How to Set-up New Managers for Success
How to Set-up New Managers for Success
A simple guide to helping your new managers make the transition to leadership
I write a bi-weekly column on leadership, management, and the future of work. In each case, I’ll tackle the questions on the minds of first-time managers, experienced managers, and even executives. I’ll leverage my own experience as a tech leader as well as my network to answer these questions in the most comprehensive, actionable, and accessible way.
Much has been written about managing effectively, but most of it focuses on tenured leaders. It’s a shame because, in my experience, one of the hardest transitions to manage is when someone is promoted from an individual contributor (IC) role to a managerial role for the first time.
All of a sudden you go from being able to point out all the things your “boss” should be doing to being responsible for figuring those very things out for your team. It’s a big change and it’s completely different from the technical skills that are required to complete the role of an IC.
Few organizations do much in the way of helping to support this transition, so I’m hoping the below will help provide some guidance on the things you as their leader can over-invest in during those early days to help them build up a picture of what a great manager does as well as the confidence that while they may not be there day one they will get there soon (with your help!).
There’s a litany of things I could cover, but I think the most helpful way to approach this is to look at the things that almost all new managers universally struggle with in those early days, weeks, and months of taking on a new team.
With the knowledge of where they’re likely to struggle, you can build your coaching and feedback habits around them.
Managing Ambiguity
In my view, this is one of the most important and underrated skills of any manager (let alone a new one). The ability to manage the expectations of a team when you don’t have the answer can be stressful but what’s important is to acknowledge that it’s going to happen (and sometimes frequently). Did we get that new headcount approved? Not sure. What about the additional budget we need for that client project? Don’t know.
If you don’t help coach new managers on how to handle these situations with their team, it can lead to some very unhealthy (and even toxic) habits. For instance, I’ve seen new managers speak ill of an organization or even their manager as a way of explaining away delays to their team. This feels like they’re saving face in front of their new team, but is eating away at their credibility and is challenging to earn back.
The best approach is to acknowledge that these situations are going to happen and reassure the new manager that the expectation is not that they will have all the answers.
Delegating
Perhaps not surprisingly, new managers find it difficult to delegate. They’ve gone from a role where they are entirely responsible for getting the work done to one where they’re responsible for the people doing the work.
However, it’s an essential skill to develop early on. New managers are often prone to burnout in those early days because they try to take on everything so when you’re reviewing workloads with them help highlight opportunities where their team can step in and take something on. This “small step” approach will help them build their confidence and show them a path to how they can do this on their own.
Big Picture Thinking
The temptation to focus only on what’s immediately in front of them is another (and very common) challenge that most new managers face. Again, this is rooted more in the habits formed from being an IC over many years and does not speak to their natural aptitude to lead - it’s simply something they need to be coached on.
The way I like to think about this is in terms of allocation. When you’re an IC you allocate 100% of your time to executing tasks. But your role is no longer to execute what’s right in front of you, but rather anticipate the needs of your team. This means you need to spend some portion of your time thinking several steps ahead. There’s of course no hard rule around what this allocation should be, but the point you should make to your new manager is it's not 0%.
Another way to articulate this to new managers that has helped in the past is to think about this in terms of time. When you’re an IC you’re forced to think in short increments of time by design - say, days and weeks - but a manager needs to think about months and quarters.
For example, what will my team need a month from now if we’re successful? If we’re not successful what will need to be true next quarter? This fundamentally alters how people think about their responsibilities.
Building Confidence
Don’t underestimate how much confidence plays a role in your new manager getting off to a great start. Whenever someone is promoted, there will be a very short and very important window at the beginning where all eyes will be on this person to see if they hit the ground running or not. If your new manager does not project confidence then it will be difficult for others to want to follow them. This can easily lead to a negative spiral: Low manager confidence means the team isn’t inspired by the new manager, which leads to lower confidence, etc.
In the past, I’ve made a point of putting new managers in a position where they can deliver quick wins that are highly visible. They don’t need to be big, but they do need to project to the rest of the organization that this is the right person at the right time to lead this team. Think about ways you can help new managers deliver quick wins within the first 30 days of taking over a team. It will make all the difference.
Conflict Avoidance
Lastly, you’ll need to coach new managers on the importance of giving straightforward feedback. It’s a natural human tendency to avoid conflict but this can become very problematic in a team setting. As the saying goes culture is what you do and if you don’t provide feedback and you let issues fester this is the shape the rest of the team will take. It won’t be long until you have a much larger issue on your hands.
Your new manager will likely avoid having tough conversations with their team not because they don’t want to but because they don’t know how to and they may not even be confident that it’s their place to do so.
The first critical piece to establish is that you expect that they will have the hard conversations with their team when needed and that they’re responsible for upholding a certain standard at work both in terms of what gets done and how it gets done.
The second piece is to give them the tools they need to deliver feedback and instruction on how to broach difficult topics. This, of course, starts with you. Do you create an environment for the team that encourages feedback? Do you give regular feedback or do you avoid it? Be sure that you’re doing this yourself first before you expect the team to do it.
In terms of more tactical guidance on having hard conversations, I often share the following with new managers:
Leave emotions out of it: When you’re having a hard conversation it’s easy to let emotions (on both sides) overshadow the actual conversation. If you don’t feel like you’re in a place where you can have a calm conversation, wait until you do.
Be specific: When delivering hard feedback you need to be specific. There’s nothing more frustrating and, frankly, jarring, than when someone is giving you hard feedback but there’s little to no substance. It will always sound more like criticisms if you’re vague and it will mean your point is completely lost.
Be thoughtful on timing: There’s very much a “time and place” element to this conversation. Be deliberate and choose a time and place where the individual will be receptive (and not distracted).
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