Management Newbie Advice
Zyre
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
You may remember me from such threads as "My Employer is fucking me over" or something to that effect. Well, it's been a year and I'm finally leaving this shitty job and am moving onto much greener pastures.
Why I'm posting here is for some advice. I've never been in a management position for, most companies I've worked for I've always been the armed forces equivialant of a Private to Sergeant and the position I'm moving into is that of the equivilant of Captain or Colonel. Infact my title from the get go will have Captain in it, however my boss wants to move me up to be his assistant with the title Assistant Chief as quickly as possible. I've explained to him my nerviousness as I've never held a position of this much authority before, however I do want to step up to it and own it. My new boss said it's easy and he's going to take me under his wing and teach me everything and anything I want to know and I can call him whenever I want for guidance if there is an issue I am uncomfortable in getting resolved without his help. My boss and I will be the only supervisors in the department, he's going to work days and I'm going to be on swing shift, we will have about 10 people or so under us. He's going to be doing most of the interviewing and hiring right now but that responsibility is going to shift over to me eventually, as his position he's trying to make purely administrative where I will run the day to day operations, such as handling employee issues such as schedule changes, complaints, etc and will have to terminate poor performing employees.
So the question I have, (my own experiences aside from dealing with many poor managers) is what are some pitfalls some managers fall into that I can avoid? What can I do to be an awesome boss?
Why I'm posting here is for some advice. I've never been in a management position for, most companies I've worked for I've always been the armed forces equivialant of a Private to Sergeant and the position I'm moving into is that of the equivilant of Captain or Colonel. Infact my title from the get go will have Captain in it, however my boss wants to move me up to be his assistant with the title Assistant Chief as quickly as possible. I've explained to him my nerviousness as I've never held a position of this much authority before, however I do want to step up to it and own it. My new boss said it's easy and he's going to take me under his wing and teach me everything and anything I want to know and I can call him whenever I want for guidance if there is an issue I am uncomfortable in getting resolved without his help. My boss and I will be the only supervisors in the department, he's going to work days and I'm going to be on swing shift, we will have about 10 people or so under us. He's going to be doing most of the interviewing and hiring right now but that responsibility is going to shift over to me eventually, as his position he's trying to make purely administrative where I will run the day to day operations, such as handling employee issues such as schedule changes, complaints, etc and will have to terminate poor performing employees.
So the question I have, (my own experiences aside from dealing with many poor managers) is what are some pitfalls some managers fall into that I can avoid? What can I do to be an awesome boss?
Zyre on
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The first step in showing that you're there for people is to:
1) greet everyone when you arrive
2) say good bye when you're leaving
3) let someone know when you're not available. You don't have to be specific, but someone who knows when you'll be back is super useful.
4) unless you're in a meeting or phone conversation with someone who requires a bit of privacy (aka: your boss, big customers, police, maffia, etc :P) keep your door open.
5) if at all possible: eat lunch with your employees.
There's so much things you can do wrong, but I think that if you act like yourself and show you are there for others you'll dodge a lot of them.
I don't have the authority to fire anyone, but i have the authority to send them home on my shift for insubordination. It got to the point where he tried to call my bluff during a crazy day where I needed everyone i could possibly have, sent his ass home and told him not to show up for his next shift with me. Called my manager and explained I would not be working with him in the future and if he has a problem he might want to find a new easily replaceable phone answering employee (him) without an attitude problem.
have not had a problem since.
I've come so close to picking this up a couple of times. Do you personally recommend it?
The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels by Michael Watkins
Permalink: http://amzn.com/1591391105
Is pretty much geared precisely for people new to management positions.
From recollection, How to Manage: The Art of Making Things Happen by Jo Owen
Permalink: http://amzn.com/0273709755 is also a good read. Deals with a lot of the political stuff a manager needs to deal with, eg managing upwards.
www.manager-tools.com
Every cast has ACTIONABLE advice. This isn't general theory that you have no idea how to apply.
It doesn't have to be detailed, just keep a record of every contact as you may need it in future. Especially if you have to terminate poor performing employees. It may not be required under HR laws in your country but even if it isn't it is a courteous way to deal with staff members.
You may find that you can be friends with your staff or you may not, some people can't make the divide that easily. This leads me on to my next point; be consistent. Also if you do interact with staff then don't get involved with gossip and try to keep away from office politics.
Don't fail to address issues. Some stuff can be difficult or awkward to deal with but ignoring them is a bad idea, it's like ripping off a band-aid, get it done and dealt with. This also makes it much easier to leave your work behind when you leave work and go home for the day.
A lot of this stuff isn't the general managing guide lines and buzz speak that you will find if you research management techniques but I do feel it is pretty important stuff.
I want to know more PA people on Twitter.
Something like this:
http://www.extension.ualberta.ca/business/cit_sd.aspx
or this:
http://www.extension.ualberta.ca/business/cert_md.aspx
I've already personally recommended it, but you don't know me, so that's not going to count for much. Consider this... my father who was a CEO of a Fortune 500 company and conducted business all over the world and worked for one of the richest men in the world bought me this book when I graduated college saying it was one of the most important business books he ever read, and he read them constantly.
