Your First Time as a Manager: Where Do You Start?

Starting your first management job is an exhilarating experience. It is an exciting time in your career, but it can also seem overwhelming and even a little frightening at first. It’s important to spend some time thinking about what it really means to make the transition from being supervised to being the supervisor.

The best way to mentally prepare for becoming a manager is to reflect about the nature of management. It’s important for new managers to understand the principles of effective management and to possess the self-awareness needed to recognise your own personal management style.

What is the Nature of Management?

By definition, management involves four broad categories of activities: planning, organising, leading, and controlling. It’s important for new managers to understand that their responsibilities are going to encompass each of these activities.

1. Planning
Planning involves setting goals and identifying the strategies and tactics that will enable your department or organisation to accomplish them. Smart managers understand the benefit of approaching every task with a clear vision of the desired outcome. Planning takes time, and many times managers are guilty of shortchanging this function. It’s important to remind yourself that you can’t lead your people or your department if you don’t know where you’re trying to take them.

2. Organising
Organising involves making decisions about how the work of the organisation can be carried out most effectively and efficiently. One of the biggest challenges for new managers is often to realise that their job is to put the systems and resources in place to make things happen, rather than actually carrying out the work themselves.

3. Leading
Every management job requires an element of leadership. As a manager, you have to be someone that your employees can respect. Part of your job involves motivating them to perform at a high level. Leadership is not something you command by nature of being a manager, but rather something that your employees will bestow upon you if they see you as a fair and ethical professional who cares about them and the organisation. The best leaders are open communicators who listen to their employees and treat them with respect.

4. Controlling
The control function of management relates to what many people think of as the primary managerial tasks. Controlling involves verifying that the work of the organisation is progressing as it should and implementing corrective measures if it is not. Control may involve monitoring deadlines, implementing time and attendance systems, and searching for ways to reduce raw material expenses. It also means providing employees with ongoing feedback and conducting performance appraisals at scheduled intervals.

What Does it Really Mean to Be the Supervisor?

Once you have a clear understanding of what management is, it’s necessary to focus on how becoming a manager will impact your day-to-day life. When you are promoted to your first management position, you will find yourself in the potentially awkward position of supervising people who were once your peers.

The manner in which a new manager makes the transition from peer to supervisor can set the tone for how employees throughout the organization perceive him or her. When you step into your management role, you have to understand that

• People are going to view and treat you differently.
• You have to earn the respect of the people you supervise.
• Your subordinates are going to look to you for direction, and
• People skills are an increasingly important component of your job.

1. Expect Different Treatment
The way your former peers view and treat you when you become a manager is going to change. If you expect otherwise, you will be disappointed. Becoming the boss means that you stop being a peer. When you assume managerial responsibilities, your former peers will see you as “one of them” instead of being “one of us”.

While this may sound harsh, it is both accurate and necessary. Supervisors have to establish some distance between themselves and the people they oversee in order to maintain the ability to make unbiased decisions in the workplace. The best managers maintain positive professional relationships with their employees, but they don’t risk being seen as unfair or being accused of playing favourites among the employees.

2. Earn the Respect of Employees
Don’t make the error of assuming that people are going to respect you just because your title now includes the word “manager.” Respect is something that you have to earn. The way to earn the respect of your employees starts with treating them with respect and is tied to how your management skills are perceived.

Employees respect supervisors who exhibit leadership traits, who champion their employees within the organisation, and who are able to make and stand by tough decisions. It’s important to concentrate on cultivating a culture of teamwork so that employees will feel loyalty to each other, the department, and the company.

3. Subordinates Will Look to You for Direction
It is a fact of human nature that people need leadership and they expect it from their supervisors. If you come across to your employees as being weak and indecisive, you will have a hard time earning their respect. When employees come to you with questions or concerns, you have to be a fair and objective sounding board who is willing to listen, offer advice, and take action designed to correct problems and challenges.

4. Importance of People Skills
Managers spend more time listening to their employees than they do engaged in any other activities. The biggest surprise to most new managers is the amount of time they spend communicating with employees rather than being engaged in activities specific to the actual work of the organisation.

The thing to remember is that effective and ongoing employee communication is an essential function of any management job. When employees are asked to describe the traits of an effective supervisor, time and time again, the terms “listening” and “open communication” come up. A manager who doesn’t understand the necessity of people skills is not likely to be successful in the long run.

Enjoy the Rewards of Management

There is nothing more rewarding than building a great team and leading your team to success. When you can step back and look at your department and your overall organisation and realise that it is better because of your leadership, you’ll understand why management is such a terrific career choice.

Sources:
The First Time Manager by by Loren B. Belker and Gary S. Topchik
Becoming a Successful Manager: How to Make a Smooth Transition from Managing Yourself to Managing Others by Jack H. Grossman and J. Robert Parkinson
mobiletechwebsite.com/articles
allbusiness.com