Whenever you step into a new role, it can be more than a little daunting. If it’s your first time as a manager, then there can be a lot of pressure surrounding such a position. Not only are you responsible for others but you’re responsible for the work you deliver yourself. You’re reporting to those higher up in the company and that can add more pressure to the role.
While there are plenty of people that are natural within management roles, not everyone is born with the talents to become a manager. For many, it’s all about learning management styles over the years and having real-life experiences in management before they step into such a role.
If you’re a newcomer to management and you’re looking for guidance on how to be successful as a manager, then you’ve arrived on the right page. Hopefully, by the end of this article, you’ll have a better understanding of how to manage a team effectively and with fewer challenges along the way.
Always have an open communication channel
Communication is key, especially when it comes to remote teams. In this day and age, remote working and hybrid working environments have become the norm, which is why it’s important to overcommunicate where possible as a manager.
When you’re actively communicating with your team and individual team members, you’re able to get an understanding of what’s going on at all times.
Be mindful when it comes to how little or how much you’re communicating with your staff. While you want to have an open communication channel, you don’t want to be too available that you fall behind on your own work.
A good way of resolving this is by using software that communicates to staff when you’re available and at your desk and when you’re away.
Software like Slack is great for this because you can use a variety of statuses from ‘away’ to ‘on a lunch break’. Even if you’re not communicating with your staff at that moment, you’re still keeping them informed on where you are.
Set clear goals for your team
Goal-setting is a great way of keeping your team motivated and informed on what your own personal objectives are for the team and those individually.
With clear goals in place, everyone remains on the same page, which is important when you’re managing a team wherever they may be based. These goals need to be clearly outlined and easy to find for the team members to find. Whether they’re daily goals, weekly or monthly, it’s important that you’re doing everything possible to have these objectives in place.
Goals are motivators but they’re also great ways of setting benchmarks as a business or department. They help keep everything moving and avoid your business or department falling stagnant as a result.
As a manager, goals are great for helping keep staff happy within their roles, so be sure to assess how effective or satisfying they are for your staff members. If the goals are unattainable or out of reach, then figure out why that might be. You might want to reassess the goals you’re setting so that they’re more realistic for those staff members involved.
Be willing to provide and accept feedback
Feedback is an essential part when you’re managing a team. If you’re not willing to provide and accept feedback, then that will certainly impact your efforts as a manager. It can also lead to a lack of respect because you’re unwilling to accept any potential criticisms that might be coming your way.
Criticism isn’t fun to receive and nor does it give you much motivation, especially if it’s a negative opinion. However, feedback is important especially when it’s negative. Why? Because it’s an indicator that something is going wrong and therefore needs addressing.
As uncomfortable as it might be for those involved, a willingness to provide and accept feedback is only going to strengthen the relationships within your team. Setting an example as a manager and having a willingness to take feedback is only going to help strengthen the rest of your team’s confidence when it comes to providing feedback.
Delegate tasks effectively
Delegating tasks is an important part of managing a team and when you’re a newcomer, it can be hard to delegate. You’re so used to doing all of the tasks yourself that when it comes to handling a multitude of tasks, you need to be willing to relinquish control. By micromanaging, you’re doing the opposite and that can hinder your efforts as a manager.
Micromanaging is where you’re giving tasks to others but not letting go of control. You’re likely still trying to assist in doing those tasks or you’ve not given the team members all the information or tools they need to complete those tasks successfully.
Take a look at how you’re distributing tasks to your team and if you find yourself assisting with tasks, then step away. Of course, it’s good to offer suggestions and help where needed, but this should be prompted by the staff members in question, rather than yourself.
Manage your time well
It’s important that you’re doing everything you can in order to manage your team well. This is something that takes time and management of your time is important. How you manage your time and days in general, is going to be influential to how successful you are with your team members.
When it comes to managing your time, look at what might be taking up the most of your day or week. Consider what you’re doing to help save time and where you might be procrastinating.
When you don’t manage your time well, that’s only going to negatively impact your efforts as a manager. If time management has never been your strong suit, then consider bringing in tools that are going to help delegate your time a lot better.
There are plenty of apps and tools that monitor your time and even have timers to ensure you get certain tasks done in an allocated amount of time that you’ve given yourself. As a result, it’s going to encourage you to work hard and more efficiently to meet the demands you set yourself.
Use tools to help manage your staff effectively
Talking of tools, if you’re looking to manage your staff effectively, particularly when they’re mobile or remote-based, then a field service management platform is well worth the investment. It’s a central platform that every staff member can access, wherever they may be.
It’s definitely a helpful tool to use when it comes to team members who might be working with
Settle team problems immediately
Team problems are often likely to crop up. Even the most connected teams can have problems with individual members of staff. Whether that’s someone riding on the coattails of other staff when it comes to work efforts or simply a clash of personalities.
It’s important to quash team problems as soon as they arise. As a manager, you want to be switched on and have your ear to the ground for any potential problems that have occurred, regardless of where they are based.
Hire the right people
Finally, it’s useful to consider who you’re hiring when it comes to growing and expanding your team. Every hire is influential to the performance of your team, so any hires you make need to slot into your team successfully. Consider what’s lacking in your team and make sure those needs are being met when it comes to new hires.
Managing your team as a newcomer to manager is one of the biggest challenges you’ll face but it’s one that can be highly rewarding, the more experience you gain.
