In Monday’s Blog we talked about whether you are right for management. It’s a question many new managers ask, and it’s a reasonable question. We should continually assess our decisions, yet we should not obsess on them. Once a decision is made, work to make it work. Today’s Quick Tips focuses on how to manage the transition to management.
First, let’s be open and honest, you are likely going to feel uncomfortable as you move from the job you knew and did well, into a job you don’t know as well and may question your ability to do it. This is normal. Based on our experience, we find that many if not most new managers feel this way.
Hear are five ideas on what you can do to make the transition work for you:
1) Accept the fact that this is a new role and it will take time and learning to become good at it. Management is not, as unfortunately some believe, easy and something anybody can do. It is a job that requires great skill and a sincere commitment to do well.
2) Find a mentor, someone in the organization that you can talk to, use to help you navigate the organizational culture, and use to gauge your effectiveness and test your assumptions about any aspect of the job and the organization if you a relatively new to it too.
3) Understand your boss’s expectation of you and how he or she would like to work with you. Just because you were promoted by this person doesn’t mean he or she is your “friend” and will not hold you to a high performance standard.
4) Promote yourself. You need to see yourself as the manager, you need to assume the role and start behaving and performing as a manager. If you don’t, it is pretty certain that other’s won’t either.
5) Find a coach to help guide you through the transition process. A coach will help you identify the key skills required for your management role, outline what it takes to succeed in the role, and will guide you through the initial transition process. Just like rookies on a professional sports team need a coach to help them understand how the game is played at the pro level and guide them through the transition, so do employees new to management.
We also recommend that you read “The First 90 Days” by Michael Watkins.
Managers are important to the success of the organization, and it is a role that is certainly worth pursuing and performing well. If you think management is right you – pursue it aggressively. If, after a solid effort, you truly do not like the role or are not good at it, let it go – for your sake and the sake of your employees.
Copyright 2011 Kubica and LaForest
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