If you’re hoping to succeed in business, there will likely come a time when you’re required to take on a managerial position. For some people, this type of work comes naturally. But for others, managing people can be a challenge. Luckily, with so many people who’ve been managers before, it’s relatively easy to find information and advice about how to improve upon your managerial skills.
However, if you’ve never been a manager before, you might not even know where to start with becoming the best possible manager you can be. If this is the case for you, here are three managerial tips for you as a first time manager.
Get Yourself A Management Mentor
No one gets to the position of managing other people without already having some type of prior work experience where they’ve been managed by someone else. In these jobs, there were likely things that you both liked and disliked about the way management worked. And now that you’re going to be a manager, you can use these memories to your advantage.
In addition to learning from the failures and successes of others, Adrian Granzella Larssen, a contributor to The Muse, suggests that you also find someone that you can look to as our management mentor. This person should be someone you both know and respect who’s either currently a manager or has been a manager in the past. From this person, you can gain invaluable advice about how to start off as a manager yourself.
Schedule Time To Check-In With Each Direct Report
One of the most important and helpful things you can do as a manager, not only for yourself but for those on your staff, is to get to know each person you’re working with. To best do this, Craig Cincotta, a contributor to Entrepreneur.com, recommends that you find a way to schedule time with each of your direct reports for personal meetings.
In these meetings, you should talk with your team members about how they’re doing at work. Find out what they’re struggling with and what they’re excelling at. During these conversations, you can bring up an grievances you might have and encourage goals to be set for future meetings.
Learn To Trust Your Team
Before you were a manager, you were likely in charge of getting all of your work done yourself. But now that you manage a team, your job now becomes ensuring that your team is able to get their work done.
Making this shift can be hard for some people. One thing that can make it easier, however, is if you have a staff you can trust and you learn to exercise this trust in them. According to Kiely Kuligowski, a contributor to Business News Daily, you can build upon this trust and show that you have this trust by learning not to micromanage your direct reports.
If you’re about to start out with your first managerial position, consider using the tips mentioned above to help shorten the learning curve for yourself.
