90 days as a first-time manager｜Four ways to self-manage

01-- Do not understand or do not want to do pipeline work.

According to respondents, this is the most common challenge for team managers. Some team managers seem to be sticking to the management habits of their former leaders, for example, as one respondent put it: “Team managers do their personal work first and then manage. In the eyes of the boss, other team leaders perform There’s a lack of professionalism or accountability.” Another said: “A team leader who has worked for the company for over a year still doesn’t know how to run the business, usually by other managers. I had to come in sooner. , even so we're still an hour late!"

Are these views fair? Sometimes, it may be so. Managers may default to work that feels comfortable, such as personal work, rather than work that feels challenging, such as messy personnel management. Other times, new managers may not have had the proper training to understand the need to do managerial work.

How to avoid this common challenge:

Interview your leader to review his priorities and expectations for you. Be proactive in communicating with your leadership to make sure you're focusing your energy on the right things. You can start a conversation with a simple request like "We haven't discussed the big picture in a while. I think if I could learn more about your goals and priorities, and how best to support them, that would really It will help me." If necessary, make sure to send your leader an updated weekly summary each week so he has ample opportunity to help you correct mistakes.

Focus on advancing the leadership you are interested in. This is not an advocacy to avoid responsibilities that you are not interested in. As a manager, sometimes you have to do things you are not interested in. Instead, you need to spend some time analyzing how to build your reputation as a manager. What do you really enjoy in a management job? mentor others? Improve the process? Use strategic thinking? Make a list of the actions you need to take to make a difference in these areas, and get going! As long as you maintain your team's performance, focusing on these areas can help you go from struggling to doing well.

Build stronger relationships with your colleagues. In a shift position, if you are the night shift manager, the morning shift manager will give you a lot of important information and vice versa. The same can happen to managers in other positions, including managers stationed in the field. There are two important benefits of having strong coworker relationships: building links and supporting each other. As one interviewee noted of an unhappy team leader: “He needs to see this as a joint effort, not a headache. We are a team.” The truth is there are probably many people in your organization who can and want to help you do better.

02--Poor time management affects productivity and work-life balance.

Respondents pointed to a range of inefficiencies in the managers of the teams they manage. There are habits that seem small but take up a lot of time, such as team leaders chattering and not being able to keep meetings within the allotted time. Other managers have typical problems with time management, for example, the team manager has too many things on his mind, so he ends up not getting enough work done and he needs to focus on one task at a time. Or some other manager is drowning in tasks that should be delegated to others.

Respondents agreed when it came to achieving results: "Managers who don't plan their time often lag behind and underperform." They also tend to work overtime to try to catch up, which can burn them out.

How to avoid this common challenge:

Better organize your time based on your weak selection strategies. Are you a procrastinator? Try asking direct reports and co-workers what happens if you're late? If you know a direct report is working an extra hour because of you, you may be more motivated to meet deadlines. Will the meeting run for a long time? Take a few minutes to set the agenda and expectations for your attendees. If you feel overwhelmed, you can use methods such as prioritizing and rejecting unnecessary requests.

Decide what you can stop doing. While many managers bravely try to do everything, it is impossible to do everything. You have a few options: don't schedule everyone to do the same task, cut back on the time you spend doing it, or delegate it to someone else. When delegating tasks, don’t just delegate at will, try to strike a balance between what your direct report can do, want to do, and have the time to do.

more explicit. Managers who make hasty decisions can set themselves up for disaster, ignoring critical information by relying too heavily on assumptions. That said, you could have avoided these dangers and made yourself more explicit by listing the key questions you should be asking yourself before making a decision. For example, I've had to make a similar decision five times in the past and not just the most recent one, what happened? Can anyone give me a different perspective to challenge my assumptions?

03--Stress from work and family life negatively affects job performance and interpersonal interactions.

I'm so tired." "I'm nervous." Even if you feel like you're well hidden, your inner feelings are usually apparent on the outside. Our respondents identified a link between the stress level of team managers and failing to get tasks done right, giving employees the upper hand in conflict, and being too conservative in challenging people.

What is the solution? One respondent concluded: "Take care of yourself and stay healthy."

How to avoid this common challenge:

Don't bring work problems home, and don't bring family problems to work. Managers, and all employees, can be caught in a vicious cycle of stress: work stress is brought home, which leads to family stress, which brings family stress back to work, which is brought home, and so on. If you're in this situation too, here are a few things to try to help you relieve stress as you commute between home and work. For example, make a detailed list of your worries before leaving the office; create a routine at the end of the day to create mental space between work and home, such as exercising or reading; before you arrive at work , take a moment to release your tension.

Prioritize and improve your sleep. You're not the only one doing this, many managers toss and turn in their thoughts at night. The researchers found that stress makes it difficult to get a good night's sleep, and lack of sleep can make people more stressed, creating a vicious cycle. If you can't sleep, get up and write down the things that keep you awake so that your brain can relax until the next morning.

Alleviate stressful conflicts and difficult conversations. Respondents noted that team managers overreact to conflict between direct reports, worry too much about emotionally charged situations, or both. For planned tough conversations, preparing for the flow is key. Improving how you deal with conflict starts with a better understanding of the reasons behind other people's behavior.

04--Reluctance to adapt to new development directions, processes and technologies.

Strong team managers must also be able to adapt to changing teams, tools, software, and changing markets. And based on respondents’ feedback, struggling team managers make excuses to avoid making changes, or are so confident in their existing knowledge that they don’t keep pace with new projects and equipment updates.

Team managers need to be able to learn and adapt in tight, fast-paced situations. Of course, that doesn't mean all changes are good, and you shouldn't blindly follow every change your company makes. But managers who focus on improving themselves, their teams, systems and processes are often more likely to succeed now and in the future.

How to avoid this common challenge:

Cultivate curiosity and a mindset of continuous improvement in your team. This can help you proactively build resilience and adaptability within yourself and your team. For example, you can periodically ask your team: "What can we do better?" and implement ideas at a regular pace. Don't rely solely on the evaluation of results, but take the time to evaluate and improve your team's performance on goals.

Learn how to deal with change, ambiguity and uncertainty. Improving your ability to manage change isn't about stoking worry or blindly following, it's more about designing a process to find missing information, analyze your responses, and plan a path forward.

Consider your own professional development. You don't need a lot of time to grow. First, take 15 minutes a day to reflect on your work and how you can do it better next time, which research shows can improve your performance. Other options: Find and hire a mentor with diverse backgrounds and experiences, read industry news and trends, and follow relevant groups and influencers on social media.