New Manager, Who Dis?

It’s hard enough to be a new manager WITHOUT the judgment.

Yet with a new role comes new expectations.

Question is: where do you start?

Everything comes back to “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Why?

Because perceived care is the foundation for tough conversations and keeping people accountable.

• Poor managers tell their people what’s needed to be done.

• Great managers give their people the tools to get the job done.

The former is about control.

The latter is training them towards independence.

Leadership is about helping bring out the best in others.

• Skills can be taught.

• But character is what builds loyalty.

Take for instance giving feedback as a manager when a mistake has been made.

Do you berate the person for a poor performance?

Or do you treat it as a learning opportunity?

How you respond as a manager will shape their perception of you as a leader.

As a new manager, use empathy to understand what could have gone wrong, then help correct the problem from repeating itself.

This isn’t an excuse for poor effort, judgement or missing deadlines.

Rather know that you have a working relationship with an individual and how they feel about you as a leader will effect their performance in general.

If you’re saying to yourself, “but I don’t really like working with people, I’d much rather work alone” then why are you in management?

If that sounds like you tell someone that managing isn’t for you.

Managing others includes interruptions, focusing on others and resolving interpersonal conflict.

And if you truly want to be a great manager, relationships will always matter most.

It’s time consuming, frustrating and tiring all at the same time.

But those who thrive in leadership strive to care about the people on their team (even when they don’t like some).

If I had to go back in my career as a new manager, I’d focus on building connections with people before barking out orders.

There’s an art to strengthening relationships and even though there’s not a formula…

I’m happy to share my advice if you reply to this email.

Thanks for reading & God Bless,

Scott

P.S. Watch “New Manager Mindset” below with my friend Hana Zacay for tips on how to do it right the first time (learn from our mistakes!)