New and Noteworthy
Start the New Year Right -
Building Confidence in New Managers
New managers often learn
by trial and error. Here are
some common traps that
await the newly-promoted:
1. Doing your old job.
It's hard to give up what
you're good at, especially
in times of short-staffing.
Keeping your hand in the
daily work is comforting to
you and helpful in the short-
term approach to the
team's workload. But it can
keep you from teaching
others how to do the work
and from learning and practicing other vital aspects of management - scheduling, strategy, and coaching.
2. Fearing "I don't know."
Don't bluff. It reduces your credibility. If you don't have the answer to a question, acknowledge it, promise you will find the information or answer and then follow up. You don't have to be an expert on all details of the operation when you are new. Be committed to learning and helping out your team.
3. Avoiding experienced employees.
New managers often assume veteran employees resent or resist bosses with less work or life experiences than their own. It is better to assume that experienced staffers want to know what everyone else does: What is my new manager going to do for me, or to me? Employees of all experience levels hope their managers will be good advocates for their work and agents of their success.
4. Mismanaging old friends.
Your relationship with former colleagues changes when your first loyalty is now to the whole team, not just those with whom you shared a social life. But that doesn't mean you can't be friendly. You just need to be forthright about boundaries. As a boss, you can't unfairly favor old friends, or appear to.
5. Mismanaging your boss.
Know your boss well enough to have a solid fix on the span of your authority and autonomy. Understand your supervisor's values, goals, pressures and preferences when it comes to communication and decision-making. Your boss may not be perfect, but it is your job to make the relationship work, and in so doing, increase your effectiveness for your team.
Start out 2013 by learning the basics of management at the workshop Management Essentials on Thursday, January 31. Topics to be discussed include:
- new staff training
- goal setting
- assigning tasks
- performance planning, monitoring and review
- dealing with performance problems
- discipline
- situations where you are required to direct the work of others
Portions of the above from "What Great Bosses Know About the Five Mistakes New Managers Make" by Jill Geisler
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