YOUR FIRST WEEK ON THE JOB as a manager will be unusual, to say the least. If you’re a student of human behavior, you’ll observe some surprising developments.
SETTLING IN
Don’t believe that everyone is happy about your promotion. Some of your coworkers will feel they should have been chosen. They may be jealous of your new position and secretly hope you fail.
Others, the office “yes people,” will immediately start playing up to you. As the chosen one, you can be their ticket to success. Their objective isn’t all bad, but their approach is unfortunate.
Some coworkers will put you to the test early. They may ask you questions to see if you know the answers. If you don’t, they’ll want to see if you’ll admit it or if you’ll try to bluff your way through it. Some may ask you questions you cannot possibly know the answers to, just for the sheer delight of embarrassing you.
Most—you hope the majority—will adopt a wait-and-see attitude. They’re not going to condemn or praise you until they see how you perform. This attitude is healthy and all you really have a right to expect.
Initially you will be measured against your predecessor in the position. If that person’s performance was poor, yours will look great by comparison even if you’re mediocre. If you follow a highly capable performer, your adjustment will be tougher. Before you begin thinking it’s best to follow a miserable performer, consider the load of tough problems you’d be inheriting from your inept predecessor, which is why he is no longer there. It will be difficult but potentially quite rewarding, if you’re up to the challenge. The highly capable predecessor is probably gone because she was promoted. In either case, you have a big job ahead of you.
One of your first decisions should be to refrain from immediately instituting changes in the method of operation. (In some situations, top management may have instructed you to go in and make certain immediate changes because of the seriousness of the situation. In such cases, however, it is usually announced that changes will be forthcoming.) Above all, be patient. Keep in mind that most people find changes threatening and are inclined to resist them either consciously or unconsciously. Sudden change often results in a fear response that will work against you and not serve you well as you seek to make a positive impact.
When you do need to make changes, whether soon after your promotion or later, be as forthcoming as possible in explaining what will be taking place and why. While change may be frightening to people the unknown is even more disabling. This does not mean that you disclose every detail. Determining what to disclose and what to keep to yourself is part of the judgment you need to have as a manager. But the more forthcoming you can be, the more you will help your team get past the resistance to change that is part of human nature.
In all settings, but particularly when implementing changes, answer questions as honestly as possible. If you are new to the position, don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” if you don’t. Your people don’t expect you to know everything. They may just be probing to see if they can trust you. Trying to fabricate an answer to a question you don’t know the answer to is always a bad idea, and will very likely cost you credibility and trust.
If you make changes immediately, you’ll be resented. In addition to being disquieting to your team, your actions can be construed as being arrogant and an insult to your predecessor. Many young new leaders make their own lives more difficult by assuming they have to use all their newfound power immediately. The key word should be restraint. It is vital to remember that you’re the one who is on trial with your subordinates, not they with you.
This is a good time to make an important point about your own attitude. Many new managers communicate rather well upward to their superiors, but poorly downward to their direct reports. However, your direct reports will have more to say about your future than your superiors. You are going to be judged by how well your team functions—the results your team delivers—so the people who now work for you are the most important people in your business life. Believe it or not, they’re more important to your future than the president of your company. This bit of knowledge has always seemed obvious, yet many new managers spend almost all their time planning their upward communication and give only a passing glance to the people who really control their future.
USING YOUR NEW AUTHORITY
If there is one area where many new managers blunder, it is the use of authority. This is particularly true of new managers navigating their way through a self-directed “sink or swim” method of on-the-job training. This is due to the flawed belief that because you now have the authority of management, you have to start using it—and you must use and display it in a big way. This may be the biggest mistake that new managers make.
View the authority of the new position as you would a limited inventory. The fewer times you draw on the inventory, the greater is the supply that remains for when it is really needed.
The newly appointed manager who starts acting like “the boss” by issuing orders and other directives is off to a bad start. While you may not hear the remarks directly, the typical comments made behind the back of such a misguided manager might be, “Boy, is she drunk with power,” or “This job has really gone to his head,” or “He sure is fond of himself since he was promoted.” You don’t need this kind of problem.
If you don’t draw down your inventory of authority too often, the authority you may have to use in an emergency is more effective because it is infrequently displayed. The people you lead know that you are the manager. They know that the requests you make carry the authority of your position. The vast majority of the time, it is unnecessary to use that authority.
There is a term in the creative arts called understatement. For the most part, it means that what is left unsaid may be as important as what is said. This is true with the use of authority. A direction given as a request is a managerial type of understatement. If the response you are seeking is not forthcoming, you can always clarify your request or add a bit of authority. On the other hand, if you use all your authority to achieve a task, and then discover by the reaction that you have used too much, the damage is done. It is difficult, if not impossible, to de-escalate the overuse of authority.
