From the course: New Manager Foundations

Preparing for your first 30-days

From the course: New Manager Foundations

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Preparing for your first 30-days

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- The first few weeks of being a new manager are stressful. The biggest reason is failing to do your homework before your start date. So celebrate after you receive the good news but then get to work. That's right. If you want to be a great new manager, the final weeks of wrapping up your current role will be busy. You have to do your job and prepare for the next one. Now, before you start talking to anyone associated with the new role, your first task is to research the team and your new supervisor using publicly available information. At a minimum, that means the company website, LinkedIn and a couple relevant trade publications for any mention of your organization, team, or new supervisor. That way, when relevant topics come up you'll be informed and ready to engage. Next, spend some time with your new supervisor. Having a few conversations with this person not only builds rapport, but it affords you the opportunity to learn a lot. You can ask about their view of the talent on your team and their expectations for you and the team. You can ask about their take on the organization's culture and of course, any suggestions they might have for how you should manage the team. Ultimately, their perspective and style might differ from yours but it will certainly help you understand your new team. Next, learn about your new team. Start with LinkedIn so you can see their backgrounds, where they may have gone to school and a bit about their professional interests. It's also wise to actually chat with each team member, but do so informally. This is a normal feeling out process where you begin to learn about how they communicate as well as their views on the team. You might ask about how they feel the team is performing or might need to change. Don't dive deep at this point. Keep it informal, but a small bit of probing can be informative. Finally, ask about key recent events, positive or negative, so you can be sensitive about the wins and challenges the team has faced. Here's one more. Try to define your working style, decision making style and how you intend to initially talk about and manage team performance. It's okay if this is difficult. You're going to be evolving and improving quickly as a new manager, but it's important when talking with anyone, especially the team and your new supervisor, to sound prepared to engage those topics and we'll definitely talk more about this piece in a subsequent part of the course. Okay, to get started, make good use of your calendar to get all of this done. Mark off time for your online homework, and then reach out to your new supervisor and get on their calendar. The more you prepare for the new role, the more likely you're going to be a very effective new manager.

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