To ask how to be a manager?

[Newmanagerpanic]

I’m about to become a manager of a team of two, so there will be three of us. I’m the subject matter expert within the business, have always handled this particular area by myself. My ‘Head of’ just quit, has already gone and I’ve transitioned to someone who professionally and personally love (she’s a fantastic human being) but she has suddenly found herself the manager of a team of 5, she’s also used to being a lone wolf.

I’ve recruited one individual internally, we were friendly before and now I’m her manager. We’re a similar age. I’m currently recruiting externally and I could find myself with someone ten years younger or ten years older etc.

I have never managed someone ever. I manage projects cross-department, but I’m usually the person who people will ask “can we do this”.

Can anyone point me to some resources, books, ways of working or whatever. I already know that I will be a flexible manager - my first recruit has autism and dyslexia, we’ve had a discussion on what she needs to be able to work well. For example she needs time to digest information, we’ve signed her up to a service where she can get it to read stuff (like the 30 page documents she needs to get to grips with). If she wants to start a bit later, that’s fine - I want the results not necessarily the hours etc.

BUT how do I actually manage someone. I am disorganised, I need to make sure my team know what they’re doing each week. How do you make that happen? What tools do you use? Do people use things like Asana? Microsoft Planner?
I am panicking that I will let them down.

If your role involves a bit of everything then I would start by writing a list of the key things that need to be done in the first month for each part.

So for project management, it could be onboarding all the new starters, setting a project schedule, hitting milestone 1 on it. The team should have a short regular meeting to check on project progress (once or twice a week?) and be very focused on that specific project and timelines and deliveries - clear agenda in advance, no going off piste on other topics.

People management - initial 1 to 1 with each person, setting specific SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time based) so Magda will complete training course A or read manual B or led their first planning meeting by the end of the month. This should be development goals rather than project milestone goals - eg that they have learned something/trained on something/improved something/done something for the first time rather than a general milestone in the project. Project milestones should be in project management meetings, not personal development (although the development goals should be relevant to the project).

Strategic management: what are the first things that need to happen - budget review? Audit review? Etc.

The key is dedicating time to management which is hard if you are also doing the actual skilled job you do (eg keeping things going!). So not only should you book in the 1 to 1 personal development meetings and the weekly team project management for the month at the start so you are committed to that time, you should book out a couple hours in your diary to prepare for the meetings, review your strategic progress etc.

Good management takes time - around 20pc of your time should be on personal, project and strategic management and not on doing the actual skilled tasks of the department.

Often bad management is just managers who don't have time (or don't make time) to spend on managing. They get stressed, projects fall behind, teams feel neglected etc. So you need to make clear to your manager that you must have sufficient time to manage a team and not try and squeeze it in around a full time role in your niche skill

Also you won't get it all right so don't worry about achieving perfection but reflect on how you can improve. Could the goals you gave someone have been more SMART? Was the project schedule for week 4 realistic?
Ask the people you manage to give feedback too - do they feel like you've set sensible project milestones? Do they feel their personal development goals are realistic?

I will come back to this, but you've all been so helpful that I'm just looking up all the recommendations before I report back!

Just be yourself. Listen to your team. Have clear goals

Do read books and listen to podcasts.
You are going to be great.

A look at transactional analysis would be good :) theres some helpful youtube clips on it x

Oh yes good spot. Staying 'adult adult' is really important