In short, do not assume that you need to use the authority of your position. Perhaps the greatest by-product of this softer approach is that you are not building a negative image that may be nearly impossible to erase later.
HAVING THE PERSONAL TOUCH
Sometime during the first sixty days in your new management position, you should plan on having a personal conversation with each of the people in your area of responsibility. Don’t do this the first week or so. Give your people a chance to get used to the idea that you’re there. If you try to do it immediately, you risk overwhelming or intimidating your team members. When it comes time to talk, ask them into your office, to lunch, or out of the office for coffee for an unhurried discussion about anything that is on their minds. Do no more talking than necessary. This first discussion is not designed for outward communication with your team members; it is designed to open lines of communication from them to you. (Have you ever noticed that the more you allow the other person to talk, the higher you’ll be rated as a brilliant conversationalist?)
Although the employees’ personal concerns are important, it is preferable to restrict the discussions to work-related topics. Sometimes it is difficult to define these limits because problems at home may be troubling an employee more than anything else, but at all times you must avoid getting into a situation where you’re giving personal advice. Just because you’ve been selected as the boss, it doesn’t make you an expert on all the personal problems confronting your people. Listen to them; often that’s what they need more than anything else—someone to listen to them.
Do not think for a moment that this can be done by email or by a phone call. Not a chance. Both methods are unacceptable substitutes for an in-person conversation. Neither allow the connection you are seeking to establish to occur. If you have staff working remotely, you may have to start with a video call if it is not possible to have an in-person conversation in the first sixty days. If you do have to resort to a video call make it clear that the conversation will be continued in-person as soon as possible.
GETTING TO KNOW THEM
The purpose of having a conversation with the members of your team is to give them the opportunity to open the lines of communication with you. It is important that you show a genuine interest in their concerns and learn of their ambitions within the company. Ask questions that will get them to expand on their points of view. You can’t fake genuine interest in others; you’re doing this because you care about the employees’ well-being. Such attention is advantageous to both sides. If you can help employees achieve their goals, they’ll be more productive. It is even more important that they see that they’re making progress toward their goals.
So your goal in these early conversations is to let your team members know you care about them as individuals and you’re there to help them achieve their goals. Let them know that if possible you want to help them solve the problems they are facing in their job. Establish a comfort zone in which they can deal with you. Make them feel that it is perfectly natural for them to discuss challenges with you. By discussing small problems and small irritants, you may be able to avoid larger problems.
You’ll discover in your first few months as a manager that your technical abilities are not nearly as important as your human abilities. The majority of your problems are going to revolve around the human and not the technical aspects of the job. Unless your responsibilities are technically complex, you’ll discover that if you have strong human skills, minor technical deficiencies will be overlooked. Conversely, even if you are the most technically competent manager in the office, without human skills you’ll have great difficulty.
HAVING FRIENDS IN THE DEPARTMENT
One of the problems many new executives confront is handling friendships with people in the department who now report to them. This is a difficult situation to which there is no perfect answer. One of the most common questions new managers ask is, “Can I still be friends with the people who used to be my coworkers and now report to me?”
It is obvious that you shouldn’t have to give up your friendships simply because you’ve received a promotion. However, you don’t want your friendships to hurt your performance or the performance of your friends.
It is a mistake to allow your friendships to interfere with your method of operation. A direct report who is truly a friend will understand the dilemma in which you find yourself.
You must be certain that coworkers who were your friends before you became their supervisor receive the same treatment as everyone else. And that doesn’t just mean not favoring them over other workers. They also must not be treated worse merely to prove to the others how unbiased you are.
Although it is certainly true that you can be friends with people, you cannot expect to be friends with them in the same way in the context of work. As a new manager, you will need to establish some expectations of how you will work with all of your team members, whether they are friends or not. You need to hold all individuals to the same standards of performance, behavior, and accountability. Also keep in mind that what might look like friendship to you can often look like favoritism to others.
There is a temptation to use your old friend in the department as a confidant, but you don’t want to give the impression that you are playing favorites. In fact, you must not play favorites. If you do need a confidant, it is preferable to use a manager in another department or section of the organization.
You may want to consider having a conversation with a friend and former colleague about their moving to another department. Regardless of how hard you work not to display favoritism, it may be nearly impossible and best for both you and your friend if they do not report to you. This may be the best alternative if you truly value the friendship that is at risk because of your new role.
STRUCTURING YOUR ORGANIZATION
With time, you will want to consider whether you can improve the structure of your organization. Unless you are particularly familiar with your team members and their roles, it is best not to do this too soon. Restructurings tend to be very stressful for all involved. It is best to do them less often and well. While you can always correct a mistake in structuring your organization, it is best not to make the mistake to start with.
