Career Couch: As a New Manager, Get to Know Your Team
December 19, 2009 by admin
Filed under Career News and Advice
Q. You’re beginning your first job in a management role. You want to be taken seriously but also want your team to like you. How do you set the right tone?
Chris Reed
A. Within the first few days of starting as a manager, set up a time to meet inidually with everyone on your team. This is your chance to show that you understand the role of a manager, which is to help people achieve their goals and be successful at their jobs, said Beth Banks Cohn, a leadership development coach in Manalapan, N.J., and co-author of “Taking the Leap: Managing Your Career in Turbulent Times … and Beyond.”
During these meetings, ask your employees about their short- and long-term developmental aspirations. “Tell them you want to help them achieve those goals,” Ms. Cohn said. “That is key when you are a new manager — showing a real interest in each person and getting a clear sense of their goals.”
As a manager, you need to change your mind-set, said Simon Sinek, a leadership consultant in Manhattan and author of “Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.” Instead of thinking of yourself as someone who performs a job, he said, see yourself as someone who helps others do theirs.
This is the manager-as-servant model, he said. A good manager looks after his or her team, fixes problems and gives employees the tools they need to excel. You will almost certainly alienate your team if you walk in and start giving orders.
“One of the big mistakes new managers make is assuming they have to be someone other than who they have been all along, and they start strutting around like the new sheriff in town,” …
Read the original article at NYTimes