Advice for new managers

In My Humble Opinion
21

I’m not a manager, but I do know 5 things that mark good managers:

  1. Manage, don’t do.

Like others have said, this one’s hard, but it’s important. Where I’ve worked in the past, this has been a huge issue because the managers have frequently been too busy doing to actually handle the management part adequately.

  1. Manage people, not projects.

If done right, this is a consequence of #1 and #3, but the point is that management is about people, not about timelines and milestones, and all that other crap. A lot of managers I’ve worked for and with have lost track of managing their people in their zeal to make milestones and keep to timelines.

  1. Trust your subordinates to do their jobs well. Don’t micromanage.

Your subordinates are there to do the work. Trust that they know what they’re doing, and let them do it- hold them responsible, but let them do it their own way, and assume that they’re on top of things.

  1. Don’t come in and stir the pot / change too much right off the bat, just because you’re in charge now and you have your own ideas.

Nothing blows a new manager/leader’s credibility worse in my eyes than when they come in and stir shit up and change things, when the old ways were working well. That being said, use the initial non-stirring time to identify what does and what doesn’t work, so you can change at an appropriate time.

  1. Communicate often and effectively.

Nothing’s worse as a subordinate than being in a vacuum. You don’t know if you’re doing a good job, you don’t know if you’re working on the right things, and you tend to get kind of paranoid and/or unmotivated if you’re fairly tightly coupled to the team, department and company’s goals.

  1. Set clear responsibilities, priorities and goals.

This is probably the most important one- make sure your people know what they should be doing, what their expected results are, and when they’re due. Also make it clear what the success/failure results will be as well.

  1. Listen to your subordinates. They’re probably in a better position than you are to know what’s actually right and wrong with your process / system / etc…
    These are the things I can think of that seem to be pervasive in their bad implementation.

I recommend the book “It’s Your Ship” by D. Michael Abrashoff- it’s the distilled experiences of a Navy captain who apparently was handed a sad-sack ship and transformed into the go-to ship in the Persian Gulf fleet for tough assignments. Really interesting read, and has a lot of good lessons for managers.

22

Don’t make changes until you’re at the job for a while and understand why things are done now the way they are. I’ve run into too many new managers who have made drastic changes without understanding the ‘why’ of things. It usually ends badly.

Don’t correct subordinates work unless it really needs to be corrected. For example if they submit a report and it’s technically correct, don’t make changes just because you don’t like how it reads.

I once took over from a micro-manager. The subordinates basically took no initiative as the boss was going to change it anyway. Everything had to go through him. I changed things to they could sign it themselves unless (1) a regulation said I had to; (2) it could get us in trouble; and (3) it needed a little more horsepower to get through. It took a few months, but you could tell that people were taking more ownership of their jobs.

Don’t take credit for the work of others. Even if you did have something to do with the project, it’s better to give credit to subordinates. I’ve had credit stolen from me by managers before. Let’s just say that I didn’t give them much of anything to steal again.

23

This book, The One Minute Manager, has been around forever, but it’s a good one. And only $4.00. Great tips and easy to do.

My bold.

It’s **TOE **the party line, as in “keep your toe on the line and do not stray from it,” not TOW the line, as in pull it along.

Part of being a good manager is excellent communication skills. If you don’t have them, make sure your Number Two person does. Get him/her to read your memos and emails and make sure they make sense. I tell my clients, read over your emails (to staff) and imagine every possible way they can be misunderstood. Because if they CAN be misunderstood, they will be. Fix them ahead of time before you hit send.

CYA at all times. Keep copies of stuff on the computer in well-organized folders. You will surely need to explain/justify yourself at some point in the future, so have the documentation.

Back your people up. If one of them screws up, tell them privately, but YOU take the heat from upstairs. Don’t ever hang any of your people out to dry.

24

Don’t say or email anything derogatory about others, esp other mgrs or those higher up. emails you send can be “mistakenly” forwarded.

Don’t criticize your firm, in words or emails, to customers, even if you are right.

Contrary to public opinion - DO listen to gossip - (but do not repeat it)

Delegate

Think before you email. I worked for a firm that got called out on a racketeering charge. I was amazed at the emails their forensics people could retrieve. Even emails deleted long ago.
He said, she said, are hearsay; emails are the nails in the coffin.

