You’re a Manager Now: You Have to Dress the Part

You have to dress the part, you have to look like a manager, if you want people to perceive you as a manager. Not sure you believe this? Then watch my new video and leave your comment below.

You’re new to this, so cut yourself some slack!

Here’s a video I recently posted on YouTube, advising new managers (like you!) to be patient with themselves instead of expecting to learn everything at once. It’s great advice for new managers!

Tips for New Managers Is Reactivated!

As you can clearly see from the dates of previous posts, Tips for New Managers hasn’t been an active blog for quite some time. I won’t bore you with the reasons, but suffice it to say that I’m back and so is this blog.

I won’t give you a schedule as to when or how often I will post, but it will be enough to supply you with a continuous stream of information that will help you as you struggle to come to grips with the skills you now need in your new role as a manager. To help me keep Tips for New Managers relevant and helpful, please do leave a comment with your specific challenges, questions, information needs etc., and I will do my best to address them in future posts. I look forward to hearing from you, and I hope you will visit often.

Also, check out The Manager’s Journey and claim your free audio program, 7 Mistakes New Managers Make and How You Can Correct Them.

Happy Managing!

New Manager: Invest in Yourself!

Someone recently told me she would like to become a Traveler in my program for new managers, The Manager’s Journey, but her employer would not pay for it. She asked how she could persuade the company to pay so that she could take part in The Manager’s Journey.

My answer probably wasn’t what she expected, but here it is: pay for it yourself! After all, it’s your career, isn’t it?

One of the biggest mistakes new managers make is not investing in their own professional development. Of course it’s great when your company puts you through courses for your development, but you shouldn’t restrict yourself to those. If you want to develop your management career, there are many things you’ll need to learn and they won’t all be available in-house. Those who ask why they should have to pay when it’s the company that gains are taking a very short-sighted view.

In the long term, you will actually benefit more than the company, because you will learn skills that are transferrable. If you move to another position in another company, you will already be more prepared if you’ve learned some basic management skills. If you can truthfully say in your resume that you have taken management courses, that gives you an advantage in the job market, so why not put yourself in this position even if it means paying your own way?

That is, in fact, the reason I have kept the ticket price for The Manager’s Journey low, because I know many new managers will have to pay their own way and I want them to be able to afford it. (By the way, if you haven’t already, you really should read all about The Manager’s Journey to see if it’s for you.)

Don’t be short-sighted, new manager, and don’t be left behind: invest in your own professional growth, invest in your career, invest in yourself!

Is It Important, or Just Urgent?

New managers often tell me they seem to spend their time “putting out fires”; in other words, everything seems to be urgent and need attention right away. This is, in fact, a major cause of stress for managers at all levels, but particularly for new managers. So how can you deal with all these emergencies and still get on with the work you set yourself to do at the beginning of the day?

In Steven Covey’s classic book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, he divides tasks, challenges, decisions etc. into four quadrants, which he describes in the following diagram:

Think about an item that’s on your “to do” list right now. Which quadrant would it fall into?

For example, finishing your report for delivery at a high level meeting tomorrow: Q1

Planning a staff training program for next year: Q2

Answering a colleague’s question about where to make a lunch reservation: Q3

Answering an e-mail that should never have come to you in the first place: Q4

Now look at all the items on your current “to do” list, and consider which quadrant you live in most of the time in the course of your job. Most stressed new managers find they work predominantly in Q1 and Q3, because they automatically react to the urgent, never stopping to consider whether it is important or not.

Steven Covey changed a lot of lives by recommending that we move as much as possible into the items that belong in Q2: important but not urgent. Using my examples above, planning your staff training program is important, but it’s not urgent because it is for next year. Why is that good? Because it gives you time to do the job well without panic! The key here is not to procrastinate, but to block off time over a certain period to do the job before it becomes urgent. This is an automatic stress reducer.

So what about the other three quadrants? Q4 is a no-brainer: if it’s not urgent and not important, why do it at all? Get rid of these items.

Q3 items are not important, so why is it urgent that you do them? Often these items become urgent because other people having procrastinated about asking you for information, and now they need it right away. That makes it their problem, not yours. Help them out the first time, but make it clear that in the future you can’t be interrupting your schedule to deal with items that would not have been urgent had they been dealt with earlier.

Finally, Q1 items must be done urgently because they are also important. Your task as a manager is to come up with solutions so that these particular items don’t become emergencies in future. The best way to do that is to handle them before they become urgent — in other words, move them over to Q2.

