Many first-time managers have already enjoyed informal leadership opportunities like volunteering as a new hire buddy, mentoring an intern, or leading cross-functional projects. For those who are passionate about people management, leading a team gives them the chance to learn new skills including how to work through others and rally people around a common goal.
What’s So Important about People Management?
Managers are incredibly influential because they are responsible for workload, job assignments, and team morale. Their ability to create a great employee experience and healthy team culture can not be overstated. They need to know their team members’ strengths and aspirations so they can assign work that enables people to succeed and grow.
Regardless of company size or industry, managers have a common set of responsibilities. These are the things it takes to lead a cohesive team where people can do their best work. Great management means establishing clear goals, giving effective feedback, and navigating disagreements and conflicts.
What Are the Managers’ Core Responsibilities?
- Hire and onboard new employees so they ramp up quickly
- Set clear goals, gauge progress, and hold people accountable
- Run effective meetings where all voices are heard and dissent is encouraged
- Prioritize and delegate work, keeping in mind each person’s strengths and capacity
- Foster a culture of feedback by giving and receiving feedback often
- Develop people through career paths, lateral moves, and promotions
- Coach team members to help them succeed in challenging situations
- Manage individual and team performance by being both clear and kind
- Inspire and align the team using a shared mission and vision
- Foster a healthy, inclusive culture where everyone has a sense of belonging
My Personal Journey to Becoming a Manager
Mikaela Kiner here, Founder & CEO of Reverb. Early in my career in Human Resources, I managed one or two people at a time, contractors and full-time employees. Because I never had more than two direct reports, most of my time was spent doing my day job. While I did hire, give direction, and provide feedback, it was on a relatively small scale.
My first opportunity to manage a large team came when I took an international assignment working in Hyderabad, India. Starting with a team of nine (actually six people and three open roles) I left India three years later with a team of twenty-five and growing, across three cities. As management goes, I was thrown into the deep end.
Not only was I new to management, I was also working in a different culture where I had to quickly learn which companies to recruit from, what schools had a good reputation, and even how to interpret job titles that didn’t follow the same hierarchy as they do in the US. I had to rely on others to keep the trains running while growing the team. That was a good forcing function, causing me to delegate important work quickly. I needed to rapidly assess each team member to understand their strengths, style, and where they needed support. I also had to quickly figure out who I could lean on and who could help me get up to speed. I had lots to learn.
I freely admit that I was an imperfect new manager. At times I managed tasks too closely, and I definitely made assumptions based on my experience in the US that were not relevant in India. Still, my team showed me a great deal of kindness and patience. They were good people, who provided feedback and pointed out when and how I could do things better. Looking back, a little more training and preparation would have made it a smoother transition for all of us.
What I Wish I Knew When I Became a Manager:
1. The difference between rubber balls and crystal balls
In order to stay on top of work in progress, I created a team-wide tracker with over 60 projects big and small that we reviewed monthly. Saying the team was resistant is an understatement. Most simply refused to fill it out. I wish I had known to distinguish big, high priority projects from tasks that didn’t require oversight. Today, I think about work using the idea of rubber and crystal balls. Rubber balls bounce when dropped, versus a crystal ball that will break irreparably. This analogy can help you spend your time and energy where it’s most needed and not sweat the small stuff.
2. It’s ok to ask people what they want and need
Managing a team can feel like guess work. Everyone has a different communication style, strengths, development areas, and career goals. Too often as managers we try to guess what our direct reports want or need vs. just asking them. When you inherit a team or onboard a new hire, set aside time to get to know them. Start with these three questions:
- How do you like to receive feedback; in public or private? Written or in person?
- Do you prefer a manager who’s more hands on or hands off? Tell me about the style that works best for you.
- What kind of recognition do you find most meaningful? How can I let you know when you’ve done a good job?
Trying to guess or intuit what each team member wants and needs only makes your job harder. Ask everyone on the team and keep your notes close by. Sharing your preferences will help them work with you too, and take out the guesswork.
3. It’s easy to fall victim to impossibly high standards
If your company culture is based on perfectionism or if you have perfectionist tendencies, you may be setting impossibly high standards – for yourself and your team. When you measure people against unattainable standards then people will inevitably fall short. Early in my career as a manager I made this mistake. The unfortunate result was to disenfranchise some of the people I relied on most. Remember, even the best performers are not perfect, will make mistakes, and have limits.
Learning What Not to Do
Most people have had more than one “bad” manager, and over my fifteen-year career I had a few. Working for people who don’t manage well is an opportunity to learn what not to do. Those lessons stuck with me, and over time I’d modeled my approach to managing based on emulating many positive role models and trying to avoid what didn’t work.
There’s clearly a reoccurring set of manager pitfalls. When managers fail to set clear goals, don’t value their teams, and don’t demonstrate trust, it leads to a lack of commitment. Research shows that when managers behave this way, people withhold effort. This concept is explained in Liz Wiseman’s book Multipliers. A bad manager will get much less of someone’s capacity vs. an effective manager. That’s why it’s so important to focus on your own development as a new manager. The more you learn to align the team, recognize people, and establish trust, the easier your job will be and the more people will want to work for you.
Studies have shown that as many as 69% of managers never receive training. Yet, managers have an undeniable impact on their teams. It only makes sense to give them the tools and resources they need to be successful, including training on good manager fundamentals from day one.
That’s why Reverb created a new On Demand course Management Training 101: Practical Skills for Great People Leaders. Check it out and enroll today! We’re offering the course at a 10% discount through the end of August.
