A Brief Guide for New Managers

Ask any young professional the highlight of their career. Most of them say that being promoted to a managerial position was one of the critical moments in their career. While being promoted to a manager is thrilling, new managers are often susceptible to mismanagement due to their lack of experience.

New managers tend to take up the middle management roles and are crucial to the proper structuring of the organization. An incompetent new manager often tends to make things difficult not only for his immediate team but also for the top management.

Here are a few tips for new managers to help them create a great work culture to get a good start.

The Dress Rehearsal

Getting ready before the actual job starts is one of the most important things new managers need to do to get off the right foot.

You might want to talk with your manager and find out how she used to deal with the new pressure. Also, new managers can take courses on how to deal with peers and subordinates. New managers should be well prepared with people management skills before handling the said role. Being prepared gives you the required skills to take a new position and gives you the much-needed confidence to ace the new role.

Getting to Know the Team

Most new managers ignore one aspect, the most significant change that happens in the role transition. New managers are going to manage not only more enormous responsibilities but also handle a team. They will have several peers and subordinates in their group, making the job tricky, especially if the associates were her peers before the promotion.

New managers should get to know the team better. It is essential to build a great rapport with the team. It creates everyday work a seamless experience. Spending time with the team and getting to know them makes a lot of difference in the smooth transitioning.

Learning to Lead

The most uncomfortable or somewhat awkward challenge of being a newly promoted manager has to manage employees who were your good friends before the promotion. Suddenly, the dynamics have changed, and it might become tricky to deal with the situation.

Should you order or delegate responsibilities, or will they do it on their own? Should you be critical of their performance?

The answer is that you have to do things the hard way and learn how to be a leader, even for employees who were once your peers. You need to step up and show professionalism, and expect the same from everyone in your team.

You can still be friends outside the workplace, but everyone is expected to be professional inside the office.

Active Listening

Active listening is a skill every professional needs to develop, but it is even more important for managers to have this skill. In the wave of giving orders and delegating tasks, mangers often forget to listen to the feedback of their subordinates and peers.

As a new manager, you need to create a culture of open communication in your team. Conduct frequent one-on-one meetings with your team. It would help if you considered coming to you with positive intent during an honest conversation with your team. They might be complaining about some issues because they think you can find a solution to that problem.

A good manager always makes sure that they leave with a more positive vibe after a conversation with their teammates than they came into the conversation. You need to listen carefully to what they are saying and learn to read between the lines. They will say not every issue or problem outright. The quality of a great manager is always in her ability to read between the lines.It becomes easy to get lost in the top management's myriad expectations as a new manager. You need to sit down, pause, and look at what exactly is the top management looking for. You need to understand the reason why you were promoted and what expectations they have from you. Once you know your deliverables, you need to communicate the same with your teammates.
It is equally important to set norms for your team. Norms are nothing but the basic guidelines of the functioning of the team. How strict is your team about discipline? Is the conversation between colleagues professional or casual? Similar kinds of stuff like these.
You must lay out these norms and expectations pretty early to ensure a seamless transition and working experience for both you and your team.

Setting Expectations

It is equally important to set norms for your team. Norms are nothing but the basic guidelines of the functioning of the team. How strict is your team about discipline? Is the conversation between colleagues professional or casual? Similar kinds of stuff like these.

You must lay out these norms and expectations pretty early to ensure a seamless transition and working experience for both you and your team.

Finally

Being a manager is not just about being authoritative but also being a great leader. New managers should always aspire to be the kind of leader and boss they always wanted before the promotion.

New managers often have to balance a sandwich act. They have subordinates, they are subordinates, and they have equal too. They need to answer top management, maintain a healthy relationship with other managers, and effectively lead a team. It often takes a toll on new managers who comes unprepared.

Every new manager has the opportunity to become the kind of manager they always wanted. With a bit of preparation and hard work, new managers have no difficulty adapting to their new roles.

This article is written by Iftekar Ahmed. He works as a Content Creator and Digital Marketer at Vantage Circle. When he is not playing guitar or solving puzzles, he is often seen fussing over foods he can't eat because he is on a perennial dieting spree. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com