The Covey Quadrant is one of the most useful tools you will ever come across as a manager. Take some time to put it to work, and work as much as possible in Q2. You’ll be amazed at how much important work you get done, and how much less stressful your day becomes.

Quiet Please, Manager Working

Interruptions are part of a manager’s day, as you’ve probably discovered. On another day I’ll write about how to handle constant questions and requests for information on a normal day, but for today I want to offer a specific tool that has helped me complete many an important task on time and with less stress.

It’s the quiet time.

You have a report to write, and the deadline is looming. You’ve made several starts on it, but never seem to get a big enough chunk of time to complete it, and all those distractions make it difficult to get your concentration back to the job at hand. OK, how much time will you need to finish the job? An hour? Two hours? Half a day? Decide this first, then block off that amount of time on your schedule.

So now you know you’ll be busy on the report during that time, but you need others to know so that they will respect your quiet time. Simply send out an e-mail saying, “I need quiet time on Thursday from 9 – 11 a.m. Thank you for co-operating.” In case you get a visit from someone who didn’t see the e-mail, hang a sign on your closed door with the same message. Most people I talk to about this don’t expect it to work, and are amazed to find that most of the time it does. The reason is that other people wish they had thought of it too!

Now of course some people will ignore your message and barge right in. If that happens, don’t even look up from your desk or your computer. Simply concentrate even harder on what you are doing to make it obvious. If your fingers are hovering over your keyboard, type something — anything. You can always take it out later if you typed nonsense, but it sends the message that you really are working. When the person speaks, unless it is the President of the company or your immediate boss, don’t respond. Keep typing! Eventually they will get the message and say something brilliant like, “I see you are busy.” Look up at that point, agree that you are under deadline and this is not a good time to talk. Ask if you can call them when you are finished, and usually that will take care of things.

Since interruptions are often cited as a major cause of stress in the workplace, it’s in your own interests to figure out ways to deal with them that work for you. I strongly recommend quiet time. However, this is one of those tools that shouldn’t be overused or it will lose its effectiveness, so reserve it for times when you really need it and it can be one of the most valuable tools in your management toolbox.

7 Mistakes New Managers Make and How to Avoid Them

Watch this video and learn how you can get your own copy of my 45-minute audio “The 7 Biggest Mistakes New Managers Make and How to Avoid Them”

What Kind of Manager Do You Want to Be?

I’m not talking here about the function of your team, whether you want to be in HR or Production. And I’m assuming you want to be a “good” manager, whatever your definition of good might be.

I’m thinking more of the management style you want to adopt, the personal traits you’d like to develop as a manager. You need to think about this early in your management career, so that you can use your answers to help guide your day-to-day work. I call this your “Management Belief Statement” and I recommend you create one for yourself. Here’s how to do it.

First, think of some good and bad managers to whom you’ve reported in the past. What, in your mind, made them good or bad managers? What were the personal traits, styles and habits that worked for them or against them? Take some time to think about this and write down your thoughts. Now consider how you can incorporate the good and avoid the bad in your own management style.

Pretend it’s a year from now. What would you like your people to say about their experience of working with you as their manager? Do you want to be seen as fair minded? Confident? Strong? Friendly? Commanding? Collaborative? Helpful? Encouraging? Add your own ideas here.

Whatever qualities you’ve chosen, think about how they would express or manifest themselves. What would make someone consider you to be a helpful, confident or fair minded boss? What would be the actions that demonstrate these qualities? When you’ve given some time and thought to this, you’re ready to compose your Management Belief Statement. Use your own words, but these suggestions might help you begin:

• I will lead my team by example. That means …
• When people come to me for help …
• My relationship with my team will …
• My relationship with my peers and colleagues will …

Nobody else need see your statement, unless you want to make it public. But do keep it in a place where you can see it and refer to it often. Ask yourself if your actions are congruent with your statement. If not, what should you do about it? When you have a difficult decision to make, your Management Belief Statement can help you make the choice that is right in your own eyes. In challenging situations, knowing your decision was in keeping with your own convictions can help you sleep at night.

New Managers Learn Management Skills on The Manager’s Journey

I just distributed a news release about my dynamic, exciting program for new managers, The Manager’s Journey. Read the news release at PR Log

and then visit The Manager’s Journey to learn more. While you’re there, claim your copy of “The 7 Biggest Mistakes New Managers Make and How to Avoid Them”.

Welcome, New Manager!