Congratulations! Your promotion campaign has been successful and you’re now a manager— either for the first time, or for the first time at this level. You’re likely to be responsible for managing a team of up to 15 people, either in a company you already work for, or in a new organisation. This is obviously very exciting for you, though you may feel somewhat daunted at the prospect, especially if you were previously a member of the team you will now be managing.
However, provided you follow a few basic rules, there is no reason why such fears shouldn’t be easily overcome, and your new role will give you excellent scope to stretch your wings and fulfil your potential. This chapter will give you these basic rules and help to smooth the path forward into this new phase of your working life.
Step one: Think about some key questions
1 I’m worried I might not be up to the job. How can I overcome my nerves?
It’s only natural to have some feelings along these lines, and most people do when faced with a new challenge. Try to keep your worries under control, though, as a crisis of confidence may affect your chance of success. Keep positive and remind yourself of your skills and competence to do the job—after all, the company has recognised them, otherwise you wouldn’t have been offered the role! Look after your health too: make sure you get plenty of sleep and exercise, so you feel fighting fit and ready to take on anything.
2 Is it likely that my new job will affect my home life?
Almost certainly, yes. Moving into any new job can be stressful, and even more so when new or extra levels of responsibility are involved. The trick is to make sure you’re prepared for it and to face the fact that your life may be more demanding than ever before. Talk this over with your family and friends at an early stage; it will be a huge help if they are ready to lend their support while you get to grips with your new role, and also keep ‘home’ distractions to a minimum as you’re settling in, so that you can focus.
3 Will I need to change my persona at work?
No, not essentially, but you may need to adjust your attitude and the way you think about your job. A lot of management is about standing back from the detail and seeing the ‘big picture’ of what is happening so that you can make strategic decisions about how to act. Rather than getting involved in the nitty-gritty of individual tasks (as you may have done as a team member), try to take an objective overview. If you can learn to see the wood for the trees, you’ll naturally behave in a way that suits the circumstances.
Step two: Research and plan your new job
First things first: if you’re moving to a new company to take up your job, find out everything possible about it, the department or section you’ll be in, the job itself, and anything else you can think of.
If you’re moving up the ranks at your current place of work, you’ll know much of this already, but whatever the situation, don’t prejudge what you’re going to find and don’t be bound by what you’ve done before or how any of your previous employers operated.
From all this information, try to form at least a tentative plan in advance—it’s much harder to do this once you’re in the post. For example, what do you want to achieve?
How might you need to develop yourself to match the new demands? Think honestly about your strengths and weaknesses: how can you use your qualities and experience to their best advantage, and compensate for your limitations?
Step three: Engage with your team
Once you start your new job, make this your first priority. You need to know:
the purpose of your department, team, or unit and its goals
the work being done
the current state of play
any customer expectations that need to be met
Get all your team members together as soon as possible to introduce yourself, and then arrange meetings with each of them individually. Keep these meetings as friendly and informal as you can, but allow a generous amount of time and plan some kind of framework for the discussion. Listen carefully to what people have to say, and get information about them as individuals. Most importantly, ask each person the question: what should I do or not do to help you to perform your job effectively?
TOP TIP
Listening—and tuning in properly—to your team’s concerns is a key part of your early days in a new job. That doesn’t mean for a moment that you should promise them the moon, but simply that you’ll be in a much better position to represent those concerns better to your own managers. You need to be able to fight your team’s corner.
Step four: Plan some ‘quick wins’
Next, plan a few targets that you can hit quickly and easily, all of which will help you to feel more at home and on top of things. Achieving these also eases the pressure you feel to perform and create a positive first impression, and begins the relationship-building process. Quick wins might include things like familiarising yourself with systems or ways of working if you’re new to the company (for example, the internal e-mail system); setting up an early discussion with your line manager, arranging introductory meetings with suppliers or customers (external and internal), or even taking your team to the pub one lunchtime.
Step five: Clarify what expectations others have of you
You may be lucky enough to have been given a detailed job description, but the chances are there are still large gaps in your understanding of the task and priorities, what is or isn’t acceptable in the new environment, and on what criteria you will be judged by your boss, peers, customers, and others. Don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions to clarify these issues, and then be very honest with yourself. Can you meet these standards? If not, what might you need to do, who could help, and what might the price be?
The perils of the ‘new broom’ syndrome
While you’ll be keen to get going in your new role and make your mark, do tread carefully—at least to start with. Don’t assume that your new team will welcome your style or your ideas with open arms, even if your predecessor was unpopular. They need to feel they can trust you and that you respect what they’ve been doing previously, before you can count on their support and co-operation.
Above all, don’t depart too dramatically and quickly from established practice: even if you’re desperate to change ‘the way things are done around here’, people are much less likely to throw their hands up in horror if you tackle things gradually. That doesn’t mean that you do nothing, simply that you filter new ideas and ways of working bit by bit.
