Tips for Transitioning into a Management Role

I still wonder how I ended up with words like "manage" and "supervise" in my job description. After all, I was always the anti-authority girl. I despised the whole concept of adults having supervisors, and dreamed of working from home with no one but myself and my bills to answer to. Instead, after a few years working in my operation, I found myself accepting a management position that was offered to me.

Transitioning from an employee who comes in, does your own work and goes home to management is a tricky thing. You're no longer just responsible for getting your work done. You now have others to answer for as well. To the higher-ups, you're responsible for making sure your area meets its goals and directives. The people who work in your unit or department expect to you make sure their work environment is productive, fair, and reasonably comfortable.

You no longer get to ignore interpersonal dynamics that are counterproductive to the office. You no longer get to think of helping with a problem that's not normally in your job description as "going above and beyond." It can be overwhelming, whether you're making the transition at a place you've worked for years or jumping into a new organization as a manager.

But take heart. It's still just another day in the office, and there are many things you can do to make the transition easier.

1. Take time to understand the operation before you start making big changes.

Chances are that part of the reason you got promoted is that the higher-ups saw your potential to change things for the better. On the first few weeks on the job, you'll go through your workdays thinking "why do we do this when doing that would be much easier," or "how come we don't use this instead of this?" You wouldn't be in management if your thought processes didn't include seeing how things could be handled better.

But before you start trying to change your world, make sure you really understand it. Spend your first month or two getting to know the operation inside and out. Observe what your staff members do throughout the day, and ask questions. Understand the goals, policies, systems and operations of the organizations as a whole, and how your unit fits into it.

Many people are settled into their routines and are adverse to change. Doing things differently causes them fear and stress. They've already been through a big transition - they just got you as a new boss. Let them get used to that before you start changing the way they do business.

Really knowing your stuff before you start suggesting new master plans will keep you from embarrassing yourself with the higher-ups and peers, too. My work place recently had a new director come on board. He was full of brilliant and creative ideas, and started tossing them around even before his new office furniture had been delivered. He came to me and my boss and started telling us about all sorts of technology improvements that would make our division's life easier. He was right, but they were things we'd known about and campaigned for to our bosses for years.

If he'd waited to get to know us, what we were doing, and the budgetary constraints we faced before tossing out suggestions, he would have seen him as an ally in our campaign. Instead, we initially perceived him as arrogant for assuming we didn't know things could be much better.

2. Know the basics about human resources and procurement.

Early on, take some time to read through policies and procedures on those nitty-gritty details you never had to bother with in your non-management role. When your office needs new equipment, do you just get to take a company credit card and buy it or do you have to jump through miles of red tape first?

Also meet with both your HR office and the person in your department responsible for HR paperwork and payroll. Know what is expected of you in terms of hiring regulations and performance evaluations. I always assumed that if a position in my unit became vacant, I would just put through a job advertisement, perform a search, and fill the role. I learned quickly that there were detailed rules governing how to go about that, right down to the number of people who had to serve on a search committee, the time a position had to be advertised, how many candidates had to be interviewed, and that I'd have to write a mini-thesis justifying why the person we chose was hired.

Don't be blindsided by details. Read about and discuss them all during your "honeymoon period," when people aren't yet expecting you to be doing other things.

3. Get to Know Your Staff.

This one seems obvious. But there's a lot more to getting to know the people who work in your division than understanding their jobs and their basic skill sets.

What are the strengths and interests of each of your staff members? Who is the person who has been around forever and serves as the "go-to" on company history, policy and procedure? Which person is the "networker," the one who has contacts in and the scoop on every other department? Who is the crisis manager, the one who may not shine during times of day-to-day drudgery but who always pulls through when systems break down or last-minute deadlines get thrown at your unit?

How does your staff communicate with each other, your clients and other departments? Does the specialist who never speaks up in meetings really not have much to say, or does she take copious notes and email her thoughts out later? Which team members come up with great ideas if left to brainstorm together? Who is the "writer" in the group, the one everyone goes to when an email, letter or document needs to be tweaked? Who can glide through any tricky phone conversation leaving a smile on her face as well as that of the person on the other end of the line?

Ask yourself these questions as you meet with your staff and observe their work routines during your first weeks in the office. Knowing the strengths, weaknesses, communications styles and interests among your group will help you down the road in assessing situations, assigning tasks, solving crisis situations and helping your employees move up in their own careers.

4. Form your own opinions over time.

When you come in as a new boss, everyone will want your ear. If two or more employees in your unit have issues with each other, at least one of them will be behind your closed office door early on. This one is disorganized, that one is always late, and the other one just isn't cooperative.

There are two sides to every story, and maybe the others involved are keeping quiet until they get to know you a little better. Thank your staff for input and feedback, and let them know that you're observing situations and will work towards solutions. Then get to know everyone and form your own opinions about what are real issues in work performance and which concerns boil down to personality differences.

