3 Tips for New Managers (and 3 Mistakes to Avoid)

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5 years ago

You did it! You’ve worked hard and received a promotion. You are now a manager! You’re excited but also not sure how your new role will be different than your previous role as an individual contributor. You’re looking for tips for new managers! The purpose of this post is to give you the most important tips you will need to succeed as a new manager.

But, wait, first, you’re probably asking yourself…

“Is being a manager really that different than being an individual contributor?”

Um, yes. Very much so.

“Really?! I’m just managing a job I used to do.”

Yes, really. It’s a completely different job and your success depends on recognizing that. And this post will help you do that.

Before jumping in, I want to state that there are a LOT of books on this topic. I, myself, read The One Minute Manager when I was newly promoted. There are numerous other books and, like all topics on the site, Corporette does a great job outlining the best books with tips for new managers.

That said, I think you can only get so much from a book. There is no substitute for on-the-job-training, but learning from others’ mistakes can help. Therefore, before getting into tips for new managers, I first want to share…

The 3 mistakes I typically see new manager make:

1. Your job has changed, but you have not

As a manager, you’re not doing the work anymore; you are managing it. Therefore, your job isn’t to know the details of all the work. Instead, your job is to support the successful execution of the work so that it has the necessary business impact. As a new manager, you need to determine how to ensure that everything stays on track even though you are not very close to it.

Seems impossible, huh? It’s not, but it can be tricky. It does require a different way of thinking. It’s not always intuitive and I have some suggestions in the tips for new managers below!

2. You try to save your direct reports from themselves

As a new manager, you want to make your direct reports successful. Many new managers try to bubble wrap their direct reports and help them so that they don’t experience any pitfalls.

EVERY new manager I hired has — in an effort to support his/her direct reports — offered to take point for projects when their direct reports are experiencing a surge in work. Then, the manager himself/herself becomes overwhelmed and burnt out.

I’m not kidding. EVERY. SINGLE. NEW. MANAGER. I. HAVE. HIRED. has done this.

Every time, I have cautioned them, and told them that every other manager falls into this trap. I’ve offered coaching on how to handle a direct report who has a heavy workload. I have shared my personal experience with getting overwhelmed. But, no one listens. So I sit back until they come to me in distress or a big ball has dropped.

You need to let your direct reports solve their own problems…and you need to help them do that (not do things for them).

3. Asking “how can I help?” vs. determining the that help is needed (and supporting accordingly)

It’s amazing how many times I’ve asked the question, “How can I help?” and hear back “nothing” or “everything is great.” Only to find out that, well, help was really needed. Now, I’m not saying you don’t ask the question, because it does convey an intent to support and, perhaps, you have a very advanced direct report who can articulate exactly what he/she needs.

More often, I have found that you need to actually find the help needed (which — as discussed above — is hard if you’re not directly involved…see tips below). Once you find the area that needs support, at that point, it’s more effective to offer help.

So, with those mistakes in mind, here is…

Mrs. Type A’s 3 Tips for New Managers

1. Be clear on what success looks like

As mentioned above, your new job is to support the successful execution of the right work.

I bolded two words above for very specific reasons. First is support. Your job is to support work not do it. To best support work, consider:

explaining the objective and what good looks like for the work (as well as what bad looks like); be clear with your direct report when you’re closer to what bad looks like vs. good!
establishing methods of “checking in” directly (via meetings with your direct reports to review) and indirectly (perhaps via your peers who observe the work of your direct reports)
asking probing questions to tease out what you need to know from your direct reports. Examples of good questions that will help you tease out what’s really going on include:
- what do you feel happy about relative to this project?
- where are you more confident about the work?
- where are you less confident? what worries you most about it?
- if there was one thing you could change about the way the project is going, what would it be?

There is 1 thing I have learned (and re-learned) in my career as a manager, which is…

Anyone who repeatedly says that everything is “fine” or “great”….is not “fine” or “great!

It’s amazing how many times I have had direct reports say everything is “fine” with their work. Then you ask, where are you more confident vs. less confident in the project….all of a sudden a much of information comes out that would not otherwise have gotten.

