Tips for New Managers

As a New Manager… Understand and Accept Your Role

Transitioning from an individual contributor to a managerial position requires a shift in mindset. As a new manager, it is essential to understand and accept your role as a leader. Embrace the fact that you are no longer solely responsible for your own work, but you are now accountable for the success of the entire team.

One thing that often happens is that new managers feel overly responsible and want to control everything. But you need to avoid the temptation to micromanage or you risk becoming a bottleneck in decision-making processes. Delegation is a vital skill for a manager, as it allows you to empower your team and leverage their expertise. Recognize that you cannot do everything yourself, and trust your team members to handle their responsibilities. By embracing delegation, you prevent bottlenecks and foster a culture of collaboration and growth. Check all the tasks on your to-do list, and add, who else can do it, then start delegating.

Reflect on your own schedule: when you feel that “the real work can only be done before 9 or after 5pm” (when the team is not working), then you need to change something. It is not your role to work more. You might consider not attending every meeting or avoid taking every decision on your own (which requires time to understand the details or to explain the decision).

Tips for new managers on understanding and accepting your new role:

• Reflect the shift from individual contributor to team leader
• Avoid micromanagement and becoming a bottleneck
• Free your schedule and reduce tasks

As a New Manager… Understand Your People

To lead a team effectively as a new manager, it is essential to understand the individuals within it and to build trust between yourself and the team, and within the team.

Personal Maps are a useful tool to learn about others. It will help you to understand who the team are, what they like, what hobbies they have or what their family life looks like.

I like to use Personal Maps by first filling out a map for each team member based on my existing knowledge of each person. Here I can see who I already know well and who I may need to build a closer relationship with. After this exercise, I ask all team members to draw their own personal maps. This always provides additional insights, not only for me as a manager, but also for the team members among themselves. Even those who already know each other start understanding and trusting each other more with this handy tool.

Once trust is established, you might dig deeper and ask team members to play the Moving Motivators. This will help you to understand personal drivers – which vary from person to person – and consider how you can build an environment which motivates your team. It also helps you to avoid “promotion traps” (by avoiding granting people something, which does not motivate them, and can even lower their primary motivators).

Empathy is a fundamental trait for any manager. It allows you to understand and relate to your team members’ emotions and experiences. Cultivate an empathetic mindset by actively listening, seeking to understand different perspectives, and providing support when needed. Remember, empathy fosters trust and creates a supportive work environment.

Tips for new managers on understanding your people:

• Use Personal Maps on your own (to see who you already know)
• Use Personal Maps with your teammates (to learn who they are)
• Use Moving Motivators to learn about individual drives
• Recognize and cater to diverse motivators within your team
• Cultivate empathy to foster trust and create a supportive work environment.