How to Transition From a Domain Expert to General Management as a Senior Executive

A domain expert or a subject matter expert is a professional who excels at their trade. As a domain expert, with extensive knowledge about your area of expertise, you are most probably sought after by seniors and team members, alike. This, of course, is due to the mastery of your subject. You are approached and expected to resolve and take care of matters regarding your expertise. Although, moving from domain expert to general management can be challenging. Of course it is the sought-after course of progress and career growth, but it does come with its own need for preparation and adjustment.

As a senior executive who is advancing to a general management role, your responsibilities will change. Rather than being the go-to person for all matters under your domain, you will act as a guide and manager of those tasks, while the bulk of the work will be done by others. That might sound appealing, but it can be frustrating in the beginning. This is because while you might know exactly what to do and how to do it, managing a team of people and guiding and instructing them about how they should be doing it can challenge your leadership skills. Your responsibilities will increase, and you will have to work hard to understand the diversity of your new job.

The transition from domain expert to general management will surely be exciting, but it can also be full of hindrances and hurdles if you do not prepare yourself for the change. There are a variety of things that you will have to focus on to avoid struggling in your new role. You need to make sure that you understand your new position in depth. The framework of your old job as a domain expert will not work for the new position as a general manager. You need to be willing to widen your focus, emphasize more on leadership, and learn a variety of new skills as the leader, and instead of the more narrow focus of your domain. As a domain expert, you are the ‘doer’, but when you move on to a general management role you have to oversee the work that others do. The majority of your job will be about other employees and guiding them, rather than accomplishing the task hands-on yourself.

Here are a few ways to ensure that your transition from domain expert to general management occurs smoothly.

1. Shift focus

As a domain expert, you focus on short-term goals and thrive to achieve those goals. But when you step into a general management role, your field of vision becomes broader. You now have to focus on long-term goals. You are responsible for more than you were before. Your challenge as a general manager is about delegation of work and achieving leverage.

Read: How to Achieve Goals through Time Management for Senior Executives

2. Communicate with experienced people

Communication with other people who have gone through the transition before you will help you figure out the areas that you should focus on. They can provide you with an accurate overview of the job, which will help you to focus on your new skills as well as work on changing your mindset. Different people will have different accounts of what they learned from their experience, giving you a wide variety of changes to be made. You can use their experiences as a guide for what you think you need to focus on to make the change more efficient for you.

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3. Start asking questions

Work on your leadership and soft skills The most important skill of a general manager is leadership. As a leader, you make teams, enhance the morale of your employees, delegate work, and trust others to finish the work. Even if you can complete the work in half the time they are able to. Your role as a general manager involves not doing the work yourself, rather to create an environment in which people are motivated to do the work. Your job is to track, analyze, guide, and set goals that other employees will achieve. Your job is to make sure that the teams are working efficiently. To succeed in your transition from domain expert to general management you need to develop soft skills such as critical and creative thinking, conflict resolution, communication, compassion, empathy, adaptability, time management, and more.

4. Work on your leadership and soft skills

The most important skill of a general manager is leadership. As a leader, you make teams, enhance the morale of your employees, delegate work, and trust others to finish the work. Even if you can complete the work in half the time they are able to. Your role as a general manager involves not doing the work yourself, rather to create an environment in which people are motivated to do the work. Your job is to track, analyze, guide, and set goals that other employees will achieve. Your job is to make sure that the teams are working efficiently.

To succeed in your transition from domain expert to general management you need to develop soft skills such as critical and creative thinking, conflict resolution, communication, compassion, empathy, adaptability, time management, and more.

5. Recognize fears

With any new role, it is important to recognize your fears about the new position. Understand the ups and downs of your new position so that you can be prepared for it. Your responsibilities will increase from just yourself to a whole team of people, and this can be very intimidating. The best way to assuage your fears is to purposefully prepare for what could go wrong in the beginning. A need to work on accepting the changes with a shift in your mindset is also crucial.

6. Maintain old relationships and form new ones

As you transition into a general management role, you become more physically removed from the day-to-day work and people that you used to work with. When climbing the corporate ladder, it is important to not lose touch with the people that you used to work with. While the dynamics of those relationships might change a little, to truly understand how things work, you need to build and maintain relationships with professionals at every level in the company.

7. Lifelong learning

Being a general manager is a position where you cannot afford to be stagnant. The general management role forces you to learn new things every day. You cannot be at the top of the corporate ladder if you do not commit to learning. You have to commit to self-improvement to succeed in general management. A great way to do this is to participate in a general management executive education program. A program such as UCLA Post Graduate Program in Management for Executives (UCLA PGPX), UCLA General Management Program (UCLA GMP) or even online programs such as the Accelerated Management Program (AMP) from the National University of Singapore Business School or UCLA Accelerated Management Program (UCLA AMP) can help you succeed in you move from domain expert to general management. Programs such as these help you hone your skills, expand your knowledge and prepare you for the role you want to fill. Offered by top business schools, these programs are also led by exceptional faculty. The advantage of these programs do not stop at the training. The professional network you will gain will also help you achieve remarkable growth in your career. 

8. Trust yourself

Finally, you also need to trust yourself. You need to focus on your strengths and recognize and appreciate the skills that led you to this general management role. Believe that you have been given this new role because your seniors have recognized your ability to flourish in it. It will bode well to realize your importance to the company. This positivity and a sense of meaning will help you change your mindset and cope with the shift and demands of the new job.

A transition from domain expert to general management means you are progressing in your career. With the right preparation and focus, it can be a truly enriching experience, rather than being a challenging one.