You’ve been working hard, you are business expert and everyone knows how good you are at your job and now that special day has come that the boss invites you into his/her office and gives you the promotion you have been working for.
Great news – right?
You are now boss, you have people reporting to you and your whole working life is about to change forever. Here are few tips to avoid those common first-time manager mistakes.
1 You are now bottom of new ladder
Leadership requires completely different skill-set to the one you required as subject matter expert. Never think that promotion is the end of your learning journey, it’s actually just the beginning.
2 Remember it’s never about you
The old mentality of believing that team works to support the boss is outdated; the leader exists to ensure that his or her team has everything they need, direction, shared vision, skills and resources.
3 Accept that you will make mistakes
Nobody has ever started new job and never made any mistakes. The big difference now is that your mistakes are likely to affect your team. Don’t beat yourself up, just apologise, learn from your mistakes and become better leader.
4 Hide your frustrations
The days of moaning about the company or even worse moaning about colleagues are gone. You now represent the company so everything you say will be seen as company statement regardless of its intent.
5 Talk to your boss
With new job it’s likely you will have new boss. Talk to him or her and find out their expectations of you, how they want to be updated and what their priorities are for the company.
6 Talk to your team
Every one of your new team will have slightly different idea of what your role should be and what you should be doing. Talk to your team and find out what they expect from you and explain what you want from them.
7 Lead by example
Whatever is contained in the company’s code of conduct or the performance plans people will always learn what behaviour is acceptable by your actions. You have to demonstrate the behaviour you want from your team, if you don’t you will never be seen as leader.
8 Understand the organisational culture
Every company has its own culture and it’s vital to understand what it is. Each company has HR policies of different severity. Get to grips with the feel of the company so that you don’t accidentally come across as too tough or too soft.
9 Be prepared to be unpopular
There will always be times that the needs of the company will conflict with the needs of some individuals. Always explain your reasons, people may not agree but they will respect you. Remember you can lead team if people don’t like you, but you can’t lead if they don’t respect you.
10 Don’t change who you are
The most common mistake that new managers make is that they try to become someone else or the kind of person they think manager should be. One of the reasons you got this job is because you are you. By all means aim to be better person but don’t deviate too far from who you really are. M
Mark Wager is leadership coach for Elite LD.
