Your first day as manager

The very first day in your new role is the most important of all. Leading an already established team has its benefits, but also its problems for a new manager like you:

• You’ll constantly be compared with the previous manager.
• Employees will be concerned about the changes you’ll make.
• They’ll wonder if your leadership style will help or hinder them.

And it’s important not to forget your new boss, either. After all, it’s them that you need to impress the most.

Your introduction

Regardless of whether you’ve already been introduced over email, keep your in-person introductions with employees short.

Once you’ve exchanged introductions, show that you’ve done your research and explain why the company have brought you in, and what you hope to achieve (keep it broad).

Explain that you’ll arrange a series of one-to-one meetings over the coming days to get to know the team better.

One-to-one meetings

The main purpose of these meetings is to understand the role of each employee and any concerns they have. Listen to both positive and negative feedback about individual roles and the team as a whole.

This’ll help you figure out team dynamics, such as any leaders within the group, introverts and extroverts, and preferred ways of working. You’ll also unearth potential problems with processes, tools and equipment as employees see a new manager as a chance to upend slow or broken systems.

These meetings will also be an opportunity to learn more about the aspirations of your team, helping you understand how its composition might change in the future. Ask staff members to help you get up to speed with current progress on projects.

Finally, if you’ve been promoted to manager from within the team itself, reset your working relationships with your former colleagues. Explain that things have changed, and you need them to treat you as the manager you are. Set expectations about the nature of your new working relationship so that there are no misunderstandings further down the line.

Ask for anonymous feedback

Employees are unlikely to be 100% honest with a new manager who’s looking to make changes, so open the door to anonymous feedback, too.

You can use Google Forms for this, or specialist anonymous survey tools like TINYpulse or Officevibe.

Meet senior managers

Your success as a manager doesn’t only depend on how you manage your team, but also the strength of your relationship with your manager in turn. If there are any management meetings scheduled, attend them.

Again, your first meetings with senior management should be more about listening rather than talking. You don’t know enough about the company and your current team to be able to ‘sell’ big changes to those above you.

Listen, learn, and revisit the topic at a later date.