Most likely this is a promotion or a new job – Congratulations!! Let me give you some first time manager tips that will help you find your way to success in your new role.
This time is extremely exciting and you’re likely to be overwhelmed with a wave of new tasks and responsibilities rolling your way.
Going into your new role prepared will help take some of the pressure off of you. Let’s get you so me tips!
Don’t Walk Around Like You Own The Place
I thought about changing this heading to something else because you may actually own the place. However, I believe this applies to everyone, even if your name is on the door.
Acknowledge everyone. Be approachable.
When I say acknowledge, I mean greet everyone and ask how they are. Do your best to know the names of as many people as you can throughout the organization. The names you do know, make sure you use them. “Good morning, Sara”.
It is great to make short, small talk with those around you. However, keep it short. You don’t want anyone thinking they can spend too much time chatting it up with you. After all, you’re a busy woman and have a full agenda.
Hold doors for others – don’t expect the door to be held for you because of a title.
Change your mindset – Instead of “I” did this or that, it is now “we“. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty!
Be The Example
Everything you expect in a great employee, you now have to do yourself. Hopefully you were already doing these suggestions before the promotion.
- Dress appropriately.
- Be on time always – to the office and to meetings. You are respectful of everyone’s time.
- Follow specific company rules. For example, If there are no leggings allowed, don’t wear leggings.
- Don’t be hesitant to help others outside of your team. You have direct reports now, but look at the company as a whole as your team.
- Arrive every day with energy. Find what gives you the most energy in the mornings and stick to a system that works for you.
- Journaling in the morning for 5-10 minutes works wonders.
- Maybe a morning walk or jog gets you in a better mood.
- Sometimes, taking a moment to myself at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee is all I need to get me ready.
Email Etiquette
Hopefully you already had amazing email etiquette and that’s one of the many reasons why you are now in a management position.
Make sure you keep it up. Here are some tips:
- Always use a subject line that clearly describes the main topic of your email. You want people to be able to find your email easily using the subject in the future.
- Create an email signature. Put your new shiny title in it.
- Don’t use emojis or abbreviations for words. We aren’t teenagers.
- Stay professional. Always remember that this email could be forwarded to anyone.
- Write every email like your boss could see it.
- Always read over every email before you press the send button. Check for grammar and punctuation.
- Don’t enter the recipients email address until you’ve typed out the email. I’ve made the mistake multiple times of sending something I was only halfway through.
Be A Great Listener
Your door is always open. When your staff comes in to speak with you, you actively listen.
This is such an important component of being a leader that people want to follow. I really can’t stress this enough. This will make everything else fall into place in your department. Gaining the patience to listen through times when you want to cut someone off and just tell it how it is is a skill you want to master. It will gain you respect and open doors for improvement.
Unless you are presenting or training, you are almost always listening more than you are speaking.
Culture In your Department
You want to create a department culture that is envious of every other manager in your company.
Meetings are an open floor for anyone to bring ideas for the future, pitches to revamp current practices, or concerns of any nature. You allow anyone to speak, but you moderate and jump in when necessary. You have a properly prepared agenda and rarely go over the allotted time.
You encourage everyone to have a voice in these meetings and although you have a prepared agenda, you allow the meetings to flow with what the team members need to talk about the most.
You stay on top of annual reviews and increases. Your department is well aware when these are coming and they are never holding their breath waiting to hear what is going on. If your company typically does reviews every July and it’s September and nothing has been done, I guarantee your team members are chatting it up about why you haven’t said anything. This is extremely important to them – so keep them in the loop and be informative with what you can say.
Decision Maker
You’re a decision maker. You make the best decision at the time for the problem at hand. Are they always the best decisions? Maybe not always, but you are making a decision and you accept and pivot when it may have been the wrong one.
You empower your employees to also be decision makers. Your trust is instantly given to your team. Allow them to appreciate that and not feel scared to decide something for themselves. Encourage decisions and applaud them for stepping up and making them.
Empower Your Employees
Once you are a management team member, you are not a one-woman show. You’ve changed your speaking from “I” to “we” for a reason.
You can’t catch everything that may go wrong in your department. You aren’t everywhere all at once micromanaging what everyone is doing.
However, you encourage your team members to speak up when they see something that doesn’t appear quite right. You empower your employees to stand up for protecting their company and department. When someone does speak up about something they saw that didn’t seem right, you thank them and sincerely appreciate their efforts to assist in making your department great. You never blow anyone off and you follow up on the concerns.
No Gossip – To Anyone
Most likely if you’ve moved up in the company, you are leaving some peers behind. Those coworkers that you chatted it up with are no longer equals to you professionally.
If they would like to continue to vent to you or talk about someone, you can be a listening ear. However, in your new role, you do not criticize anyone to their peers. It’s not a level playing field anymore. You are now a management team member and with that comes responsibilities and respect for everyone in the organization.
If a particular employee is not performing up to your standards, the route of gossiping about them is not one you should take. That’s beneath you and not an example that you are going to set for the rest of your team.
Support Upper Management
You’re very much pro-upper management and pro-company. The concerns and goals of upper management are also your concerns and goals.
When you have meetings with your higher ups, you always funnel down the information. Hoarding information isn’t your style and your team is always up to speed on what the company goals and directions are. Information is shared freely and often.
Do not negatively speak to your team on any decisions the company makes, even if you truly feel it wasn’t the right one. This doesn’t mean you don’t have input or a voice. Your voice is to be saved for closed door conversations with your upper management, not with your staff.
Takeaways
In multiple companies, I’ve seen people thrown into management roles that have zero experience in management. Know that it’s not just telling people what to do. I’ve seen people get away with that. I’ve seen management team members take credit for things they had zero input on. There are managers that show up to work late and leave early and have their feet on their desk for the few hours that they are there.
You have gotten this promotion because someone sees something in you. See it in yourself and continue the journey upwards.
The fact that you’re researching ways to be a great manager speaks volumes. You’re going places. Congratulations!
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