The Manager Who Received No Training

You remember the day very well.  You were unexpectedly called into your boss’s office and you began to envision one of two scenarios.  Either you’re about to lose your job, or some really important (and hopefully good) information needs to be shared.  As it turns out, you are being promoted to manager… immediately.  After working in your new position for a few weeks and experiencing the reality and stresses of the job, you take a mental inventory of what this new “managerial role” has really brought you:

• Minuscule pay raise … check
• Fancy new title and increased responsibility that doesn’t quite match the pay raise … check
• Cramped office with used furniture and 1980’s artwork on the wall … check
• A thorough guide indicating how to effectively manage and energize your team for maximum productivity … NO CHECK!

This type of situation occurs often.  Companies, in an attempt to harvest the internal talent of the organization, identify skilled, hard-working employees for new managerial positions.  These employees typically receive a short learning curve, vague expectations and limited guidance.  Unfortunately, without the proper managerial training, these employees will be unequipped to handle the various challenges of the position and are almost guaranteed to fall far short of the perceived expectations of that role.
So, what should you do when you are tossed into a supervisory role with little or no training?  No, panicking is not the answer (although it may feel like a great answer when your office door is shut).  You simply need a tactical plan to give you a fresh perspective about your new role.  The following tips are aimed at helping you succeed in your new managerial role:

1. Identify the “Gap” – There are several definitions of what it means to be a manager, supervisor or leader. Those definitions are not nearly as important as what your title means to your boss and organization. Typically, there is a discrepancy (gap) between the title managers are given and the actual expectations the position may carry.  The goal of every new manager should be to identify and remove that gap.  As a result, it is EXTREMELY important to communicate with your superiors (the sooner the better) to understand their specific expectations of you and to get an understanding of specific short-term and long-term objectives they may have for you or your department.  Their expectations become your primary target and your job title/job description becomes an equally important, but secondary, target.  

2. Get a map – When traveling on an airline, the flight attendant will give instructions asking you to identify your current location in reference to finding the nearest exit.  Why?  Before you can chart a course to a destination, you must clearly understand your current position.  Proceeding on a journey without understanding your current location in life and leadership is very dangerous.  Use this system to create an attack plan for your team:

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   a. Identify the current challenges of the team or organization, and write them down.  Next, prioritize those challenges from biggest to smallest.
   b. Clearly identify where the team or the organization needs to be (be very specific, using actual dollar figures or other related data).
   c. This is important.  Based on the answers above, identify the specific actions necessary to attain those goals or department targets.  For example, make a detailed list identifying the specific actions necessary to complete a project or reach certain sales goals.
   d. Identify who will complete each action and the date by which that action must be completed.
   e. Use an electronic calendar, intranet system or other electronic means to track progress.

3. Gauge employee satisfaction – Employee satisfaction is an often-overlooked factor that can sabotage your success as a manager.  When you become a manager/supervisor, you need to understand the state of your team.  How is morale?  What happened to the previous manager?  How well does the team work together?  Is the workload distributed evenly among team members?  Are there immediate problems that need to be addressed?  Why is this information so important?  It’s like buying costly construction materials and trying to build them on a poor foundation.  It doesn’t matter that you have the finest building materials shipped from exotic locations around the world.  Numerous accidents, wasted time, and damaged building supplies will result from building on a bad foundation.  Likewise, when you try to implement a series of fancy new initiatives without properly assessing the current state of your team, you will simply waste time and be left with damaged initiatives that have become useless due to a poor foundation.

What challenges have you faced as a new manager?  Share your comments below.  Also, if you enjoyed this post, share it with your community using the social media icons found on this page.