101: NEW MANAGERS
After accepting a new job or getting a promotion, you find yourself in the manager's seat. But before you pop that family photo atop your desk or locate the corporate washroom, spend some time reflecting on myths and missteps that could be out there to trip you up as a new manager. Here are three things to be aware of as you get used to your new role:
Managers are not in charge. It's common, writes Harvard Business School Professor Linda Hill in a report cited in an article at WSJ.com, for new managers to think they have authority. What ends up happening, she says, is that managers are surprised by how constrained they feel. “They are enmeshed in a web of relationships, not only with subordinates, but also with bosses, peers, and others inside and outside the organization … The resulting daily routine is pressured, hectic and fragmented.” What prevents frustration, Hill writes, is to recognize the need to negotiate through interdependencies.
Transition to coach. Where great work breeds promotions and promotions can breed managers, managers are no longer star employees, but rather, coaches, says Lindsey Pollack in an article by Laura Vanderkam at FastCompany.com. “Your job is now to manage through other people's successes," said Pollak, and can be problematic if managers "keep trying to do their old jobs and be a manager at the same time." Managing other people's successes is really the new mindset, she said. Pollack notes new managers will likely have to seek out information on coaching, with many companies not helping them figure it out.
Foster communication, said Victor Lipman in an article at Forbes.com. Not only will it incubate ideas, but people will be engaged if you create an environment where they feel free to speak their minds. “The tone you set at the outset will be crucial to how your employees relate,” Lipman said.
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