Advice for the New Manager
A good friend of mine, Barb, just started her first week in a new job managing four long-term employees who are technically skilled and experienced. When we had lunch a few days ago, she asked me, "What's the one piece of advice you would give to help me be successful?"
New manager...new job...experienced staff. I'd say the most important thing you can do is get to know your staff as individuals. Regularly express appreciation for their skills and contributions. Avoid making judgements about how the work is being accomplished—at least for now. As a new manager in an unfamiliar organization, you should be a "learner" not a "fixer" in the beginning. Your first task is to establish a solid relationship with each person on your team while you learn about the unit's functions and priorities.
Then, if you want to make changes to the systems or practices, you can engage your employees with questions like, "Why do you use this approach? How does it work? What would you do differently if you made changes? How can I help you improve this process? What resources do you need?"
I remember the advice of one of my mentors early in my career: If you're looking at a messy set of procedures or practices in a work unit, there's probably a good reason why it works that way. Find out the history before you try to fix it. Many messes are really inelegant solutions to complex problems.
The bottom line: demonstrate your respect for the long-term employees' skills and experience and they will be more willing to collaborate with you.
Comments
I could not agree more. I remember once when I became the manager of a group of employees who all had been with the company for 20+ years and I was a first time manager and new to the company. They would have eaten me alive if I tried to impose "my ideas" too quickly. The key is to show respect and ask lots of questions and seek their counsel. If they know your questions are intended to help them be successful, they will -- over time - come to trust you and open up more. But you have to build this trust by listening first, not telling them what you think needs to be done.
Posted by: Tim | February 7, 2006 08:51 PM
Thanks for setting us this blog, Cindy and the Netspeed Leadership team. I am an executuve coach and I am always looking for perspectives to help my clients be better leaders and managers. I'll keep reading!
Posted by: Mary Jane Pioli | February 8, 2006 12:42 AM
My related experience: Many years ago I was hired to lead 9-person team that hadn't had anyone in my role for almost two years. Boy, had they run amok. I really had to take my time implementing new solutions and procedures and even then, almost the entire team turned over during the next year. They were mostly great at their individual jobs, but had lost any sense of organizational mission or of the benefits of team effort, and ultimately couldn't re-adapt. It was hard to watch these skilled individuals leave, but was ultimately better for the organization.
My biggest learning from this experience: the turnover process could be hard on the company and the individuals involved, or it could be a process of natural evolution and growth, depending on how I approached my job of re-creating an effective and responsive team. "How" I did it...slowly and deliberately with lots of opportunities for feedback and processing...was at least as important and "what" I did, and maybe even more so.
Posted by: Marla | February 8, 2006 07:40 PM
One of my new managers approached this situation very effectively. We all expected him to do the usual thing -- call us together and spend some time sharing his background, goals, preferences, etc. Instead, he met with us individually and did nothing but ask us questions.
The questions he asked included:
-What is your background?
-What do you like and dislike about your work?
-What do you see as the team's top priorities?
-What suggestions do you have for me?
-What do you want to know about me?
This was a great example of the listening that Cindy and others suggest.
Afterwards, he met with the group and shared his current ideas, partially based upon our previous answers to his questions.
In this manner, he established trust very quickly, even with some of the skeptics. We faced some difficult times after that, but we faced them together.
Posted by: Ray Olitt | March 2, 2006 06:41 PM