Leadership skills for new managers
Effective management is an important part of any business. When people are empowered with the responsibility to manage others, it speaks strongly of their accomplishments, work ethic and capability for leading and helping others.
The first time you become a manager, you feel affirmative and motivated; but at the same time, it can be an enormous task to achieve. This often contributes to an overwhelming experience and sometimes can even make you feel scared. Because being manager means that from now onwards you will be trusting your own intuition, make informed decisions and be accountable for your decisions. Not every decision taken will pan out the way you want, and you’re going to have to learn to accept mistakes and move on to new initiatives.
Management is not an easy task to accomplish. It requires a multitude of skills including areas that generally get better with time when you focus on crucial processes such as creative thinking, excellence, communication, coaching, motivating etc.
But everyone needs to start somewhere and I have highlighted a few important skills that can make the transition from being an individual contributor to a manager an easy and gratifying process. Most importantly, now that you have been promoted as a manager, try flourish as a leader.
1. Master the business
Do clearly understand what you and your employees are accountable for delivering. Most of the times your subordinates are not clear about their deliverables.
We work in a constantly changing business environment. Organizations finetune their business strategy to stay ahead of competition and enhance revenue. Government regulations also keep changing. Such dynamic business gives rise to questions and confusion in the minds of employees. If not addressed properly, this may result in a gap in knowledge, which pulls down the performance of the team.
So be prepared to bridge this gap. Explain their job and goals in details, address questions from your direct reports and consider making them understand the broader perspective of the company – such as the vision, mission and core values of the organization. Link their individual goals with organizational goals. Remember, when all parties are clear about the goals, strategies and actions expected, it creates a foundation for being productive and results-oriented.
Spend time with senior leaders to understand the reason behind the strategic decisions, be aware of what is happening across the business and what your competitors are up to, so you can confidently provide support and direction to your team.
2. Be clear and communicate unambiguously
One of the biggest mistakes new managers make is assuming everyone understands clearly what is expected and that they will do it with perfection. Often you team members also rely on assumption and do not feel the necessity of asking probing questions and open the room for discussion.
This is a pitfall. Minimizing your communication with your employees is the road to failure. So, encourage open discussion and listen to your employees' ideas, issues and concerns. Give them freedom to get the work done while you still being available for guidance.
Priorities may change quite often in some organizations. This requires good communication to keep the team working in the right spirit as well as getting the error-free result accomplished on time.
3. Lead by example
It’s likely that you were asked to be a manager, because you were great at doing whatever your discipline demanded. You worked hard to achieve a certain level of trust which resulted in your success and your promotion as a manager.
Now that you are a manager, people are going to look up to you when they need inspiration and start taking you as a paragon. The values you inculcate, the respect you demonstrate for individuals, the way you handle adversity and ambiguity, and the way you persevere through the toughest of times, is now considered so set a standard for how others will act and behave.
You need to be very conscious of your emotions, actions and reactions. You need to loosen up, calm down, be patient, be assertive and develop a cognizant attitude, so you can lead in a way that people will admire and appreciate.
4. Learn the subtle art of delegation
Coming from an individual contributor role, you’re used to getting involved in the details of an assignment—keeping track of all the tasks, the phone calls you need to return, and the documentation of your notes.
During your initial days as a manager, it will be a habitual attraction to take an account of all the specifics that your team is working on. You must accept the fact that you cannot be everywhere at once. Trying to be vigilant on all the tasks of your subordinates will turn you into a micromanager, which can work adversely on the morale of your team.
By shifting your focus more on result than on process, you will create room to invest your energy on important and critical issues, emphasise on process optimization and revenue generation.
Instil a culture of ownership, cooperation and knowledge sharing amongst your subordinates to make this an easier process. While still being informed, you need to let others lead, so they can grow their abilities and perspective. Mastery of the art of effective delegation needs time, but you need to actively build your trust on the skills and capability of your team members.
5. Accept changes in relationship
Often first-time managers find themselves managing people who were once their peers or people they have nurtured a personal relationship with. This creates an environment where ego takes the lead and sours the personal relationship.
You must realize and accept, when you become their manager the relationship changes, and you need to be transparent about that. You are now their boss and you will need to wear that hat when you are in the office. You can never allow your personal relationships affect business decisions. And you need to be fair and impartial irrespective of the extent of your friendliness with your people.
You must set right expectations and have clear conversation upfront that things have changed. Even if starting a conversation feels weird, it is better to clarify this in the initial days and leave no space for confusion.