Once you identify the areas that need help, I suggest co-brainstorming what has to happen next to address it (i.e., help from another department or alignment with a different senior leader). At that point, offer to help with the items you brainstormed.

I have found that this approach not only actually provides the employee with support but actually helps keep the work on track. Out of all advice, this is perhaps the best of the tips for new managers!

The other word I bolded was right work. I see this as ensuring your team’s resources go to the areas of the business where the impact of them is needed the most. In terms of determining the right work, I think that comes down, in part, to how you manage your manager. So, more on that in a future post!

2. Coach your direct reports through problems, don’t solve them

As a new manager, it’s hard to know where to draw the line in terms of helping your direct report vs. letting them figure things out on their own. The managers’ job is to identify where someone may need to grow and offer to coach.

Often times, though, an employee has to learn first hand and, so, the manager needs to determine how to get them to learn. Often times, it pays to let the employee scrape his/her knees (so as to avoid a major injury later!).

For example, I have a relatively new manager on my team, Shelly. She came to me saying that she wasn’t getting the cooperation from another team. So, she asked if I would talk to the leader of that team.

Now, do you think I did that?

No, I did not. Instead, I suggested she meet with the leader first, and I’ll follow up if necessary.

I did this because — despite being perfect in every other way — Shelly is a bit shy. She doesn’t like conflict and she’s a bit of a people pleaser. So, I want her to go have a tough conversation with the leader from the other team. I suspect that Shelly may back down. She may not, which would be a HUGE victory and growth for her. But if she does back down, I will follow up with that leader (and bring Shelly to show her out to do it).

Shelly needs the opportunity to struggle with this situation a bit and find her way through it. And, if it proves to be too tough, I’ll step in. Shelly will learn more from watching me navigate than she would have if she didn’t try it herself first.

3. Take a sincere interest in the personal and professional lives of your employees

At the core, as a manager, you need to connect with your employees. Otherwise, it’s hard to motivate them, encourage them, and push them. The more you know about them, what drives them, and where they want to go with their career, you will be able to motivate them. I always try to invest just as much time on the employee as his/her work.

I have had a direct report, Molly, for just about a year. She’s taken on a lot of new things recently and, every week she would say her workload was “fine” and she’s “great.” To me, “fine” and “great” are always a trigger to dig for more but I ignored that instinct for a while. Eventually, I asked about her daughter’s volleyball season, as I had heard a lot about that. Then, I probed about her father’s birthday party, which she had been planning. I asked and I asked and she kept saying she hadn’t participated in a while because….

…she is having health issues…

She hasn’t been able to return to health and, so, she’s participating less in family events.

Well, I was floored. I had no idea. Molly has been “fine” and “great.” By knowing her well, I was able to probe and get to the core of something that I needed to know…she needed a break. In light of this revelation, I essentially told her she would take Monday off to rest (without needing to report it as a sick day) and work from home the rest of the week. I would take care of anything that needed to be in person. To date, Molly works from home many days a week and is doing better.

I share this story because it illustrates the investment you need to make in a person to help them when they need it the most (which is your job as a manager). If I didn’t know Molly well and ask the questions I did, I wouldn’t be able to figure out what was going on. As a result, Molly may have needed to have a more formal medical leave or, perhaps, even quit to focus on her health.

By giving Molly a little reprieve, she got better. I think she was also re-invigorated to come back to work, having felt very supported and cared for.

Any other advice besides these 3 tips for new managers?

Well, yes. You will never perfect the execution of those 3 tips for new managers. Even those who share these tips to new managers (such as myself), need to brush up a bit….let me explain…

I shared the story about Molly because it paints a good picture — not only of the tireless focus you need to have on your employees as a manager — but also how an experienced manager like myself needs to re-learn these tips for new managers.

After Molly shared her health issues, I felt horrible. How did I not notice?! How much worse did I make her condition by having her work hard?! I was disappointed in myself and felt partly responsible for her condition. On my way home, I cried; I felt I had failed her.

I am sharing this because this is part of management too. Your mistakes are felt by you…and others as well. Being a manager is a big weight and we need to hold ourselves to high standards and take responsibility for areas we need to improve. Once you become a manager, you’ll never feel like you’re doing a perfect job again, and it can be hard.