The same goes for complaints about people outside of your unit. If your web content coordinator comes to you in your first week swearing that she's always behind because the technical department is unresponsive, take the feedback into consideration. But find out whether the tech department is really getting what they need from her in the time frame they need it before you discuss things with their manager.

5. Accept that your staff are also forming opinions about you.

You've just moved into the corner office. Of course you're a target for gossip and criticism.

Maybe there's someone on your staff who has been there forever and thought he would be next in line for your job. Maybe some of the others really loved working with the old boss and wish she hadn't left. Whether your employees are thinking they could do your job better themselves or are expecting you to do everything just like your predecessor, some of them will be judging you with anything but rose-colored glasses. Can you blame them? People who are committed to their work tend to think they know what's best for the organization. Try not to take things to personally.

When your perfect predecessor was there, you can be sure that people complained about him too. He was always last-minute with assignments or held too many meetings. Perhaps there will come a time when you move on and the employees are sighing over how wonderful you were in the face of the next new boss.

The best way to get past it is to learn the operation, understand where employees are coming from, and plow forward. Nothing but showing what you can do will take the edge off the situation.

6. If it's done in your unit, you should be able to get it done with or without the person who does it.

One of the first things a new manager should do is go through every task completed in his unit and understand how it is accomplished. Who does it, and how is it done?

Who handles it when the person who is responsible for it goes on vacation or takes a sick day?

Make sure you know who can serve as back-up in every area. If Kim does a daily report, make sure there's someone else who knows how to log into and use the database when she's not there. If Kelly orders supplies, who knows the protocol for getting more printer ink when you run out while Kelly is on a two-week cruise?

Learn as many details about the processes involved in what your staff do as you can. Of course, as the manager you shouldn't be spending your days filling out reports or ordering office supplies. If you are, then something else that only you can do is probably falling behind. But knowing how to do everything puts you in a position of power. The accountant can't assume you'll let her get away with poor work performance because no one else knows how to do her job. You don't need to be an expert, you just need to know enough to get by. Use the fact that you want to learn the ins and outs of the operation to make sure other staff get cross-trained to serve as backups as well.

7. Delegrating doesn't make you lazy. In fact, delegating is your job.

We've all grown up hearing "if you want something done right, then do it yourself." That's a hard lesson to unlearn.

But you can't do it all. As a manager, you must learn to delegate tasks to others and trust them to use their own talents and skills. If you try to accomplish every little task on your own, you'll be overwhelmed, frazzled, and not paying attention to the bigger picture. Your staff, meanwhile, will be bored and resentful that you're not treating them as professionals and letting them do their jobs.

Take a deep breath, and let go. Empower others so that you'll all be functioning at your best.

8. Set individual and group goals.

People like knowing what they're working for other than a paycheck. Does your department have documented goals? If not, putting them in place will make sure you're all steering in the same direction. It's also a great way to get to understand your operation.

In addition to overall goals, meet with your staff to discuss their jobs and their individual goals, and document those as well. Goal-setting can motivate people to improve the processes they're responsible for. It also gives you a good base from which to conduct future performance evaluations.

Goal-setting is also a great opportunity to make a team cohesive. Make setting group goals an activity where everyone provides suggestions and feedback. Use individual goal-setting as an opportunity to show your staff that you believe no one knows their job better than they do, and use their input heavily in the process.

9. Find a mentor.

Somewhere in your organization is a successful manager who is respected by the higher-ups and has a happy and productive team in his division. Find him, get to know him, and see what makes him so successful.

A Management 101 class will teach anyone the basics. But each company has its own unique quirks, clunky systems, offbeat policies and difficult people. The manager who has learned to successfully navigate in your environment is the one you should observe and discuss things with.

10. Use project plans and task lists.

A few years ago, I became involved in a large-scale project at my workplace. I was amazed at the amount of time the project manager spent updating deadlines and details on a project plan and making notes and additions to an ongoing list of tasks and issues. I thought if he'd spend less time doing that and more time working on the tasks, then things would go much better.

But I was wrong. When you're overseeing multiple projects, each with their own set of detailed tasks and issues to solve, it can be very easy to lose track of some of them and let them fall by the wayside. Your team members most likely have full plates themselves, and can easily get sidetracked on a task because someone involved in another project is demanding their attention.

Detailed and well-maintained project plans and task lists can make the overall operation run much more smoothly. Nothing gets overlooked. People know what tasks have been assigned to them and the deadlines associated with those tasks. You have an at-a-glance overview of the big picture.

Best of all, noting that tasks are "closed" or "completed" gives you and your staff a concrete sense that things are moving along as they should. There's nothing like a documented accomplishment to motivate people to keep going.

