3 Proven Tips for First Time Managers

Tips for First Time Managers to Start Off on the Right Foot
Does becoming a first time manager make you feel as if you are leaping off a cliff without a safety net?  Then you need these three proven tips for first time managers and supervisors to start off on the right foot.

Spend a Moment to Take Stock
If you are being promoted to a management position, you have most likely succeeded as an individual contributor. You are perceived to have the leadership competencies required to manage others. Hopefully, you have also been through a proven training program for first time managers to help you achieve the mindset of leadership.

What’s to fear?  You just need to do it!

Three Practical Tips to Think about Becoming a First Time Manager
The time for management and leadership theory is over. The proof is in the pudding.

1. Evaluate Your Own Behavior
   The best new supervisors know leading others is less about theoretical leadership competencies and more about practical application.  To get started, new managers should think about their habits at work.

   How do you spend your time?  What beliefs and assumptions drive your behavior?  How do you treat others?

2. Observe Others
   First time managers should find a trusted mentor and closely watch high performing leaders they admire to promote continuous learning and improvement.

   •  What does their day look like?

   •  How much time do they spend planning? Thinking?  Interacting?  Discussing?  Managing?  Listening?  Learning?

   •  What are their routines?

   •  How do they structure their time?

   •  How do they behave with customers? With Leaders?  In Groups?  Leading Meetings?

   Ask them what works best for them. And then apply those lessons to your own daily activities.

3. Strive for Effectiveness and Improvement, Not Perfection
   As you practice more effective ways of working as a new supervisor, focus on getting better every day. Strive to find ways that work most effectively for you and your team. Focus on balancing:

   •  Results – The results you and your team achieve

   •  Processes – The processes you use to achieve those results.

   •  Relationships – The relationships you create and build along the way.

   The objective should be to learn continuously. Your performance on the job as a new manager impacts your team. High performing leaders set an example and inspire high performing teams.

The Bottom Line
Leadership cannot be learned from a book. It’s the on-the-ground experience and a continual effort to improve that makes the difference. Be that kind of new manager!

To learn more proven tips for first time managers, download The 6 Management Best Practices that Make the Difference Between Effective and Extraordinary