Step six: Show your commitment to individual development
From your initial meetings with your team, you will know what their individual aspirations and hopes are for their jobs going forward. Follow up by setting a code of management practice that you tell all team members about, and then follow it rigorously. This code might include commitments to assess training needs, to hold regular team meetings and one-to-one sessions, to set specific goals, and to evaluate performance against these goals.
Support this code by the way you yourself behave towards team members. Make a point of appreciating extra time and effort that people put in, listen properly to what they say, and be generous in your praise of their good qualities or achievements. The point is, by demonstrating to your team that you as their manager are on their side and will do everything in your power to support them, you will gain their trust and acceptance, and the performance of the whole team will be greatly enhanced.
Step seven: Lead by example
A good manager is also a role model, so it almost goes without saying that you must set an example for how you want your team members to behave. Lead by involving people in establishing group objectives, setting standards, and achieving deadlines, and demonstrate your own strong personal commitment to achieving the team’s goals. Set an example too by maintaining high standards in your appearance and general behaviour, and by establishing warm, friendly relationships.
TOP TIP
In most workplaces, there’s nearly always someone who is a nightmare to work with. Before you were a manager, if you had a troublesome colleague, you may have let off steam about him or her to a friend in the office. Being a boss doesn’t mean you have to be a saint, clearly, but it does mean that you have to be extremely careful about what you say about colleagues and to whom. Even if you feel like screaming, don’t commit any derogatory comments about a colleague to e-mail: it’s all to easy to inadvertently send them to the wrong person. Also be careful about conversations you have in the office— you could be overheard. Use your common sense, and, if you can, wait until you get home and unburden yourself to someone completely outside of your work life: your partner, friends, family members, or pet!
Step eight: Take stock regularly
At end of your first week, identify issues that need attention and make a plan for the following week. Get into the habit each week of setting aside some time for review and planning. Don’t let your mistakes lead to self doubt: everyone makes them. The key thing to remember is that good managers learn from their mistakes, while bad ones repeat them.
Common mistakes
You make promises that may be difficult or impossible to keep
It is very tempting, during the phase of settling in and relationship building, to make all kinds of promises to your team, boss, or customers in the interests of creating a good impression. Do remember, though, that you’ll be judged on whether or not those promises are fulfilled, so be cautious about what you say you’ll deliver. It’s much better to under promise and over deliver.
You form alliances based on first impressions
Common myth has it that first impressions usually turn out to be accurate, but this is often not true. Your understanding of people and circumstances may change substantially as you learn more about them— especially if you’ve moved company and are grateful for a friendly face in your first few weeks—so don’t cement yourself into new relationships that later turn out to be inappropriate or which might alienate other, potentially more useful, allies.
You miss being friends with your team
This is probably the hardest part of promotion for many people: you’re thrilled at the great opportunity you’ve earned, but know that your relationships with many people will change irrevocably. Whether you’re new to just the job or the company, you need to build good relationships with your team members but also distance yourself a little from those who report to you so that you can be objective and unbiased in the way you work with them. This can be difficult when you have previously been a member of the team yourself, but, if you don’t, you run the danger of being seen as a manager who has ‘favourites’ and of allowing your personal feelings to affect your judgment. This won’t be good for your team’s morale and you’ll also lose much of your authority. It’s probably best to be honest about how you feel with particular friends so that you are seen to maintain a professional relationship at work, and you can then keep purely social activities for outside the office.
You’re trapped into accepting the status quo
Whatever anyone says about ‘the way things are done round here’, the old ways are not always the best. Reserve your right to postpone judgment until you are thoroughly familiar with your team and your role, and then, if things need changing, change them, remembering to be sensitive in the way you do it.
STEPS TO SUCCESS
Don’t let worries about your new job get the better of you. Your skills and experience have got you this far, so keep positive and enjoy the challenge.
If you’re a ‘details’ person, you might find it hard to let go of some tasks so that you can concentrate on the bigger picture—the goals your team, department, and company need to meet. That’s exactly what you must do, though, so be ready to adjust.
Research and planning will help you to make a smooth transition into your new role. Find out exactly what’s expected of you and come up with a basic plan of action.
Spend time getting to know your team and listen carefully to what they have to say—they could prove to be your greatest allies.
Don’t over promise, though. It’s tempting to get people on-side by telling them exactly what they want to hear, but you’ll end up backing yourself into a corner.
Plan some quick wins to help you feel more in control.
Tread carefully at first if you’re introducing change. People’s knee-jerk reaction to change tends to be negative, but, if you bring it in gradually, you’ll get a less panicky response.
Be very careful about what you say—and to whom— about your colleagues at work, even if they’re driving you mad. Use your common sense and be discreet, however angry or upset you are.
Don’t beat yourself up if you make mistakes. Experience is the best teacher you’ll ever have.