the spark to create the ‘work system’. Furthermore, she explained how she started doing agenda management by calendaring after a few chaotic months as an FTM. Also, she again gave credit to the FTM training program and mentioned how it had helped her to do the calendaring even better. Of course, a crucial aspect for her to manage her workload was her willingness and ability to delegate tasks.

She describes that it has required her to step back a bit and to really choose which tasks to control and which to let drift a bit more loosely. She concluded on the importance of self-leadership:

I realised -- how important it is to keep your own work under control. Because then the management [of others] kinda comes as a by-product.

-Informant 10, quote 30 When it comes to the other challenges group 1 had encountered, the ways to overcome them were as varied as were the challenges. The informant who had experienced a burnout had received personal organisational support and training to deal with e.g., stress and tough negotiations. He had also taken own actions and moved back to office from remote work setting, which had helped him to regain his work-life balance. Furthermore, he had also been putting effort in making his free time meaningful and important.

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The informant who knew she would face operational challenges in her first managerial role had received an additional member to one of her teams, which was a partial solution to the challenge with resourcing. The informant whose own choices had landed him to a totally unfamiliar territory had found his previous reflections about managerial work during courses, including the FTM training program, helpful. Moreover, one informant had nominated a team lead to a team located abroad to ease up her challenges in distance man- agement. Furthermore, the informants who were lacking previous knowledge about the people in their organisations had themselves monitored people around them and started ‘collecting’ the missing pieces of information.

Finally, the informant who had had challenges with finding his leadership principles, had just tried out different approaches. Of course, it would have been good for him to receive organisational support to have a space to reflect on them. Anyways, it seemed he had been reflecting about them during his managerial work and hopefully it will help him in his future endeavours.