6. Be proactive and take new initiatives
As a manager, you’re now the one responsible for figuring out how you and your staff can accomplish broader team goals and start looking for creative solution to problems. And if there’s something you think your process is lacking, take it as an opportunity to improve and accomplish it. Your managerial ability is perceived in best way if you find those gaps and fix them without waiting for your boss to tell you to do so. This will bring you in limelight and make your efforts visible to your superiors.
Do not be afraid of trying out new things. Take calculated risks and make the effort. The worst that can happen while taking up a new initiative is that it may not go as per plan, or might fail to fetch desired result. But that’s okay! Rather than taken it as a failure, take it as a learning and move ahead.
7. Be obsessed with learning
The legendary Steve Jobs in his ending comment in the Stanford Commencement in 2005 suggested the present generation to “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” And it has become even more relevant today in the face of changing business scenarios. Industry regulations and technological advancements are moving at such a faster pace that you always need to stay one step ahead of the game.
To stay engaged and motivated, have an appetite for learning, and absorb as much as possible. Work will be a whole lot more interesting when you’re constantly venturing in new ideas, testing them out, and using them to push yourself and your team forward.
As you can see, continuous learning can be a key ingredient in your success. In addition, as knowledge becomes obsolete at a faster and faster rate, keeping your personal knowledge base up-to-date is quickly becoming a matter of survival!
8. Provide coaching and feedback
While managing the performance of the employees is the key responsibility of the manager, coaching and providing feedback regularly is an increasingly important part of a modern manager's job. It’s impossible for people to develop without coaching and feedback.
Performance coaching is an ongoing process which helps build and maintain effective employee and supervisory relationships. Performance coaching can help identify an employee's growth potential, identify areas of improvement, and develop new skills. Using their coaching skills, supervisors should evaluate and address the developmental needs of their employees and work coactively on developing plans that might help them gain necessary skills.
If your team aren’t aware of what they can improve, it doesn’t allow them to change or really build upon what’s going well. So, provide well-crafted feedback to employees in the right spirit on a consistent basis. Feedback is useful and meaningful when it is provided immediately or very soon after the performance has occurred or behaviour is exhibited. A stale feedback is a wastage of time.
It’s not only important to be timely with your constructive feedback, but also in recognizing and celebrating achievements. Remember the old saying ““Praise in public, reprimand in private”, which is generally used in context of parenting; but the same holds true even for the adults you are working with. Be sensitive towards people and their self-esteem.
9. Respect individuals and their needs
Treating others the way you want to be treated is the golden rule when it comes to respect for individual, Hold on to your resentment and harsh words in times of stress and anxiety.
Workplace consists of diverse kind of people when it comes to gender, race, ethnic group, age, appearance, personality, work style, ability, tenure, education, thought-process, socio-economic background and many more. Treat everyone equal. Embracing diversity is all about accepting and respecting the differences.
Be sincerely engaged and interested in learning the person’s perspective when listening to them. It is important to get to know your employees, boss and colleagues; their interests and the needs that drive them. This will help the young managers to connect well with the people in the organization, irrespective of the role or designation.
Some employees voice needs openly and others keep things private. As a manager, it is important to pick up nonverbal cues, understand unspoken needs and offer assistance. Building good relationships with everyone will make your work easier and the work environment more productive.
Having good relationships does not mean you have to be best friends with everyone, or go out socially or share all your personal feelings and events. A good relationship is constructive, productive and self-corrective and engages in mutual respect and understanding.
10. Exhibit strong integrity
Integrity is one of the fundamental values that employers seek in the employees that they hire. It is the hallmark of a person who demonstrates sound moral and ethical principles at work.
Honesty and trust are central to integrity. Acting with honour and truthfulness are also basic tenets in a manager with integrity. A manager who has integrity, values his relationship with co-workers, customers, and stakeholders, strongly follows work ethics, and live a life of esteem and dignity.
Managers who demonstrate integrity draw others to them because they are trustworthy and dependable. They are principled and can be counted on to behave in honourable ways even when no one is watching.
Don’t play games with people, be ambiguous or try to impress everyone with being someone you are not. Always be truthful and transparent. Engaging in office politics or gossip is a quick way to lose credibility, compromise your career and degrade your image to be a good manager.
To sum it up
Being yourself and learning more about best practices in management will help you develop your knowledge and skills to be a great manager. Managing other people is an art and a science that can be learnt and manifested.
Becoming an effective, inspiring leader takes time. Find a fine balance—between moving too fast and not making an effort at all, between exerting your authority and not becoming overpowering, and between being enthusiastic and staying realistic.
The journey from being a manager to a leader is a delicate process. Aspire to learn continually with a sensitive and open mind and you’ll not even realize when you started to lead and when people started to follow you. Just remember, it’s a learning curve and a rewarding process. Enjoy it!
Happy journey!
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