As you look at the reporting relationships within your team, you will need to pay particular attention to how many people are reporting directly to you. This number is referred to as your span of control. In recent decades, information technology has allowed organizations to have fewer but broader layers. This flattening of organizational structures has had many positive results. Executed well, it has allowed for more efficient communication and improved decisionmaking. As with anything, there needs to be balance when creating a flatter structure.
Less experienced managers sometimes make the mistake of an excessive span of control. It is easy to do. Nearly everyone would like to report directly to you. It gives them better access to the ultimate decisionmaker and brings with it a certain status within the organization. The problem is that you can only effectively manage a limited number of direct reports. When managers allow an excessive number of people to report to them directly, it becomes a free-for-all. They can find a line at their door every morning and an email inbox full of messages. They can spend their entire days trying to respond to all the needs and questions of their direct reports. They are rarely successful getting through all the requests for guidance and decisions, then start the next day behind; they rarely have time for any long-term thinking and planning. An excessively broad span of control is a setup for failure.
So, what span of control will work for you? There are a number of variables you need to take into account. One is the physical location of your direct reports. You can handle a little broader span of control if they are located in the same facility as you. The ability to meet with them in-person will ease communication. Another factor is the level of experience; a direct report who is a proven performer is not likely to require as much of your time. A new employee or one who has recently been moved into a new position or given additional responsibilities will probably require more of your time, at least for a while.
A good rule of thumb is not to have more direct reports than you can meet with once a week. By meet, this means actual one-on-one face time. The meeting may be in-person or a video call, but it needs to be a face-to-face, one-on-one meeting—not a staff meeting. Given that you have a lot to do in addition to meeting with your direct reports, five is a good maximum number. This allows you to have one of your one-on-one meetings each day of the workweek if that suits your purposes.
Be careful about letting these meetings slip—they are a vital part of your being able to manage well and efficiently. If your direct reports know they’ll get face time with you every week, they will be able to save up items they need to discuss until that meeting. It is much more efficient to address issues in this setting then when passing in the hall, on a phone call from the airport, or by trading text messages or emails.
If your employees cannot count on having a regular opportunity to communicate directly with you, they will be more inclined to track you down whenever anything comes up that they think requires your attention. The negative results are twofold: a lot more ad hoc contacts that do not facilitate thoughtful decisionmaking and more issues being brought to you than necessary. If you can abide by weekly meetings with your direct reports and train them to hold as many issues as possible until those meetings, you will be surprised and pleased to see how many things they learn to resolve themselves that they otherwise would bring to you.
MANAGING YOUR MOOD
People who report to you are very aware of what kind of mood you’re in, especially if you tend to have significant mood swings. Temper tantrums have no place in the work habits of a mature manager—and maturity has nothing to do with age. Letting your irritation show occasionally can be effective, as long as it is sincere and not manipulative.
All of us, from time to time, fall under the spell of moods that reflect situations outside the office that are troubling us. Many books on management tell us we must leave our problems at the door, or at home, and not bring them into the office. That attitude is naive, because few people can completely shut off a personal problem and keep it from affecting how they perform on the job.
There is little doubt, however, that you can minimize the impact a problem has on your work. The first step is to admit that something is irritating you and that it may affect your ability to work effectively with your colleagues. If you can do that, you can probably avoid making other people victims of your personal problem. If an outside problem is gnawing at you and you need to deal with an employee in a critical situation, there is nothing wrong with saying to the employee, “Look, I’m really not in the greatest mood today. If I seem a little irritated, I hope you’ll forgive me.” This kind of candor is refreshing to a subordinate. And it is far better to disclose that you are distracted than to risk a team member thinking he is the cause of your distant or agitated behavior.
Never think for a moment that others don’t have the ability to judge your moods. By showing dramatic changes of mood, you become less effective. In addition, your direct reports will know when to expect these changes and what the telltale signs are, and they will avoid dealing with you when you’re on the bottom swing of such a mood. They’ll wait until you’re on the high end of the spectrum.
MANAGING YOUR FEELINGS
You should work hard at being even-tempered. But it is not a good idea to be the kind of manager who is never bothered by anything—a person who never seems to feel great joy, great sorrow, or great anything. People will not identify with you if they believe you disguise all your feelings.
Keeping your cool at all times, however, is another matter. There are good reasons for keeping your cool. If you can always remain calm, even in troubled situations, you’re more likely to think clearly and be in a better position to handle tough problems. But you can show feelings—without losing your cool—so that people won’t think you’re a management robot.
To be an outstanding manager of people, you must care about people. That doesn’t mean taking a missionary or social worker approach toward them, but if you enjoy their company and respect their feelings, you’ll be much more effective in your job than the supervisor who is mostly task-oriented.
This, indeed, is one of the problems companies bring on themselves when they assume that the most efficient worker in an area is the one who should be promoted to management. That worker may be efficient because she is task-oriented. Moving these kinds of workers into areas where they supervise others doesn’t automatically make them people-oriented.