5 Mistakes All The First Time Managers Should Learn From

It’s okay to think that certain skills led to your promotion. However, those skills won’t make you a good manager, being a manager is a different ball game altogether. More than often most companies promote their employees to managerial levels based on their performance in a particular area without proper management training. We should understand that managing a team requires people skills and strong leadership. You have to start from scratch and learn as you move forward. Referring to various employee management guides available for free online is advisable.

Don’t try too hard to be “cool”

You might have worked under many bosses with different personalities and management styles. If you ever worked under a boss who has given you a hard time then you would probably want to overcompensate by trying to be the “cool boss”. The thing is, you don’t have to try, just be empathetic to the employees and don’t put too much pressure on yourself and you know, you are going to be the cool boss. If you have watched The Office (US version), Michael Scott is who you are trying to be, a boss who wants to get employee’s attention rather than getting work done. Michael Scott may be our favorite, but it won’t work in real-life offices. Just have your team’s back and motivate them to grow, don’t try to get their approval.

Don’t try to be the opposite of a “cool boss”

Not trying to be the cool boss shouldn’t mean that you go to the other extreme end and be the mean boss. Somebody being too harsh on you may push you to get your work done but that doesn’t work for everyone, so consider that and don’t be the mean boss. It’s very important to guide and support your team, understand them, their needs, and their struggles alike.

Don’t micro-manage

As a manager, it’s your job to get the work done but you shouldn’t expect the employees to do the work under your eyes. When you micro-manage, you are implying you don’t trust the employees to do their work and you second guess everything that they do. You are implying that you know better and it can be condescending. It is also not practical, you need to know how to delegate work. Micromanaging is just more work for yourself. Establish crystal clear objectives and goals, provide a broad outline and let the employees reach the goals in whatever way they want, if they ask for guidance, guide them, don’t do their work for them by micromanaging.

Taking credit for the employee’s effort

You may want to be on good terms with the management above your role, you may want to prove your hard work, but you don’t want to do this by taking credit for the employee’s efforts. You can’t be jealous of the employees and their hard work. As a good manager, you should tell your higher-ups how efficiently the employees are working. Don’t pull any shady tricks to get closer to the higher-ups, rather stand up for the employees, take accountability for their mess ups in front of the higher-ups, and work with the employees for them to not repeat their mistakes. That’s the sign of a good manager.

Being a good manager is a dynamic process, you learn and unlearn every day. It is also important to learn from the team for your growth. It can get overwhelming but stand your ground, you will do a good job. Hope this article helped, the list of mistakes is not exhaustive and it’s okay if you mess up once, remember the lesson you got from your mistake and try not to commit the same mistake again.