Keep notes of everything. Even if you have to scratch them down quickly - then organize them later. Keep a shoe boss called “temp junk” and keep documents (including receipts) in them. Ditto for email - have a temp trash folder. However, some firms require you empty old emails after X number of months, unless you place them in a parent folder called “reference”.

Someone makes a simple leather bound legal paper folder, the front and back inner covers have inner little sleeve, where you move around important to-do lists as they change. They are like 2 inch square plastic tabs, IIRC, you dry erase on them. Keep it with you at all times.

One last tip - that may or may not be legal - go on ebay, and look up Panasonic voice recorder. They make / sell one for about $35. Its small, about 3/8" thick, 3 inches tall, 1 inch wide, runs on AAA batteries, will last 6 months, and record many hours. Even has a tiny digital screen. Keep it in your shirt pocket.
Trust me, the folks who make good managers are the information whores. be the person people come to for answers. If its illegal - do it anyway - they will never know - just erase it after you convert it into handwritten notes from “memory”. The laws on this vary from state to state.

25

As someone who has seen it from both sides, I heartily endorse all the above advice. Congratulations on your new position, you are making a good first step in preparing yourself.

Praise in public, criticize in private. Don’t embarrass a subordinate in front of his peers, have a private talk to discuss the issue. Give atta-boys where others will hear, and not just in meetings.

Never make sexual, racist, or any other demeaning remark or joke. Do not share intimate details with your staff. Never get drunk or high with your people. These things will be repeated and you will lose respect.

Treat your people as adults, not children.

Be relaxed and open, so people can be honest with you. Manage your emotions, especially frustration and anger.

26

There is a lot of good advice in this thread. This, however, is terrible advice.

Illegally recording your employees can not only get you fired, it can get you jailed and get you and your company sued. This is a very, very bad idea.

Check the laws, check company policy, and ask senior management for advice before you start recording people.

27

Here’s a management tip. Never use Richard Nixon as a role model.

28

I just became a manager two weeks ago. The best managers I’ve ever had were people who were there that a) knew what I was up to and b) didn’t try to do it (they just supplied good contacts and prevented me from making idiot mistakes by helping me think of the bigger picture) and c) were there to get obstacles out of my way so I could do my job and were sounding boards for the how.

That’s essentially what I’m trying to do. I hope I don’t suck at it because I just had four people dropped into my lap.

29

Just so you know, it is against the rules here to encourage illegal activity, so don’t do this again, cougar58.

Board FAQS

30

Put together the smartest, most capable team you can find. Understand their individual strengths and weaknesses. Give each of them tasks where they can shine. Listen very carefully to their input. Make them stakeholders in the project where they have a say in how and what gets done. Avoid dictatorial tendencies to say “do it my way.”

Be generous with praise. Also clearly communicate the stuff you don’t like in a private setting.

31

If your company has a policies and procedures manual, read it. Read it again. Take it home and read chapters before going to sleep. If you don’t know how the company is supposed to be run, you can’t properly manage your people and keep them out of trouble.

If your company has an HR office, get to know those people very well. Be nice to them, and try to keep your employees out of the HR office, where tempers can flair. Let them know that if they have a problem with HR to let you know and you’ll check it out. HR will reciprocate by trusting your decisions: no small thing.

Delegating is fine, but not without establishing measurable goals to follow up on. Check on progress or call for periodic reports/meetings to discuss ongoing projects and to make course corrections.

If your company has union employees, meet with the union hall rep and establish rapport with him/her. Read and try to memorize the latest union agreement so you don’t step on your figurative dick. Always call the union rep if you are considering taking any sort of punitive action against a union employee.

32

Be clear to workers about what the real expectations are and don’t play games with them. A while back I had a manager who would give me vague requests and then, when I completed them, give me a lecture about This Is Why Your Work Is Unacceptable that was tailored to some specific about what I had done. Sometimes I was too concerned over details that I failed to act reasonably with an understanding of general organizational goals and human nature. One time I was told that I should have considered it obvious that when I was asked to do one thing, I should have realized that this related to More Important Things and that I should have seen another task that logically flowed and should have done that immediately without having to be asked. Other times, I had become a rogue because I was trying to consider the goals/intent of the project and organization rather than sitting down, shutting up, and doing exactly as I am told in a very literal sense, no more, no less, and don’t you dare try to assume what the manager wants, you insubordinate. This guy was terrible. He also fancied himself a personal life coach and tried to give me worthless advice on how to deal with people that doesn’t work because he was living in some sort of dreamland society.