Tips for New Managers
Rise and Shine, it is a new day, a new beginning. You’ve finally made it to the first step of your goal, you are the new manager of your firm. Congratulations! You’ve worked hard, no denying it, those hours and hours making presentations, working numbers, overtime, meetings, calls and for what? For this! This achievement which you deserve. There is a need of best qualities and some leadership tips that will make a new manager – a great leader! 🙂
Now let us get to the point….
This whole new thing can be daunting (People are already hating you) but do not let that get to you. There hasn’t been a throne without thorns, and you just need to tread carefully. Don’t be scared stepping into the office with your new role, walk in confidently as if it’s your home, your confidence is what is going to take you further.
The new responsibility brings new challenges and you might be finding yourself overwhelmed at times, Keep Calm! It’ll pass. Not even in dreams, lose your temper and give people chance to point fingers at you.
We’ve jot down tips for new managers to help you sail smoothly and reach your destination.
- Manage Expectations– As a new manager you will have a lot of expectations to deal with. Yours, your team’s and most importantly your management, so what do you do? You bridge the gap between your team and your management while working for both. The subordinates always have issues with the management, and they expect you to take it up with them. At the same time, the management wants to convey something to the team which they want you to do. It is your job to convey what they both want to be conveyed and in a subtle and professional manner. Seriously, don’t get emotionally involved, keep your eyes and ears open. You will always be torn between your team and your management as they both think you’re their man, which you are, no doubt but don’t play conniving politics for your benefits because it doesn’t last. Hope you know what we mean.
- Be a Leader– Yes, particularly important! We know you’re new and all but still be a leader. And by leader, we don’t mean you go all crazy on the team and turn the working atmosphere into a nightmare. If you do this, you wouldn’t last. Your team will go against you and you’ll probably be demoted or worse thrown out. Understand what a leader is, a leader is a person who always stands by his subordinates. One who understands every member strength and weakness and allot work accordingly. He creates a peaceful and healthy working condition and allows the subordinate to speak their mind and open without feeling threatened. Also, a leader is someone who doesn’t just throw his junior under the bus if something goes wrong, rather stands by hm and takes the fall. Such a manager is loved and respected by all.
- See the Bigger Picture– Things can get crazy at work, everything might seem bleak. You just lost a client or a project, it is onto you to not freak out. Because if you freak out, your team will freak out and the entire day will turn into a freak show. You don’t want that. Understand things, you lost a client, it happens, move on. Things can’t be that bad. Sure, it was an important client but what can you do, you worked hard, you did your part. Make your team understand it, motivate them, inspire them to work even harder the next time. Tell them that next time you’ll get a bigger client or a project. Also prepare yourself to tackle the management, explain them what happened, cover the loopholes, and promise you’ll deliver soon.
- Lead by example– Some managers tend to just assign the work and take a chill pill. No, that’s not how you work. Your company gets projects and clientele daily, some are easy to get, some critical, a good manager takes responsibility of getting business in the company. He just doesn’t sit in his office playing games while screaming and shouting on his subordinates for getting the job done. You as a manager must take ownership of what goes on in your office. You must work with your team to get the targets fulfilled.
- Delegate and Monitor– I know it’s exact opposite of what I said about leading by example but hear me out. You are the manager, ownership of everything is yours but that doesn’t mean you’ll have to handle everything, you have been given a team for that and you need to learn how to get your team to work. Your team members must have people with different skills, you need to understand those skills and assign the job accordingly. You cannot give operations to a graphic designer, understand their strengths, and use them. Monitoring is also important. You need to monitor the tasks given from time to time so that glitches can be tackled immediately. Also, it is your job to assign the work on time, it can’t be that something that was supposed to happen on Monday, is being asked to do on Friday. It shows your inefficiency and there’s a saying too “Your inefficiency is not my emergency”. Your team is not responsible for something you forgot to do on time.
- ABC– Ability, Behaviour, and Character an important aspect to be a good manager. You became a manager with your ability, your management saw your work and thought you’ll be good to manage office. You’ve achieved what you wanted to, now is the time to show your behaviour and character. The way you behave with your subordinates shows your character. Always be humble in your dealings. Remember you are replaceable. Nobody likes a person who loses their temper every time or is bossy without any reason. Such person never last long in a firm. Your position will remain when you’ll have people behind you, supporting you. Don’t play them or else they’ll go behind your back and you might lose your job, if not job, you’ll you’re your reputation.
- Take Initiative– This is a vast topic, but I’m going to explain it in short. You as a manager can take several initiatives but the most important one is the benefit of company and its employees. Most of the guidelines come from the management, be it related to work, working conditions, salaries, etc. Since you are close to the management, you can present ideas that will be for the betterment of the company and the employees. It is not important whether the management pays any heed to your proposal or not, what’s important is the initiative you took because that is your people will see.
So here we are with few more tips as a new manager that will probably make your journey easy. It is going to be bumpy road, but you can make it smooth by following these guidelines laid by us.
There are few things that’s not in the list and those are something which we cannot give in a list either. Those things are your own experiences. The way your everyday goes, how you deal with situations and people, the mistakes you make, what you learn from them, everything counts. Practical knowledge is what is best and no better way than that of experiencing it first-hand.
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