That, and the thing is seriously like, 50ish years old and still being printed and sold. That's for a reason.
I'll go a step further and say keep a spreadsheet for each employee and make a record of everything. If they're late, add an entry for the time and date, and if they gave a reason. Same thing if they're absent. Or if they blow a deadline. Or if they do something to impress you. For the most part, you'll never use any of this information, but if you find yourself in a situation where you need it, you (and HR) will be glad you have it. It's also great for reference when doing annual reviews.
And if we're listing pet peeves, one thing my boss does that really bugs me is have me ask someone else to do something, like I'll be telling him I finished some spreadsheet he wanted and he'll ask me to email it to another person and tell them to update their part. Just as an example. I feel that having someone tell their peer to do something has the potential to cause later problems. The supervisor really should be giving "orders" to the employees himself. In this case, I should just email the spreadsheet to him and he should email it to the other employee with instructions. He's just lazy sometimes.
I want to know more PA people on Twitter.
Also, try to avoid playing favourites. You'll know who your strong employees are, but make sure they don't get tonnes of special privileges that the others don't just because you like them better as a person.
I think it's as simple as treating people the way that you would want to be treated. What sort of manager would you respect and be willing to work hard for?
Also people like to feel appreciated and valuable at work so if somebody really has gone out of their way and done a great job, or really impressed you by doing something creative or improving something, let them know! They now have a reputation as a great employee to live up to and will work to keep it.
Do not be neutral for the sake of making everyone happy. Fix the goddamn problem.
This is my senior manager's problem. My direct boss is great, but our department head has no idea what the people who work for him actually do and is so obsessed with "customer service" to other departments that he never stands up for our issues, and frequently ends up waffling and throwing us under the bus.
As a result, most of the people who work for him don't respect him and see him as an obstacle, rather than a resource.
Yes, both of these so hard, especially the first one. That would be another big complaint with my boss. His "shift" is 8:30 - 5:30, but he's rarely there before 9:30, sometimes not until 10, and most likely leaves as soon as everyone else is gone, which would be 5. He pretty much always has his Blackberry with him, which I guess makes it okay in his mind since he's reachable, but you can't manage employees from home. I personally have always been a big fan of "Lead By Example". When I was a supervisor, I was always there at least 15 minutes before my employees start coming in, and didn't leave before my shift ended, which was usually after theirs. Most people will have trouble with you saying do as I say, not as I do.
And the favorites thing is hard. One the one hand, you don't want to do it, but on the other, you know who your dependable people are and you want to use them. Just give the piddly stuff to your less reliable ones and save the important stuff for the ones you know will do it.
For me, the part I hated most about my job was that ultimately, my performance was based on my employees' performance, and that can be a tough pill to swallow. Some people just aren't cut out for certain jobs, and it can hurt you, but HR will usually tie your hands on firing people so they can avoid lawsuits. (A good example was I had an employee that had over 30 unexcused absences in less than a year before they let me give her her "final" warning) You're basically screwed either way. YMMV, of course. Hopefully you have a better experience than I did.
Your entire reason for existence within the job is to help make your team successful.
Again, that sounds simple. Maybe even unhelpful. But if you approach decisions in that way not only will most decisions take care of themselves, your team-members will pick up on the fact that you genuinely want to help their day at work be as easy and successful as possible. This makes the world of difference.
Oh, and work. There is nothing worse than a pocket manager, or a guy who sits in his office all day except for when s/he is issuing orders. If you turn into one then things will go fine when you are right there in the room. The second you leave, it will be "Fuck that guy" and everything will go fubar in a heartbeat. Successful management is impossible without the respect of your team, and the easiest way to build that is making sure you help carry the load.
Probably the only other general thing I used to always tell my management trainees beyond the above was to not be afraid to make a decision. You will make wrong ones. There's no avoiding it. But you learn from those, and you improve. Its that fear of making one that stifles your growth and can make a small issue into a much larger one from inattention.
But if the orders are clear, and the soldiers nevertheless disobey, then it is the fault of their officers.
– Sun Tzu
A thousand times this. There are relatively few things that you can do that will be permanent screw ups. Everything can be fixed. If you make a decision and it is the wrong one, two things come from it. One is that you will learn that it was the wrong decision and make the right one in the future, and the second is that you will learn how to fix what you screwed up in case someone else does the same thing in the future. Any boss worth a damn will recognize this... I've been responsible for my share of $100 "training expenses." ;-)
I'll echo what some others here have said - be consistent. Someone mentioned being friends with people outside work, and I'll say that you shouldn't do this until you become comfortable in management. It can be very difficult to keep those relationships separate. I have no problem having employees over for BBQ when they do well, or playing games with them on XBL, while still being able to discipline them, but my manager cannot handle it, it seems (her favorites get away with shit they definitely should not be able to, etc). Just be consistent and fair with everyone. If someone is going to be disciplined for being late, everyone should be.
How many people will you have authority over? I was in charge of 6-15 at Gamestop, depending on the time of year, and in my current job I run 50-80 employees, again depending on the season. This is another dynamic that can change your style, particularly as the age spread widens.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/