Congratulations on your new role!. The hard graft was worth it. Everyone has expectations of you – the new team, your boss and yourself.
In this first of a series of 3 articles – Managing Yourself, Managing Your Team, and Managing Your Manager we offer tips to help you start with confidence.
MANAGING YOURSELF
Your new role brings a new set of priorities. Managing and supporting your staff, delivering the tasks and projects assigned to your team, developing a positive working relationship with your boss and knowing how it all fits in with the organisation’s objectives are all vital. On top of that there is your career progression to consider. Sometimes it can seem that these priorities are incompatible. WHERE TO START? The first person you must be able to manage is yourself.
HACK: BUY TIME
One of your new team casually asks to change their upcoming annual leave dates. This request might seem minor and as you want to be supportive and decisive your initial instinct is to approve it immediately. Unless you have all the relevant information this small decision could have unintended consequences to upcoming projects or other staff. Agree to consider their request and give them a timeline by which you will respond. This gives you a breather to check out possible consequences and it sets out a clear message about how you operate. The staff member may put pressure on you to make a fast decision. Empathise with them but don’t waver from your plan.
HACK: FIND A FRIEND
More than ever you will need someone, apart from your team or your boss, to share ideas and to be a listening ear. Your new role will bring you into contact with colleagues from other areas who are also team leaders/new managers. Seek them out. They will understand the challenges you face and you can support one another.
HACK: PLAN YOUR NEXT MOVE
As you progress through the organisation your visibility will increase. Attending higher level meetings or enjoying more client interaction than before. You are now representing your department, your boss, and most importantly yourself.
- Brief yourself on the subject matter, objectives and attendees
- Read the relevant documents and papers in advance
- Introduce yourself to the chairperson and the other attendees
- Prepare a few possible comments or thoughts beforehand.
- Speak up. Asking a question is an easy way to break the ice
HACK: SET BOUNDARIES
Interruptions, phone calls and constant emails can prevent you from getting any real work done. Decide how approachable you want to be. Allocate particular time-slots each day to deal with such interruptions and tell people your schedule. Set up an automatic email response that informs people you will respond within a fixed time. It is difficult to break the habit of responding instantly to other people’s queries so start as you mean to go on. If your job requires quick responses but occasionally you need a couple of hours of quiet time then move away from your desk. Find a discreet corner or book a meeting room.
Remember, starting right is half the work.
