Hey, new manager.
“I’m excited about my new role!”
Of course you are. Congratulations!
“This is my big chance to make a difference”.
You’re gonna screw up.
“But they promoted me!”
You got promoted based on your accomplishments as an individual contributor. Plus, you’ve demonstrated leadership abilities along with your accomplishments. You’ve earned the path to the leadership track.
And you’re gonna screw up.
That’s a hard message to accept for someone who’s been accustomed to being a high achiever throughout their career.
One of the first screw ups made by first-time managers is promising too much to your team.
Let’s meet Alan, an astronaut with a grand plan. Alan is presenting Alice with a balloon bouquet. Nine balloons, each one resembling the planets in our Solar System. That’s if you count Pluto, which is technically a dwarf planet. Pluto or not, that’s an impressive bouquet, leading us to believe Alan is trying to impress Alice.
What can possibly go wrong?
Alice accepts the ginormous bouquet from Alan and she floats away, never to be seen again, causing Alan much grief.
But Alan had good intentions!
Or, after Alice accepts the bouquet, all of those planets come down on Alice, entombing her in an avalanche of rock, metal, hydrogen, helium and ice.
“You’re just being a pessimist”.
Nah. I’m an optimist. You’re gonna learn a lesson from this funky T-shirt!
I can relate to Alan. When I was a first-time manager, I messed up in various ways, including promising too much to my team too soon.
When someone is promoted into a leadership position from within a company, the newly promoted person has the benefit of tribal knowledge. First-time manager has a good understanding of the efficiencies and deficiencies in an organization. While still an individual contributor, the first-time manager probably felt powerless to address certain deficiencies.
Probably?
Certainly!
As newly promoted managers, we feel empowered to bring about change. That’s great. Most of us want things to run smoothly on our jobs. We feel an urgency to fix everything from A-Z. All of the problems will go away if we just use our new manager powers for the greater good! What’s not so great is over-committing yourself by promising your team a bunch of changes that you cannot deliver.
“But what if I have a plan?”
Planning is positive. However, plans and reality tend to be incongruous. First-time manager is going to have a lot on their plate. They won’t have time to execute on most of the promises in their plan.
“But I’m not like those other managers”.
Of course not! You’re unique. But don’t you think those other new managers had the same idealistic goals as you? Finding enough time is a constant challenge, regardless of the person or their ambitions.
Time isn’t the only obstacle. Every company has problems that predate your tenure with the organization, complicated problems that have multiplied over the years. While it’s admirable to promise your team that you’ll fix some age-old, annoying problem, your promise (or plan) isn’t going to be enough to deliver results.
You need influence!
As a new manager, you’re lacking the influence you need to persuade other leaders across the organization to collaborate on solutions to the complicated problems. Here comes that t word again: It takes time to develop influence.
“I get it now. Even though I won’t be able to move mountains for my team, they’ll appreciate the small victories”.
Yes and no. Yes is obvious. What’s not so obvious to a first-time manager is the downside of under-delivering on your promises to your team. Promise your team the Solar System and deliver Pluto (sorry, Pluto), well, you’ve eroded trust. You don’t want your team to view you as a manager who can’t deliver on your promises to them.
Psst.
Wanna know one of the hidden, err, perks of becoming a manager? People don’t forget your promises. Therefore, dropping the ball, or Solar System, will erode trust.
“So how do I use my new manager powers to bring about realistic change for my team?”
Realistic is such a great adjective. And you prefaced the word change with realistic, which means you’re already on the right track. Remember that SMART mnemonic acronym thingie?
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-Based
Sounds kinda smart because it is!
Start off by focusing on incremental, small improvements to make life easier for your team. While you have a lot of good ideas for improvements, avoid taking a top-down approach for implementation. Instead, take a collaborate approach. Brainstorm with your team and make a list of small improvements. The keyword is small. Get your team’s input. As a side benefit, the collaborative approach shows your team that you, as their new leader, listen and value their ideas.
“But my team will have a zillion ideas for improvements and you told me to be SMART!”
This is where you rise to the occasion and use your new manager powers for the greater good of your team. As the manager, you have the final say on the implementation of your team’s improvement ideas. Using SMART as the foundation for your selection process, you can prioritize those improvements, starting with the low hanging fruit.
You’re gonna make mistakes as a first-time manager. That’s okay. You’ll learn. One mistake you won’t make is to overpromise. Promise?