Making the first move into management is one of the most difficult changes people will face in their career.
The challenge is daunting, the skills required are numerous, and making the psychological shift from team member to team leader doesn’t come naturally to most people.
The technical and people skills that got you promoted in the first place are unlikely to serve you that well as a manager, but it’s surprisingly common for new managers to be left on their own to figure things out on the job.
Every job and organisation will have specific knowledge unique to their organisation that managers will need to succeed. But there are also universal and indispensable skills that successful managers use every day.
These five topics should be covered in any training course aimed at new managers.
Effective delegation
New managers will have a desire to perform well and feel the pressure if they and their team aren’t making progress. Almost every new manager will have felt the temptation to take on extra work themselves to be sure it gets done. So instead of asking a team member they manage to do a piece of work, they decide it’s easier to just do it themselves.
In the short term this might be ok, but it will lead to burnt out and worse, it doesn’t give the team members a chance to step up and improve their own skills.
Conversely, some new managers aren’t sure how or when to take responsibility for certain tasks and leave it entirely to their team when they should have taken a more active role in deciding by whom, how and when a piece of work was completed.
It’s extremely important that managers know what tasks to delegate, and how much supervision to offer.
Goals and expectations
It’s not enough to divide up work and ask people to get on with it. New managers need to make it clear to the people on their teams what is expected of them.
Over the years certain techniques such as SMART goals have been used to help people pinpoint actions needed to make progress. Some of the techniques still work well, but there are other more up-to-date and effective tools, which give managers and staff a more rounded and effective way of talking about what needs to happen, what quality of outcomes are expected, and when work should be completed.
A course that covers proven and practical techniques that managers can use to be clear about expectations in the first place will prevent a lot of the more challenging management issues later on, such as managing poor performance.
Giving and receiving feedback
Unfortunately poor performance will happen from time to time. New managers need to have the confidence and skills to address it quickly and improve performance by giving timely, actionable feedback.
A lot of managers are convinced that the only way to give feedback is to us the “sandwich” approach. So, break any feedback into three sections, first say something complimentary, then say something critical and finish with another complimentary remark. This isn’t effective. It’s potentially confusing, and many people will filter out the criticism and focus on the last thing you said.
It’s much better to be clear and concise and focus on what you want to change. Our New Manager Bootcamp outlines the E2C2 method, which is simple and powerful.
Motivating people
Why should anyone do what you ask? It’s their job and they are paid to of course, but a manager needs to know how to connect with what motivates people to make sure that each member of the team is engaged and doing their best.
Management courses that cover the basics of how people think about work and how they respond to challenges and setbacks will help new managers understand that a one size fits all approach will not work. For example a simple tool like the Skill/Will matrix will help new managers understand who on their team needs to be motivated or developed, so that can be approached in a planned and effective way.
Being authentic
This might be the hardest part of becoming a manager for the first time. How do you step up to a management role and still be you? Are you going to be managing people who were once your peers, and will that be uncomfortable? New managers will need some help to think about their own response to change, and how to develop the self-awareness they will need to excel at managing others.