11. Make meetings meaningful and productive.

When people are busy, meetings can seem like a frustrating distraction. As a manager, you know that pulling your team together regularly for updates helps keep everyone connected and on track. But remember the days when you had ten things to do before you could go home for the day, and your boss threw you off schedule by calling you to an impromptu meeting? You weren't thinking about how helpful the meeting would be. You were downright annoyed.

When possible, schedule meetings in advance. Always have agendas so that people know why they're sitting in a conference room instead of back at their desks. Use the agenda to keep things on track. Don't let the talkers in the group derail the agenda. If something comes up that can't be resolved, indicate that you'll form a subgroup to look into it further and move on. Don't waste the valuable time of those who aren't involved in the issue at hand.

Go over project plans and task lists at your staff meetings so that everyone knows how things are progressing. This lends a concrete outcome to the meeting and keeps it from becoming a gripe session or a social hour.

12. Improve the work environment when you can.

Do everything in your power to foster a work environment where people feel comfortable and happy.

Within the confines of your company's policies, let people have fun. Encourage personalization of workspaces that aren't in public areas. Support casual dress codes as long as people aren't abusing them. Be willing to consider flexible work arrangements like coming in later and leaving later or coming in earlier and leaving earlier - or work from home days - as long as your team works together to cover all operations. Don't look sideways at employees who actually take a lunch break rather than munching a sandwich at their desks. Encourage people to recharge, network, and get to know each other. Do the same yourself.

Work isn't party time, or it wouldn't be called work. But we all spend most of our waking hours there, and your staff will be more productive if they find being a work a comfortable, flexible and basically positive experience.

13. Get to know others in the operation.

By others in the operation, I mean everyone, not just your team and the other division managers.

If you get on the good side of the administrative support people in other departments, you'll have better access to their decision-makers and will often get the information or resources you need without ever actually having to talk to the manager. If you take time to get to know the IT crew and recognize the techies who keep the wheels running, your department's PCs will be handled with tender loving care. If you respect the deadlines enforced by human resources and make their lives easier, your hiring paperwork or that raise you need processed for your star staff member will be less likely to sit on someone's desk for a month.

14. Get your hands dirty and expect others to do the same.

Don't be afraid to roll up your sleeves and jump in when your team is facing critical deadlines. Let your staff guide you in the details, value their expertise and work together to get the job done.

Employees roll their eyes at the boss who is always harping on deadlines and expecting everyone to pitch in and get things done, but who can't contribute himself. Sure, you shouldn't be mired down in the details every day, or else you aren't getting your own job done. But when crunch time rolls around and everyone is staying late to do a mailing or finish a task, work by their sides. You'll have a lot more leverage when your customer service rep calls out sick and you have to ask a non-frontline team member to cover the phones if you've been there, done that yourself.

15. Avoid the happy hour gripe sessions.

One of the toughest transitions for me was getting out of the water cooler habit. Everyone complains about management. It blows off steam and helps people refocus on the task at hand.

But when you are management, you can no longer sit around griping about who's an incompetent nitwit. If you do, the incompetent nitwit could very well end up being you.

16. Keep it real.

There's nothing more uncomfortable on the job than feeling like your boss is a workaholic automaton.

When you're in charge, you can't run around moaning about your lack of a love life if you don't have one or sharing intimate details if you do. You don't necessarily get to tell that funny story about what you and your best friend did when you were drunk over the weekend, either.

That doesn't mean you can't have a sense of humor, find out a bit about hobbies and interests or music and movies you might have in common with people on your staff, and have conversations that aren't related to the job now and then. You're all human, after all. Seeing the human side of each other makes the workday less onerous for everyone, and can make your staff feel more comfortable coming to you with issues, ideas and concerns.

Be humble. If you make a mistake, acknowledge it, apologize and figure out how to fix it. If someone one your staff makes an error, expect them to do the same, and help them to turn things around. We all make mistakes, but we're less likely to make dumb ones if we're not tiptoeing around in fear of screwing up and upsetting the boss. If employees are afraid to admit errors to you, then you'll eventually be blindsided by those mistakes, probably when you're sitting in a meeting with your boss.

Be firm when situations call for it. Don't be the boss who looks over everyone's shoulder all day. Do be the boss who will confront situations and work performance issues that have the potential to create problems before they get out of hand.

17. Have A Life

When you're a manager, it can sometimes feel like the weight of the world is resting on your shoulders. Remember to leave the office behind sometimes and recharge your batteries. If find yourself spending all your time at home thinking or talking about work, make a conscious effort to refocus.

A well-rounded, rested, recharged employee who has outside interests and goals in life is usually more productive and creative than an embittered workaholic. The same goes for managers and supervisors. Work hard, and play hard too.