In many career progressions, becoming a manager is a significant step up. If you’ve just received a promotion to manager, congratulations! But if this is your first time managing staff it’s important to gather as much information as possible whether you’re going to be in charge of 2, 20 or 200 people.
Being responsible for other employees can be extremely rewarding, fun and challenging, but if you haven’t had any experience in doing it before it can be easy to come unstuck. Here are some tips on how to be a better boss, whether this is your fist ever role as a manager or you’re just looking for some new ways to change up your management style.
Talk to your boss about what it expected from you
You might be a manager now, but it’s likely that you still have a boss who you report to. So the first thing that you need to do is to take the time to establish exactly what they are expecting from you and what you should expect from them. What decisions are you expected to make? How should you report to your boss? These kinds of conversations are essential to help you settle into your new role as quickly as possible without any misunderstandings.
Think about your experiences under managers in the past
We have all had experience under both good and bad managers, so use those experiences to learn about how you want to apply your management style. It’s unlikely that any good manager you had was perfect or any bad manager had no redeeming features. Now it’s your turn to manage you can take the best of all of your experiences to find a style that suits you and your team.
Get to know your staff
Whether you’re coming to manage a team in a new organisation or you’ll be working with the same group of people you have for years, it’s important for a manager to get to know their staff from this new perspective. Being a manager is different to being a colleague. It’s important for you to have a good relationship with your whole team – you can no longer pick and choose who you want to be friendly with.
Invest in technology
Trying to keep track of your new responsibilities can be a real challenge. The smartest way to do it is to invest and learn new technologies. For example, if your team works in shifts you should look into getting some high quality staff rota software. Rota software allows you to stay in control of the working day of your team, ensuring that tasks aren’t forgotten and everyone knows what they should be doing.
Talk about your role with the team
Whenever there is a new manager, staff are likely to be concerned that there are going to be big changes to procedures, so it’s always best to have a frank and open discussion. This is the perfect time to take on board their opinions to give you the opportunity to implement a style of management that is better for everyone.
This is especially true if you work other people who applied for the managerial positon. Make sure you take the time to clear the air and promise to work closely with them.
Understand that you need to delegate now
In previous roles you might be used to seeing the tasks in front of you as something that you need to do yourself. But part of being a great manager is learning when to delegate. It may be your skills in the role that you got you the job over your peers, but you also need to trust in their ability to do the work as well.
Never be afraid to learn
Yes, you’re a manager now but that doesn’t mean that you know all there is know about managing people. Take the opportunity to go on any managerial training course you can and commit yourself to finding ways to be a more effective leader. The people who make the worst managers are those who believe that they already know everything and that every member of staff needs to bend to their rules.