Congratulations New Manager! But Please Avoid These Mistakes

You’ve just been promoted and you are keen on jumping into your new role as a manager. But have you thought this through?
Managing is not a walk in the park, it's more like a marathon. Every now and then, companies promote an individual to a management position but they fail to give that person sufficient training.

Luckily, you are not the first person to be first at managing. There are quite a number of people who’s been in your shoes. They’ve been there, done that, and got a t-shirt. And luckily for you, they’ve shared common mistakes you should avoid as a new manager.

Struggling to make the switch 
Take pride in your new role. When you become a manager, everything changes. All of a sudden, you become responsible for the results your team delivers. Your new role will expect you to develop new skills, mainly- people skills. It doesn’t matter how smart or skilled you are, but not having soft skills can set you up for failure. You must know how to make the change from employee to manager.

Failing to communicate and delegate
Discuss upfront with your team what will be the best way to communicate. With the generation gap in the workplace, it is important to establish a communication platform that everybody is comfortable with. Make sure everybody agrees on the best way to ensure good communication within the team When you delegate work to employees, you multiply the amount of work that you can do. A project that seems overwhelming on the surface is suddenly quite manageable when you divide it up among different employees. If you tap into their strengths, this can result in quality end results. Also, when you delegate work to employees, you also create opportunities to develop their work and leadership skills.

Not getting to know the team 
As you grow through your career, it is the quality of your working relationships that has a greater impact on your success. Take the time to get to know your new team so you can understand how you can guarantee their success and they yours.

Micro-managing 
The most common one! It’s understandable that you want to state your new authority and let everyone know that you’re the boss. You also tend to take it upon yourself to make yourself responsible for other people’s performance, so now you think that by micro-managing, you are in control. 

But no one enjoys being micro-managed, and this is a fast way to turn new employees against you. Delegate and create expectations, discuss with your team how they will meet those deadlines. Let them share their strategy with you so you can then give your input instead of the other way around.
A new management job can be stressful for a while but when the steep learning curve is over, you are likely to really enjoy your management role.

If you feel that your current company isn’t giving you room to grow, we can assist. With over 35 years of experience in the recruitment industry, we can confidently say that our specialist consultants deliver results.
With a record of placing top experts at some of South Africa’s biggest companies, we can find you the ideal job that matches with your skills and will give you room to grow.

So whether it’s jobs in Finance, IT, Engineering, Freight or Supply Chain you’re looking for, get in touch with us today!