Three Ways to Ease the Transition into Management

Have you ever seen this happen?  A new manager is promoted into a management position for the first time and they get overwhelmed and make unnecessary mistakes which stress out the people on their team.  The trial-by-fire, sink-or-swim approach to novice managers sets them and their teams up for failure.  With this approach, everyone loses.  The manager is miserable, their employees are distracted, customers are unhappy, and ultimately the company suffers.

The transition experience does not need to be fraught with panic and despair.  Yes, when you transition into management, you are embarking on a mental, emotional, social, and physical journey.  The struggles along can be taxing, but they can also be rewarding.  And if you approach the transition in the right way, you can reduce the repetition of mistakes and get much more quickly to what works.

Remove the Surprises

One of the common complaints that new managers have concerns the initial shock they have when they realize what managing really is.  They had no idea how different the responsibilities are and how bad they are at them.  Suddenly being responsible for people’s complaints, personal issues, and interpersonal conflicts can make people who felt like accepted superstars yesterday feel like rejected losers today.

These feelings are real, they are common, and they are not shared enough with new managers.  New managers are sometimes afraid to speak about these feelings of inferiority, but those who do start to discover very quickly that so many others have gone through all the same emotions.  The problem was they just did not know.

If someone handed a map of the emotional roller coaster to someone who was preparing to become a manager, that person would be emotionally prepared for the experience.  They might still experience all the same emotions but without the attendant sense that something must be wrong with them. 

They don’t just need the day-to-day, in some cases they need to hear the moment-to-moment challenges that others have experienced.  The experiences should to cover the range from new managers through experienced managers.  The stories should convey the full progression not just piecemeal experiences.  This helps people connect to the full story of the emotional roller coaster that managers go through from day one through year 20.

An awareness of what to expect is one thing.  New managers should also…

Start Developing the Skills in Advance

Management is a practice, not a profession.  A profession like science can be learned in a lab or classroom away from the actual field.  A practice like management must be learned by doing it. Much like swimming or riding a bicycle, a manager must manage to advance their skills.  However, this does not mean new managers cannot start developing their management skills before they have direct reports by tapping into the power of observation, simulation, role playing, and other forms of management.

First, to make the most of learning opportunities, new managers must learn the theories behind management.  This provides the right mental models to direct their learning.  With a lot of bad management theories out there, some guidance is necessary to filter the theories worth learning.

Observation is a learning opportunity available to anyone.  The lucky few have expert managers they can observe.  In rare instances, future managers get to shadow expert managers.  Reality shows and documentaries about expert managers are more available now than ever before.  Biographies of managers who have succeeded offer a wealth of information.  Positive examples like these offer opportunities to understand the real situations managers face and how the expert managers deal with them.

Simulations offer further opportunities to put some of those observations and theory into action without being in the real situation.  Case studies put the person into specific situations requiring decisions under pressure.  Some management classes will include role playing as a part of the education, which goes a step further to experience interpersonal dynamics in a controlled environment. 

The most effective method is to actually manage.  Management encompasses more than just having employees as direct reports.  Every person with a manager must manage up.  Negotiating with managers, supporting the manager’s learning, giving managers advice, and following up to make sure managers do certain tasks are all examples of managing up.  Managing projects is an excellent preparation opportunity and highly advisable to develop implementation skills.  Facilitating meetings that draw upon the collective knowledge of the group helps develop team management skills.  Mentoring others helps develop the skills of designing learning plans and coaching people to develop on-the-job skills.

Get Expert Feedback

The manager must get regular feedback and guidance from someone who has achieved higher levels of management expertise.  Finding the right person is key.  Getting feedback from multiple sources can be even better.  They need to have the expertise as a manager and as a developer of managers.  They need to be willing to give honest and direct feedback.  They also should be able to push you into your learning zone just beyond your current abilities.

When I need to learn something from a book, I like to get multiple books on the same topic.  Sometimes I just need to have a point repeated in different ways.  Sometimes different people have different ways of expressing the same thing, and

Implementing that feedback requires introspection and some deep reflection.  A learning notebook makes all the difference to those who do it.  Some people will ignore that advice and wonder later why they find themselves in such a struggle.  Journaling helps clarify thoughts and serves as a resource later.

One of the more challenging roles in life is management.  Just because someone is a superstar individual contributor does not mean they will make the best manager from day one.  They have new skills to develop.  Building these skills requires time, effort, and expert feedback.  Providing little to no prior support in the development of the skills a new manager needs sets them up for failure.  Preparing people in advance for the transition into a managerial role makes the experience much better for the new manager, their team, and for the organization as a whole.