Moving up the ladder in your career calls for celebration, so a hearty congratulations to you for progressing in your career as new managers! While this is a happy moment, we also need to acknowledge that it also comes with certain challenges. After all, there is nothing rewarding or fulfilling without any struggle.
As many are aware, there are many changes that occur when a promotion or transitioning into a new managerial role happens. Some obvious changes are added job load and more responsibility. One of the biggest change noticeable is that while the managers beforehand may have been used to communicating ‘upwards’ with their own manager, they now find themselves as the ‘middleman’ where they need to communicate up the organisational hierarchy to the board, and down the hierarchy to their own team. Now, they have 2 channels of communication, where they must interpret and communicate across both without any biased or error. Communication and listening skills are therefore crucial in this element.
The key to becoming a great leader or a manager is the tone and presence you set across. You need to ensure that you exude confidence and know what you are doing. This reemphasises the previous note on communication as well as your ability to lead. Mistakes especially at the start could be rocky. You need to ensure you have good management skills under your belt, but management and leadership skills for new managers and supervisors are quite different to the skills that are required by already established leaders. That is because new leaders are typically more under scrutiny as opposed to already established ones, just like your very first day of work all over again! It can be nerve-wrecking, but fret not! We have got some tips and advice for you to slay your new managerial role so you can be a high-impact manager!
But before we get to those tips, what exactly is a high-impact manager? In simple terms, a high-impact manager can be more than willing and focused to drive and motivate his or her team to hit their goals and strive to reach new heights in performance and productivity. This must happen vice versa as well, so that it is a collective effort where everyone feels that they are contributing and they matter.
Must-Have Competencies
Self-Awareness: Of all the competencies required to be an effective manager, it’s extremely important for new managers to be aware of their own opinions and behaviours towards their employees. Especially in the beginning, it is helpful to understand how you come over to people. Understanding how others view you can help you adjust your behaviours in new situations and with new people, helping you to create a bond with your team. Being self-aware of how you appear to others in your team is vital in developing those management competencies.
In a team, everyone is different. Everyone has their own strong suits, and weaknesses. It would be great if you, as a new manager, are able to identify that early on and analyse how to then communicate and delegate tasks to each employee so that they can progress and reach their fullest potential.
Credibility: Credibility is always an integral element of successful management and is arguably the most important aspect new managers should and must have. This is especially true for those managers who are trying hard to make positive first impressions and establish themselves, in what is often a challenging transitional environment.
A new manager is a big uncertainty for the people who will be managed by the person. If the manager is new and hired for the job, more often than not, employees do not know the skills and credibility of this manager. If the manager is someone who worked his or her way up, there might be a sense of respect plus credibility, but it varies across different employees too.
Therefore, new managers should work diligently to build credibility in the first weeks and months of employment. This is done by truly taking the time to get to know your colleagues, listening to them and working as a team. By doing so, you build up trust and become effective in building that credibility as a manager.
Must-Have Skills
Trust Skills: Gaining your team’s respect, confidence and trust will require dedication and skills. Especially if you want to learn to be successful as a business development manager or another type of manager, management classes for new managers will concentrate on a specific set of skills that will help you achieve and succeed. For instance, when delegating tasks, new managers must ensure that team members understand the purpose of the task, how it is important to achieving team goals, and be transparent as to which team members are empowered to make which decisions. Having transparency and open communication where everyone is on board will create a sense of trust that is admired and respected. The last thing the team members would want is disagreement among each other due to poor communication and lack of trust.
Coaching Skills: A manager should lead his team to greatness, not just simply delegate tasks and expect everything to be smooth sailing. Together with communication, comes the need for feedback too. More often than not, managers forget that the team requires feedback and coaching. Everyone is still learning as it goes, in each of their roles. King recommends bringing team members together quarterly to give them feedback on areas including how they are progressing toward their goals, how well they are handling changes to work processes, or how they might have more successfully collaborated on a project. The team needs to feel acknowledged on their progress and even setbacks. This will give them added motivation to do better, as they feel that they are a part of a team being led by a new manager that cares and is there for them.
Nurturing Skills: A valuable soft skill for new managers is having the ability to express and understand emotions. By showing compassion and empathy, the managers, especially new ones are able to form connections, trust, and rapport with their team. This is a key step in ensuring that the team knows that the person in charge is someone who they can trust and rely on, especially during tough times. Showing empathy as well during such time will allow for calmer reactions and managing or coping with pressure and stress. The team will feel that even despite the obstacles faced, they are able to go through it together as a functional team.
