New Manager? Don’t Leave Your Leadership to Chance

10 Proven Steps to Being a Successful New Manager

You’re a new manager, it’s exciting, overwhelming, and extremely important to get it right from the start. Don’t wing it!

Your management and leadership style will impact the lives and careers of your team members and their families — for better or worse. Take it seriously and invest in yourself and your development, even if your organization isn’t.

You own your career, so don’t leave your first leadership opportunity to chance! Here is my tried and true checklist to ensure your success as a new manager:

Know Your Leadership Compass

• Know your personal core values
• Write them down — honesty, respect, etc

Develop a Leadership Philosophy

• This is a set of principles you will use to respond to people and situations
• Write it down and let it develop with your experience as a leader

Document Your List of Expectations

• Write down what you expect of your team
• And, expectations of yourself

Understand the Organizational and Management Goals

• Ensure you meet with your manager to understand their goals
• Make sure you document their goals and the organization’s goals

Align Your Goals

• Ensure that your managers’ and organizational goals are aligned with your team’s goals
• Document how your team goals will help the organization win

Have a Day 1 Plan Ready to Execute (see my previous article):

• Team Meeting — to discuss and distribute your philosophy, expectations, and goals.
• 1-on-1’s — conduct your 1:1’s on day one and review all the material you discussed in your team meeting.

Nest Meetings

• Your manager holds regular meetings, so should you (even if they don’t)
• Nest your meetings with your manager meetings. Specifically, hold your team meeting shortly after your manager holds his/hers
• This will allow you to disseminate information quickly to your team and set context of tasks

Make Team Debriefs a Part of Your Culture

• Call them what you want — post mortem, after action review, debrief.
• Make them simple — What worked, what didn’t, what will we do different next time.

Hold Regular 1-on-1’s

• Individuals team members need regular check ins, alignment readjustments and feedback.
• This is where constructive criticism happens — in private.

Leader Log

• Have a notebook, separate from your to-dos and action items.
• Keep this notebook for your learning as a leader. Write down what is working, what is not, and check your alignment with your philosophy and core values?

Some of you may not have months or years to get ready to become a manager. You are literally thrown into the deep end. Find the time to work on this list, make your leadership development a priority.

The Moov Group is an advisory group that helps business owners with staging for sale, managing the first 100 days post acquisition, and making managers leaders.  If you want to learn more about how we can help your business, visit us at the Moov Group.