Being promoted to a leadership role for the first time is always exciting and a reason to celebrate. But while becoming a boss for the first time is full of promise and possibilities, it can also feel overwhelming.
Sometimes the situation requires being the "newbie" leading a group of individuals who have worked together before, or it could be that you were all equal colleagues now selected to be the boss.
Regardless of how you earned your new post – or if you’re helping someone on your team acclimate to a new managerial role – there are key things that can be done to relieve anxiety and ease into the transition.
Linda Hill, a professor at Harvard Business School says: "Being a boss is becoming harder and harder and it actually matters a lot more to be good at it. Nowadays the world is so competitive and the roles you play are so complex that if you aren't good at it, you're really bad."
Six Keys for New Leaders
Candy Altman, corporate VP for Hearst Television stations gives these six tips for new managers:
Delegate
You can’t do it all yourself, and if you do, two things happen – things won’t get done well and you won’t live up to your responsibility to train those who work for you.
Don’t stay in your comfort zone
New managers do this by gravitating toward people like them when hiring and focusing on tasks they know.
Adapt your skill set
Recognize the skills that made you great at your old job may not translate to your new job. Understand you will be dealing with a lot of gray areas in your new job, where your old job might have been fact-based.
Build your time management skills
Build them for work and for your life. If you don’t, you will be tortured all the time and feel like you’re not accomplishing anything. If you don’t find time to enjoy your life outside of work, you will burn out.
Know that it’s lonely at the top
Understand, truly understand that managing people can be isolating. You are making decisions that affect your employees’ livelihoods. You are evaluating them and giving them feedback. You are no longer their after-work, dinner, and drinking companion. Make new friends outside of work.
Define and communicate a vision
What do you stand for? If you want people to follow you, you must lead with a clear mission.
These are great reminders for seasoned managers and also for those who just may be starting out on their leadership journey.
What tools are you using to help your new managers to grow as leaders?
