Managers - tips for managing employees?

virginiagirl11

It looks like I'm about to become a manager for the first time in my life. I've been tasked with restructuring a department and then managing it in addition to taking on a new, bigger role at work. I will have four employees under me.

Those of you who manage people, do you have any tips you can pass along for making this a successful endeavor for me? I have some thoughts, but I'm a little terrified, not gonna lie.

cyprissa

Establish clear lines of delegation and address issues as they arise not at specific review periods. Also, make sure feedback is constructive and give meaningful praise for things well done. Appreciation, honesty and clear lines of communication go a long way.

Edited to add: You'll be fine. Don't be scared.

Netty_3

Organize, and set goals...we have weekly meetings where tasks are delegated, teams are made, and long term tasks are updated on progress...and if someone may need help finishing something.  That way everyone can see other's load and help out, or redistribute as needed and deadlines are met.

MaggieF516

I found that my team was constantly emailing me and coming to my desk throughout the day with questions.  I streamlined this by setting aside a weekly meeting time for an hour for each team member.  They could of course stop by or send an email if something was time sensitive, but I did encourage them to save their questions/issue for the meeting if possible.  If they didn't have anything to discuss, we wouldn't meet.  This significantly cut back on the amount of email I had to respond to. 

Set clear expectations and goals for your employees.  I would make sure to always acknowledge good work (and would sometimes even CC my manager on these emails).  Always provide criticism in private.  This seems like it would be obvious, but you would be surprised how many managers do this in front of other employees.  I also tried to connect on a personal level with them.  Employees will want to do more for you if they "like" you.  I remember a manager I had in my first job after college who came around every week and took time to chat with all of the employees.  He remembered all the little details you told him and he was manager of an office of about 120 people.  You just felt like you mattered with with his management style.  We always celebrated birthdays on the team, brought in goodies for holidays, etc, but there are a lot of things you can do in this area.  Good luck and don't be nervous!

doodlyjane

I'm not a mom yet but this board intrigued me so I popped in. :P

I'm a restaurant manager! I went from no manager experience to having a team of forty five people that I had to organize, manage, and motivate. It was quite the experience.

I would recommend spending a couple of hours in your local bookstore, reading management and people skills books. I think in the first three months after I got this job I probably read 10 management books...and since everyone has a slightly different idea of how to be a "great manager" (and running a corporate restaurant is very different from running a team in an office environment) I was able to skim off the details of what *I* thought was right, and leave the random stuff I didn't agree with behind.

groovygrl

Hey there...first time mgmt jobs are really hard b/c unfortunately you learn a lot just by experiencing situations. View every experience & exchange as a learning experience and new skill.

If your workplace is relatively small & you have access to anyone in HR, find a great ally there- they can really help guide you when you have questions about approaching different situations.  Also find a more experienced manager that you get along with well to bounce ideas off of & get feedback from, in a mentoring form or even just a friend whose advice you trust. 

To start off, I would meet with each person and talk about expectations- theirs for you & you for them. If they have different jobs, review their job descriptions & try to get a feel for what they do- even if you have worked w/ these ppl, unless they all have the same exact job you used to have, there might be things they do that you never knew about.   You might want to ask them about preferred communication styles for you & find out about theirs- it's hard when   1 person is a big emailer and the other being a big pick up the phone person and then they don't communicate well, or when you send an email to someone and never hear back and then you think they just ignored your email but their style is that they don't bother responding until the deadline has arrived or the issue needs revisiting, etc.

Reading books & articles is a good idea if you can find some good recommendations.

My biggest piece of advice would be the second you see any sort of red flags (missed deadlines, strange communications, lack of response, chronic missing things/meetings/etc, etcccc) start a document in your own personal files just detailing each incident. Your gut is often right & you'll be glad you have the file to look back on if needed.  If your gut is wrong, then eh, you've spent a few minutes writing down a few things, no big deal. 

The idea of weekly meetings w/ each person to touch base & troubleshoot is a good one, and then you may find you can make them less. Let them know that since you're new & learning, that you would like to meet more often but anticipate that things will change as you get to know each other's styles. 

I agree w/ pp that a personal relationship is important, I have read many times that bosses who 'walk the halls' and talk to ppl about regular non-work stuff for a few minutes each day have much better relationships w/ their staff.  Just be careful being too nice--- it is very hard though, esp if you're now managing people that used to be your peers.

GL!