n my opinion, being a manager of people is a big responsibility. As we know the reason most people leave their jobs is due to a poor manager. When I think back on my career in management roles, I learnt as much from the bad managers, as I did the good – i.e. how NOT to do it, but I was also lucky to have received lots of great management development training to support me on my journey.
In this month’s blog, we are going to look at some of the most common mistakes new managers make, and how we can support them.
- Trying to be everyone’s best friend.
Now this is a hard one. One of the biggest challenges for someone stepping into management for the first time is how to assert themselves in their new role. Having been one of the team, enjoying a laugh and possibly lots of nights out as one of the team, stepping into a management role can be tough. With a new responsibility for the performance and achievements of the team, the relationship does need to change. Difficult conversations may need to be had. Doing this from a position of being everyone’s best mate is hard. It is important to put in boundaries. When I transitioned from restaurant management into HR, I took the decision that I would never become close to the people I worked with. Friendly, yes. Professional, yes. But not close friends. I needed to keep the professional boundaries in place. As part of my role (as with managers) could be dismissing someone, it was important that I kept a professional distance from the people in the team.
On the flip side of this, sometimes new managers go the other way and neglect to build relationships with their team. Strong relationships with team members are essential for trust and collaboration, but new managers may struggle to build rapport, perhaps worrying too much about being too close. Senior managers should role model how to manage these relationships and maybe coach / mentor new managers in finding a happy medium with building professional relationships in the workplace.
2. Avoiding ‘difficult conversations’
One of the most common responses I get when I ask a manager if they have dealt with difficult conversations or poor performance is ‘Yes, but its not my favourite part of the job’ or ‘Yes, it’s a necessary evil’ I have always advocated flipping this on its head. As a manager of people, we have an obligation to ensure we support everyone, always. That doesn’t just mean with praise and thanks. Sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes employees go off the boil, or make mistakes that have serious consequences. Sometimes they can create problems.
I believe that the vast majority of humankind are good people that don’t set out to do bad things or to make mistakes. I also believe that having a conversation about things that are not going well is also the kindest thing you can do. It doesn’t need to be angry or confrontational. You can have difficult conversations in a kind, supportive and empathetic way. In my opinion, NOT having these conversations is neglectful and demonstrates a lack of care for your employee’s.
I understand that this requires training, and that more often than not, new managers are not given the training to have difficult conversations. Frankly that boils my blood. When we know new managers struggle with this new responsibility, leaving them to muddle through without training is as neglectful as the manager not having the conversation. At the very least, encourage your managers to focus on the SBI model of feedback. Firstly, discussing the situation (example/ date specific) then the behaviour you have observed then the impact of this behaviour on the team/customers/organisation.
3. Poor communication.
One of the key responsibilities of a manager is to communicate the company / team vision and expectations. Everyone needs clear goals. We all need to know what we are responsible for, where our duties begin and end, what we need to achieve and by when. If the manager doesn’t make this clear to the team, performance is impacted and results are not achieved.
In addition, a lack of clear communication can create confusion and frustration for the team, which in turn can impact team morale. Left to fester, poor morale usually results in either increased sickness absence or high turnover as employees leave in search of another job.
Again, communication skills do not come naturally to everyone, hence training in this area is invaluable. At Surge Ahead, we use DiSC behavioural profiling to educate managers and team members in the different behavioural styles we all exhibit. Being able to recognise an individual’s behavioural style results in us being able to adapt our communication for the best results. We used to say ‘treat someone how you want to be treated’ we now know we should treat people the way ‘they’ want to be treated.
4. Micromanaging and not delegating.
New managers may be hesitant to delegate tasks, leading to micromanagement and hindering employee growth. I think many new managers fall into this trap, particularly those who have not had management training. In my early career, when I was promoted into a management role, I felt that I had to do everything myself. I knew I was responsible for the output of the team, and as the manager, I believed I needed to do it all myself.
A decent management development course and a significant increase in the amount of team members I was responsible for quickly honed my delegation skills! I soon realised that I was hampering the development of my team by not delegating responsibility to them. Instead, I spent time with my team to identify what their areas of interests were and where their skillsets lie, and I started to train them in many of my responsibilities. Delegating in this way had so many benefits. It gave my team something to strive for, a new interest and development of skills. It freed up some of my time to focus on different projects and developing other team members. It also improved morale. It gave me lots of satisfaction to know that when new management positions came up, I was able to put forward managers who had the skillset to succeed in the role.
5. Failing to provide feedback.
A bit like the avoidance of difficult conversations, new managers are often hesitant to provide their team with feedback. It could be due to imposter syndrome, or a lack of confidence in their new role. Or it could just be they are unsure of how the feedback will be received. Sadly, in a lot of these examples of mistakes managers make, the truth is, their own managers have not exactly been role models, most likely due to their own lack of support, development and training.
Constructive feedback is crucial for employee development. Again, at the very least, using the SBI model of feedback to keep on track, focusing the conversation on events you, as the manager actually observed, rather than hearsay. Being clear on what the impact of behaviour is and also being specific about what good looks like. In our training on giving feedback, we remind managers that just telling people they are doing a great job is not ‘good feedback’ It is not specific enough and may lull the employee into a false sense of security that everything they are doing is great. Instead, focusing on what they have specifically done and feeding back on that is much more powerful. For example, ‘Well done today, the way you handled that customer complaint was fantastic. You were really empathetic of their situation, but also clear with our policy’
So much of being a good manager is about strong interpersonal and communication skills. It requires a good level of emotional intelligence. We often promote employees that are very good at their jobs into management roles and neglect to give them the support to develop their management skills, which in effect sets them up to fail. Being good at one job, does not mean being good at management.
At Surge Ahead we are passionate about empowering managers to be the best they can with the knowledge and understanding of the key skills required to manage teams. In interactive, engaging sessions, in a safe and supportive space either virtually or face to face, we offer a range of management and soft skills sessions to elevate your managers to the next level.
We are always happy to chat all things training, so get in touch if you would like to discuss anything further!
