The skillset you need to manage a team can be very different from what makes you technically excellent in a job. What’s more, many companies assume the transition is natural when it’s often anything but. When managing for the first time, you need to discover your style, recalibrate your working relationships, and, perhaps hardest of all, learn to let go of your previous job, even if you really loved it.
Where do I start?
A good starting point is thinking about the bosses you enjoyed working for in the past. What did they do that motivated you? How did you like to be managed? Think too about managers who you’ve struggled with.
One very basic point here is that everyone likes recognition. So, praise people who do good work — don’t be the boss who only complains and never compliments their direct reports.
Act like a boss
This is perhaps easier said than done. But you’ll need to be confident and decisive and start to act like a leader, even if you’re nervous and uncertain and terrified — and you don’t have long to get this right. Start by being fair and reasonable and listening to people — and, remember, it gets easier.
Understand your team
Have a team meeting to introduce yourself. But also have a one-to-one with everyone you manage. Sit down with them, perhaps over a coffee, and try to understand what they want. Really quiz them — what drives and motivates them and what frustrates them? What are their career goals, and how can you help them to achieve those goals? You should also stay on top of any needed staff appraisals — even if they take place a few weeks after you’ve taken over. Again, this shows that you are invested in your people.
Understand your style
Not everyone manages in the same way. Bosses can be relaxed and laissez-faire, consultative and collaborative, or even authoritarian — and these styles can all work under certain circumstances. There is no one right style — there will be styles you are more comfortable with, however. Experiment, but if a style runs counter to your personality, don’t persist with it, no matter how well it works for someone else.
Aim to improve yourself
You’re not going to know everything on day one — you will need new skills to manage a team, usually in addition to the skills and abilities that resulted in your being promoted. Recognise that you have learning to do and that you will make mistakes. Bosses often overestimate their management skills, and you shouldn’t be this boss. Rather, own your mistakes, be open to improvement, and seek feedback from those you manage. Try to identify gaps in your skills and devise strategies to fill them. For particularly tricky areas, like performance management and dealing with conflict, you may wish to ask HR if it offers any training.
Learn to delegate and don’t do your old job
This sounds simple, but it can be very hard. The first thing to do is tell yourself that you are now paid to lead and manage a team. Moreover, you’re probably being paid quite a bit more, so you shouldn’t be doing lower-value tasks. You should be finding the correct person to do these tasks.
The second can be even harder, especially if you went into a role because you love the work — and you often see this in fields such as tech and the creative industries. Resist the urge to do your old job, no matter how tempting it is and how good you were at it. There are good reasons for this. Micromanaging and meddling are enormously demotivating to staff (there is a correlation between employee empowerment and better outcomes). So, learn to delegate, focus on the bigger picture, and give your team the tools and support they need to succeed.
What if I’m managing former peers?
Here, you will need to reset the relationship. You are now a boss, not a friend, and, like it or not, that has to come first. If you try to be both, it will not work. It will make you ineffective as a boss — and the first time you have to do something tough, they will play the friendship card and possibly end up disliking you. So, be a good boss, and they’ll respect you. They might even like you, too.
Hang around with other bosses
Your old peers are no longer your peers — your peers are now other managers. So, spend time with them, ask them questions, share your problems, and learn from their experiences. This will probably happen naturally anyway. Work friends are, to a large extent, situational friends. Now your situation has changed; your friends will change too. You will have less in common with former peers.
Consider a mentor
This exact situation is why mentors exist. Ideally, your company will offer you one — but you needn’t sit passively if they don’t. You can ask the people involved in your promotion or ask HR to arrange one for you — or you can approach someone. It can be a formal or informal arrangement, and you may even have more than one mentor. But having someone senior you can call on with the experience to help you navigate the organisation as you move upwards is invaluable and can make a huge difference.
You will still have a boss
Most bosses still answer to a boss. Moving up the ladder just means now having to manage those under you — you are still accountable to those above you. You shouldn’t neglect this relationship because much of your job will be ensuring that your team delivers what your boss wants.
Visit the Global Career Hub from AICPA & CIMA for help with finding a job or recruiting.
Rhymer Rigby is an FM magazine contributor and author of The Careerist: Over 100 Ways to Get Ahead at Work. To comment on this article, contact Oliver Rowe at Oliver.Rowe@aicpa-cima.com.
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