Conquering the challenges of becoming a new manager

Transitioning successfully from an individual contributor to a people-manager role is no easy feat. After all, what made you successful as an individual contributor can potentially hold you back in terms of your leadership success. Why? One simple word: Control.

When you were an individual contributor, you controlled everything on your desk or work area. You knew the status of all projects, could pivot when last-minute changes hit, celebrated completions and answered any questions your boss or peers might have regarding progress on your deliverables.

But now you’re responsible for two, four or even six people. What do you do now to gain that same feeling of self-confidence and ensure that you can answer any question about project status, the need to pivot or the opportunity to celebrate success?

For many first-time managers, that natural reaction or need to control all the variables and have all the answers reveals itself in what’s known as micromanagement. I’ve seen managers who have instructed their team members that no emails were to be sent to anyone outside the department without that manager being copied on them. Ouch—talk about a control freak!

No one wants to work for a micro-manager—change your mindset

Micromanagers are typically described as control mongers: people who distrust others, managers who hold on to every ounce of information without relinquishing authority to others and leaders who focus on small details and try to dictate how every aspect of a task should be completed. Micromanaging leadership styles often result in reduced employee morale, lower productivity, inefficiency and high turnover.

When considering your transition into management, engage in a healthy dose of career introspection, asking yourself questions like these:

• Would I want to work for me?
• If the whole company followed my lead (in terms of my role-model leadership, communication and teambuilding style), would I be happy with where I took it?
• On a scale from 1 to 10, how effective would my most respected critic say I was performing as a people leader and inspiration to my staff members?

There’s no judgment or self-incrimination here. Be honest with yourself. You’re the “average bear.” How would you respond to a manager like yourself? If you feel there’s room to improve and engage in further professional self-development, then make that a personal and career goal for yourself. You can literally “manage your way out” of being a micromanager, even if that nagging need to control things and people plagues you.

Likewise, recognize that it’s natural to want to control all the variables and “have all the answers.” But acknowledge that that’s no longer your role: In a knowledge-based economy, your staff members are closer to the work, clients and systems that make everything run smoothly. Therefore, your career focus must change from controlling everything and having all the answers to making it safe for your staff members to do their very best work every day with peace of mind. That includes giving them the room to define success on their terms and to develop solutions to challenges that come their way. That’s a critical change in mindset that’s needed to transition successfully into a people-leadership role.

Achieve success without total control

Further, don’t fight your natural need for wanting to know what’s going on—alter it. For example, if you want a healthy sense of self-confidence in knowing how your team is delivering and what they’re up to, schedule lunch-and-learns or short meetings to discuss this with your team members. What worked well for you when you were in their role? How do you define success? When would you automatically rush to keep your manager in the loop?

Similarly, what would you expect from others in terms of performance, productivity, product quality, customer care and the like? When would you expect them to escalate a matter to you, and what would the appropriate timeframe be? How would this work across the various lines of business that you operate (for example, recruitment, employee relations, learning and development, compensation, benefits and the like)?

Once you’ve had a chance to establish your expectations and involve your teammates in discussions around what works best for them, what they’ll need from one another and how they’ll interface with you and under what circumstances, you’ll feel better about “control” and your sense of self-confidence.

Remember, your job is to create the right circumstances for them to do their best work every day with peace of mind. Share your best practices, ask your team members for theirs, agree on expectations going forward, and outline circumstances where they should immediately inform you so you’ll be prepared if your boss asks for a status update. But it takes making the time to talk about it—that’s what staff meetings are for. If you don’t, they’ll likely make assumptions when gaps of information exist, which quickly leads to team misalignment, as well as feelings of resentment and frustration.

Finally, remember that it’s okay not to have all the answers when your boss calls or when you run into them in the hallway. When you’re leading teams, it’s normal to inform your boss that you’ll look into their question and get right back to them as soon as you have the most up-to-date information. After all, you can’t possibly know the status of every project at any moment in time when you have four, 40 or 400 staff members reporting to you. A quick call to one of your team members will give you all the information you need to advise your boss on the status and next steps.

Paul Falcone (www.PaulFalconeHR.com) is principal of Paul Falcone Workplace Leadership Consulting, LLC. Find the full list of his books at Amazon.com/author/paulfalcone. Subscribe to his YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@paulfalconeHR.