After all, “Managers who are most successful know how to relate to their team members. Caring and understanding go a long way in earning your team’s confidence.”
Accountability Skills: Being an accountable leader means always having your team’s back regardless of who is at fault. To be part of a team led by such a leader creates a positive workplace environment. This also means that team members are able to make mistakes and learn from them instead of having the fear of even trying to begin with. This will also increase the level of trust among team members, and create a safe place for team members to excel and progress further in their careers and tasks in general! For new managers to have such a skill will definitely help in his or her journey towards ensuring that they will be high-impact managers.
New Managers & Self-Growth
Ultimately, new managers should and must take some time to work on constantly improving their capabilities and skills to be the very best version of themselves, for their team’s success. This also includes spending time to train team members, cultivate new skills and nurturing them to progress in their career. After all, a happy employee = productivity = overall success! This is the main goal after all, for all new managers and organisations.
As a first-time manager, it is also important to note that there will be quite a transition from being a contributor, to managing a team with diverse sets of background, weaknesses and strengths. While it is vital to achieve success and ensure that the team contributes to the success of the organisation, it is also important to note whilst doing so, the team needs to be motivated and cheered on, feedback such as constructive ones where necessary needs to be given (even if it might be a hard pill to swallow), but as a new manager, these needs to be instilled, to get the whole team highly motivated and press on, to drive them to always to their best. Also, where credit is due, new managers must also reward staff who are exceptional and constantly trying to be the very best version of themselves.
New Managers & Tenacity
Additionally, having the tenacity and resilience as new managers are quickly becoming the number one organisational skill for companies to thrive. We live in data-driven world, where it is constantly changing, especially when it comes to technology. Many employees are required to learn new skills and further their studies, whilst still working just to ensure that they are able to progress and sustain their job. This is stressful for most employees, especially older ones who are not as susceptible to change. Thus, should the new managers have such tasks and team members to manage, it will be a handy characteristic to have. The team will feel that despite such a change, the new manager is able to manage them well, and provide them with the support they need as well. As a new manager, he or she should also show that he or she is always willing to learn and take up new skills, and motivate the members to do so too. It is a contagious thing after all! Everyone needs a little push to do better, and if the new manager is able to take the first step, so will his or her team!
Conclusion
At the end of the day, being new managers/ supervisors or leaders in such a fast-changing era is difficult. Thus, it will be good to always expand the knowledge and skillsets to continue to do better and lead better too. Furthermore, successful leaders are able to prioritise where they spend their time and energy when it comes to elevating their capabilities and their own personal development.
Only after understanding your strengths as a new manager will you be able to decide where you need to build relationships that require a little bit more energy and time, how to use your strengths more to improve work, and team’s productivity, how as new managers you can apply these strengths to tackle challenges head-on, as well as the things you need or want to work on. After all, a fulfilled, open, positively energized manager leads from a place in which they can best steer their team and organisation to success — strategically, emotionally, and operationally (Deane, 2019)
Learn more about High Impact Supervisor & Manager Skills for New Managers!
Manager skills is one of the most demanding yet rewarding skill set you can have. Many newly promoted managers and supervisors failed to transit from a high-performance individual into an effective team manager. Alarmingly, the latest Survey by CareerBuilder shows that close to 60% of new managers and supervisors receive no formal management training and are ill-prepared for the new challenges and roles without proper guidance. Learn how you, as a new manager or supervisor to drive results and improve the performance of your team.
We are happy to share that at Aventis, we have curated a 1 day course to tackle such issues head on! This High Impact Supervisor & Manager Skills for New Managers will provide a Step by Step Roadmap to Setting Clear Expectation and Effective Communication Techniques. After all, as we are now more aware, there is more to being a manager or supervisor than longer hours and greater responsibility. Becoming a manager is a whole new role and demands a new mindset and new skill sets. Having people report to you means additional demands on your time as well as operational challenges. So, why not kick-start on the training now and be the very best version of a new manager you can be!
For more information, you can get in touch with us at (65) 6720 3333 or training.aventis@gmail.com
References:
3 Ways To Help New Managers Quickly Establish Credibility
4 Essential Skills For New Managers
3 Skills New Managers Need to Succeed
6 Tips for Managers Who Want to Build High Impact, Happy Teams and Thriving Organizations
