Friday, June 9, 2017

First Time Manager

As a fresher, I always thought experience is just a word, but now I certainly believe in it. I have understood the ebbs and flows of the profession better.  What really do organizations want out of the professional? The simple answer is “get the job done”. Generally speaking, all managers are charged with three responsibilities: making money for the firm while saving time and reducing expenses. In below lines, find few tips for the first-time managers:

Skill development It is always expected to have basic skills to conduct meetings, reviews, analysis, and communication skill. There must be always focused on developing self-capacity to increase productivity. This includes a small task of planning for day work in hours to being updated with the latest know-how in the field. Work on your written and verbal communication skills to become more appreciative and acknowledging of your coworkers.

Ask for Trouble- Effort is important but where to put effort distinguishes achievers from hard workers. It is important to get your hands dirty by taking over troubled account or project. The problem can be varying from small communication gaps to a series of missteps. Learn about the root cause of the original problem. Why previous attempts to turn things around were unsuccessful?The solution approach helps in understanding the nature of business development and service quality of the organization.

Understand Business- It is always beneficial to spend some time with senior management. The process to design strategy, decision making and contribution are widely learned in this process only. Consumer behavior, public policy, and external environment are constantly changing and managers ability to anticipate and respond to these changes is vital to the top leadership.

Networking - The meaningful connections with teammates, clients, and supervisors is relationship building in the simple and effective form. It is always better to have network spread across age, sex, ranks, department, and alumni network. This involves regularly answer to emails and returning phone calls, engaging with employees in the hall and break room. Be Assertive, Admit when wrong and Make promises what you can keep.

Managing Team - Make sure that same rule is applied for everyone. If a manager seems to be close friends with just one or a few members of a team — to the exclusion of others — this could be a case of playing favorites that could easily escalate. Any manager that checks in with individuals on time utilization far more than necessary is likely a micro-manager.

Decision Making - It is always better to be consistent and a bit of flexible on decisions, responding emails, approach towards a problem, in monitoring team progress. The reputation of the person flip-flopping under pressure decays rapidly. Never fall into a meeting trap, in which meetings are routinely and unnecessarily convened, because constantly meetings for “input” or to consult about an issue could signal a problem with indecision.

It is important to never lose sight of the basics. Sportsmen are the best to emulate on the competition and positive attitude. Regardless of their ranking, they train regularly to strengthen and refine their basic techniques. It is important to understand what really matters to someone, whether an entry-level team member straight out of school or a veteran employee. A manager must seek to understand what each people in the network really care about. This may sound obvious, but in the midst of pressure for deliverables, it’s often forgotten.

The working culture, beliefs, and attitudes prevailing in the organization dilute individual beliefs in most of the cases. There will be a lot of unknowns when one is naive and young: Do I belong here? Am I good enough? There's a lot of proving to do along the way, to yourself and to those around you. Sometimes you need a bit of success to just say: I actually belong here!

Please read 10 Challenges That Every First-Time Manager Will Face by Jacob Shria for more such gyaan.