Table of Contents
- Set clearly defined expectations
- Provide the right balance of structure and autonomy
- Let your team lead
- Listen actively
- Check your assumptions
- Schedule regular and consistent 1-on-1 meetings
- Invest in the professional development of your team
- Invest in your own professional development as well
- Be an empathetic leader
Welcome to your new role as a manager. You’ve just completed your management training program that provided best practices and tips for new managers, and you’re now ready to lead your team and advance your organization’s strategic goals.
What’s that? You haven’t completed your management training? Oh – there isn’t a training program at all?
Okay. Well. Welcome to your new role as a manager.
According to lorman.com, “59% of managers who oversee one to two employees report having no training at all; 41% of managers who oversee three to five employees claim the same.”
As you begin your management journey, how you choose to manage and present yourself can have a huge positive or negative impact on those around you. Indeed, as years of research have shown, people leave bad managers more than they leave bad companies. Keeping that in mind, and to position both yourself and your team for success, here are nine simple tips for new managers that you can start applying today.
1. Set clearly defined expectations
Good people want to do a good job, be successful, and feel like what they do makes an impact in their organization. However, when managers are not clear on the expectations of their employees, that can set everyone up for failure.
As early as possible, think deeply about what you expect from your team in terms of performance, communication, and collaboration. Whether you have the opportunity to build your own team or you’re coming into a management role of an existing team, communicate your expectations verbally and in writing within the first 90 days of your role.
Once you’ve communicated your expectations, give each team member a chance to share their thoughts and understanding of your expectations (bonus if they share their own expectations) and be open to ongoing dialogue, which helps maintain awareness of the expectations.
2. Provide the right balance of structure and autonomy
Teams need structure to help them stay on track and aligned with their department and organizational goals. Having clear expectations is one part of this, but there are many ways to provide structure for your team.
Whether you use one or a combination of team meetings, 1-on-1 meetings, one of the dozens of collaboration tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams, or other methods, find what works best for the needs of your team and be consistent. As the manager, you need systems to help you understand how your team is working towards their goals, but at the same time, you also need to provide the right amount of flexibility and autonomy to each person so that they don’t feel stifled by the structure and systems you put in place.
To help find that balance, simply ask for candid feedback from the team about the structure and how it can be improved to work better for them as an employee and you as a manager. Take that feedback into consideration, experiment, and then ask for feedback again after some time has passed.
3. Let your team lead
Next, give your team opportunities to lead. This can be on projects, group discussions with stakeholders, and other tasks in their wheelhouse.
As a manager, you need to keep in mind that there are natural power dynamics in professional settings. Your presence alone means that people may defer to you and pass on micro opportunities to give candid perspectives and take ownership over tasks.
To avoid this, refrain from leading projects and conversations that you don’t have to lead, even if you think you have the answers. Establish what and how you would like to be kept in the loop and let your team lead whatever projects or issues you collectively face.
Even if a specific project doesn’t work out well, it’s an opportunity for you and your team to learn from failure, which can help you be stronger the next time.
4. Listen actively
As humans, we are taught how to talk. However, we are not taught how to listen, effectively communicate, manage, or even how to lead. But listening to our team is critically important in establishing and maintaining trust.
When you meet with your team in groups or 1-on-1, be present. Actively listen to their goals, needs, and concerns.
Listen with intention and attention to understand fully what’s going on and what role you play (if any). Each team member deserves that minimum level of respect, and when you do that sincerely, you help establish a safe environment to connect and work collaboratively as a team.
5. Check your assumptions
My fifth tip for new managers is to check your assumptions at the door. Whether it’s a process, or a project, or a team member, please don’t assume that you’ve got it all figured out. There’s always more for you to learn, and having the self-awareness to recognize what you don’t know will also be seen and respected by your team.
Talk with your team and ask them to clarify your understanding. “This is what I think I heard – is that accurate?” “Is this a fair summary of how this process works?” “I’m not sure if I fully understand – can you please describe this for me another way?”
Especially for larger teams, the possibility of misinformation and misunderstanding is high. To minimize confusion, take a few minutes to double-check your understanding of something, which is also another small way to be present with your team.
6. Schedule regular and consistent 1-on-1 meetings
While meeting fatigue can be a real thing, it’s important to have regularly scheduled 1-on-1 meetings with your direct reports. This allows your team to talk about their work and experiences and to get to know you as a person. You’re human, after all.
Setting expectations for what to expect from the meeting can be helpful, but it’s also an opportunity for you to simply listen to a team member. Each person is unique, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to 1-on-1 meetings. Use your best judgment and take into consideration the unique needs of each person. What’s most important is being accessible and establishing consistent and open feedback in a safe environment.
7. Invest in the professional development of your team
As a manager, you have a significant influence on the professional growth of your team. As you establish goals for your team, think about how much more effective you can be as your team learns, grows, and works more collaboratively with each other and other stakeholders.
One tactic you can implement is professional development training. From conferences to books to podcasts and online videos, there are many opportunities available to help employees enhance their technical and durable skills tailored to the learning needs of each individual. Encourage your team to explore professional development opportunities that are relevant to their subject matter and the work they’re doing. To help reinforce the learnings, set the expectation that each person should write or present a brief summary to you or the team on what they learned and how it’s applicable to their work.
As you pitch professional development to your team, be sure to articulate why you believe it’s valuable and give practical examples of what professional development might look like for each person.
To encourage adoption, first set an annual budget to help cover travel, subscriptions, or other expenses related to professional development to limit financial barriers. Work with your supervisor to secure the funds. Second, let your team know that it’s okay to engage in professional development opportunities during work hours if events or other time-related activities happen during the workday.
It’s easy to miss, but if your team feels pressured to “produce” during work hours, they may feel that they don’t have time to join a program or event during the day, so they might skip opportunities altogether. Minimize that possibility by making it okay to prioritize professional development in their work schedule.
8. Invest in your own professional development as well
One of the best ways to encourage the adoption of professional development for your team is to lead by example. In other words, be the change you want to see in others.
Remember – as a manager, your behavior becomes the standard for everyone else. If you believe in the value of professional development, leading by example will help show that it’s okay for your team to engage in professional development as well.
Regardless of what industry you are in, as you transition to management, there are particular topics you should invest in understanding. First, be open to and please take time to explore diversity, equity, and inclusion and how those concepts influence your organization, recruitment procedures, and team collaboration. Second, make time to learn about unconscious bias and the ways that can influence decision-making, and how we manage teams. Finally, study strategic planning, which can help you connect tactical decisions from your team to broader objectives for the organization. No matter the organization, developing a solid awareness of these three subjects and skills will help you become a more well-rounded leader.
9. Be an empathetic leader
Finally, as part of your professional development and ongoing growth as a manager, I cannot stress enough how important it is to be empathetic and kind as a person. The vast majority of the people you encounter in the work world have good intentions. They take pride in the work, and they genuinely want to do the right thing.
Be kind to people.
When things go wrong, or there are misunderstandings, default to trust until proven otherwise. Give people the opportunity to share their understanding of an incident or their behavior. Understand that we all have things going on in our lives that can affect how we show up to work. Give your team every opportunity to be successful.
Should you find yourself in a situation where you need to have difficult conversations to course-correct or let someone go, do so with dignity and respect. There is never an excuse to react to a situation by talking down to someone or discriminating against someone based on gender, race, age, or ability.
Be kind. Be empathetic.
Thank you for reading. These are my nine tips for new managers. What tips are you going to put into action this week?
