What is your top management tip?

[BossAtALoss]

Hi Vipers and Happy Saturday!

Posting here for more traffic than the employment boards.

If you are or have been in a management position, could I ask you to share a top tip, nugget of advice, warning to heed, lesson you've learned or something you wish you'd known on day 1?

I've just accepted a promotion to a senior management position heading a team of up to 6 and reporting directly to the MD. I know I can do the day to day of the job but I was a bit of a wild card for the role and feel like I've got something to prove particularly to the somewhat chauvinistic directors. I want to do it well and get the best from my team. This is my first experience of actually managing rather than 'supervising' people.

Thanks in advance

The team will sometimes not like you and you need to be ok with that.

You will have a completely different relationship with colleagues as a manager. Be careful that those you supervise dont end up managing you, I have seen this surprisingly often. I suppose it depends on the field of work but in my view a managers most important role bar none is to establish the ethos/culture of the team or organisation.

Don't try to be friends with your team. Obviously a great working relationship is important, but you can't be 'mates'. There has to be a degree of separation.

Regular feedback and 1-1s. If someone is getting something wrong, let them know ASAP, give them chance informally to rectify it and if they don't, keep a record of your attempts to improve their work. Also give good feedback.

Sounds like a negative and defensive point but a) I've had managers mention faults for the first time at appraisal which is unfair, and what's the point of letting me get it wrong and saying nothing? And b) If you have someone who's really not suited to their job, don't make your life hard by having no proof. I had to let someone go last year and it was one of the most stressful times of my life. I have not led a particularly sheltered life.

Don't change things for the sake of change or just to be able to say you changed something. Often a process is the way it is for a reason.

Listen to your team, but don't allow decisions to become collective. Even if it felt like you were making a collective decision you are the one who will be held responsible.

Your team are not your friends, they don't have to like you, this is fine. You can be friendly, but you may have to give tough feedback or performance manage or even fire someone one day.

Be really clear about what you expect from the team, deadlines, what form you expect work product to take. Then step back and don't micromanage.

And finally - have self belief! You wouldn't have got the job if they didn't think you could do it

Start meetings on time.

There can be a real temptation (especially if you're a woman in a chauvinistic company and you have something to prove) to go in there and be very authoritarian. But you get the best from your team if you can motivate them, foster a positive atmosphere, encourage them, empower them, let them know when they're doing well etc. You don't have to be their best buddy, but it helps if they respect you. You can be supportive without being a pushover. Basically, be the kind of manager you'd like to have yourself!

Set clear expectations about what you want from your team. Learn how to give good feedback.

Hope that helps. Congratulations, and best of luck!

Don't be friends with your staff. Make sure you "muck in" too. Lead by example.

Don’t have a meeting for something that can be sent in an email.

Have a separate relationship with your colleagues- be friendly, but not friends. Treat people how you’d want to be treated.

Don't micro manage

Be open to learning from the team

Treat people as individuals- no one rule suits everyone.

Get to know people and what makes them tick.

Invest in developing individuals but also the team spirit.

You want be told office gossip, you will need a thick skin as at times you will be hated, any decision you make could be met with reluctantance, anyone who thinks you are not worthy/older than you/been in company longer etc will hate being managed by you.
But if you can just be fair listen and be firm.

Don't offload onto your team, keep the bitching to colleagues on your level.

Help your team to see the value in what you are telling them to do.

Say nice things about them (when deserved) to others behind their back.

Say what you mean and mean what you say. Keep to deadlines you set. Check in when you say you will. Be honest.

Be able to understand and even do the job of everyone on your team.
Do not be their friend/pal.
Start meetings etc in time and don’t let them drag. Make sure a meeting is for a purpose and not just for show.
Be confident and firm.
Actually make decisions in good time, if you say you will get back to someone the same day - do it.
Treat people like humans not robots.

(Having written my own response, I've read the other posts, and there's loads of good advice here, OP!)

Do not blow hot and cold ..it’s impossible to work with anyone who plays psycho games!!

Be flexible and approachable.

Obviously it cuts both ways but I’ve worked for bosses where you’re worried to ask to finish half hour early to go to the doctors and also bosses who are fine with it. I’ve always felt more towards bosses who don’t make a fuss, don’t clock watch on you etc because they can see you’re working effectively in the time you are there.

Thank you thank you all! All of this is great.

I'm lucky enough to have had a great and very open boss the last few years (it's her job I'm taking) and have a good idea of what parts of her style I'd like to emulate - she's big on team morale, pastoral care, flexibility and communication - and things I'd like to change in time - she also loves meetings where emails would do, slides into micromanaging at times, and can be a bit too 'corporate' for our quite relaxed industry.

To begin with there will just be me, one team member I've already been working with and a vacancy to be filled, so I can ease in slowly. As business builds back up post-covid hopefully the team will also be rebuilt.

Work out where you add value. If you’ve got a committed team delivering a good job you don’t need to get involved in the day to day, instead your role can be more translating strategy/working on business continuity etc. Don’t feel you have to ‘manage’ all the time for the sake of it, it’s unlikely to be all of your role.

Just to add to the other good tips you've been given . I wasn't prepared to get a bollocking because I was worried to pull someone up on something. I was paid to do a job as were they
Praise where you can
Firm but fair

When I was a supervisor in my last job, my team were struggling with a particular task. I knew and they knew it could not be done the way management wanted it. The stress of it was taking it's toll on the team, so I asked the manager responsible to show us how to do it. It turned out that whilst it all looked good on paper she had no clue up until that moment how impossible it was. The moral from the story is listen to those you manage, accept that sometimes they know better than you and work with them.