Taken a new role and am in way over my head - experienced managers please advise?

[newjobregrets]

Having worked freelance for myself on my own terms for many years I was fed up of feast v famine working so almost on a whim applied for a mat leave cover.
It's such a huge change from what I was doing before and I am now worried I have made a mistake and that I am not going to be able to stay on top of all of the different work streams.
I'm now managing others as well as budgets and deadlines and lots of stakeholders. Not sure how or where to prioritise. Any advice gratefully received.

Cool. That sounds like fun! Start by writing it down - what are you key objectives. Agree then with whoever manages you or employed you. Then talk to your people. If you manage people they are there to help you so ask them - how they can help you meet your objectives, who do they think key stakeholders you should get to meet first. Are they concerned about any of deadlines/ budgets. What do they want from you.

And then make some plans.

If someone gave you the job it means you've got skills and experience to do this. So crack on.

Thanks for kind words.
I am trying really hard to be positive and enthusiastic but I am very anxious about it and wake up feeling sick

Nobody really knows what they’re doing! Make a list of your tasks and prioritise them by importance.

Have regular 121 chats with your team to keep on top of any budding issues.

And remember that senior management often don’t know what they’re doing and are winging it too. I’ve sat in too many meetings with mediocre white men in senior leadership position who haven’t a clue to suffer from imposter syndrome anymore.

Good luck!!

Every job is difficult for at least three months I think, particularly if you’ve come from something so completely different. If you are managing people I do tend to prioritise that over deliverables as it’s important to keep them on track so the whole team’s work gets done. Also if you put your focus into that they can take things off your hands as part of your catch-ups etc

I’m a manager if a big team. Tbh my bar for maternity cover is so low. It’s really hard to come in to a new team for a short time and do things properly. As long as you are doing the absolute core functions of the job, that should be ok. So, identify what those are. It could be keeping on top of an inbox, making sure all bills are sent out on time, maintaining a particular contract, I don’t know. Then, write what you think to be the next two most important priorities and do them after no1 each week. Run this list past your manager in a ‘just checking these are my top priorities, would you like me to add or remove anything’

if tou don’t do anything else, you’ll have kept the job running for the woman on Mat leave and learnt a lot

The thing to remember with management is the job is never over. It’s about people.

Typical things to note are
Annual reporting timelines
Mandatory training requirements
Job output and productivity - if you are not given tools to understand this, then consider how you are going to assess performance to help people understand their role
Understand your people - who are they, what makes them tick, what are their interests and aspirations as well as any issues they may share with you

Budgets you need clarity of who and how money is spent; timelines for approval of forecast and expenditure for instance help you to know when and how you can spend your money

Stakeholder engagement - is it split across your team, or does it stay with you? If its a team based thing then part of managing people is their performance with stakeholders. if it is you, who are your biggest clients and how often do they want contact and work down from there. Make plans that are reasonable and flexible.

Also remember it takes months!! To feel like you’ve got a grip on a new role so be kind to yourself, develop a good relationship witj your line manager and potentially ask for a mentor from within your company to assist your development

in terms of HOW to prioritise - what would stop the place from running tomorrow? What would stop it from running in a year? If there’s anything regulatory, do that. New business? Less important.

It's all a balance and finding where your priorities are. A productive team is usually the most important followed by output. Having a happy and productive team makes the output easier and leafs to better quality and standard of work.

Set time aside each morning to list ypur priorities and objectives for the morning, the day and the week etc.

Ensure you are delegating affectively and your team have clear guidelines and expectations for the week ahead.

Check in regularly and offer help and support where needed.

Lead by example and demonstrate ypur expectations.

If you need guidance, you're new, so get it from upper management as soon as you can instead of waiting until shit has properly hit the fan. It shows initiative and a clear understanding that you may not be producing what you should be and are willing to change that.

Read your job description and work guidance. Are you meeting your targets? Are you on track to meet them? If not, what can you implement? If you are far off, why? Can you see and follow any trends? Are they any systems or procedures that need over hauling or reworking to make objectives? Is this reasonable and can you do it? What is your overall focus? Do you have the right? Enough team members? Who's struggling and who's excelling? Anyone not being utilised to the full potential? Is there hidden or shy talent? Who needs to be performance managed?

It's about getting your systems in place and making them work. All of this while all managing ypur own work load.

Remember to be kind to yourself and your team. You need them.

Just go in with the confidence of a middle aged white man and act like you deserve to be there and they’re lucky to have you.

If it’s any comfort I was promoted (but into another team) at work and (due to long term sickness) there was no handover at all…I reckon it’s taken me nearly six months to work it all out (apart from the blasted unknown unknowns) and I could hit the ground running as I knew the company and department already.

When you were freelance were you a one man band? If so you probably see managing a team as a task (it is) but it’s also a resource for you.
if you are feeling a bit rabbit in the headlights right now and literally don’t know what to do, put time in with everyone in your team on a methodical basis and ask loads of questions. Allow time between meetings to write up and reflect on what they said and work through everyone in this way. Then do the external relationships that have emerged through these meetings. Then think about how to structure your plan and then make meetings with people senior to you to share it and discuss it and get agreement / tweaks.

if you are literally panicking, do you want people to suggest how to structure these meetings / what to ask?

The thing that helped me most when I was in management was using the 4 quadrants from the 7 habits book.

Everything gets a yes/no in urgent and a yes/no in important.

If it is urgent and important prioritise that. Then for future stuff, make space in your diary to do the things so they never become urgent again. Actually book it in. A monthly report that takes half a day to write, book it in a week before it is due every month. And so on.

Not urgent but important - do that next. Plan it in. Again, use your diary to make sure it is all covered. This includes staff and partner liaison. Catch ups, meetings, whatever. Make space for off the cuff urgent stuff once a week that can give you breathing space if not used.

Not important or urgent - bin this. All of it.

Meetings that are just meetings for meetings sake - bin these.

Time spent doing minutes - bin this. Do action notes in the meeting assigned to individuals and circulate before you leave the meeting. Or assign someone else to do the same.

I binned off 'agendas' as well, I asked people in advance what they wanted to discuss and how long they wanted and it went up on a white board at the start and once it was all done, we went home.

I binned 'AOB' at the end. Nobody wants to sit through 5 Any Other Bollocks at the end of a long day in a meeting. If it isn't important enough to be on the whiteboard as a stand alone thing, then is it worth it in the first place?

And delegate delegate delegate. As soon as someone is in a position to take on more responsibility give it to them. It helps everyone and furthers their careers as it gets onto their CV

Thank you all. I am half way through my first week and think I feel a little bit less sick. But gosh am so worried I have made a huge mistake.

Another morning
And another early early wake up and feeling (and being) sick with worry that I can't do this.

Your first week is always rubbish. You’ll be fine

First week everyone is like a deer in headlights. Men tend to handle this by speaking a lot of drivel to mask this & just faking it until they make it. Woman tend to retreat.

give it a few weeks- ask for guidance & no one gets everything first time they see it. It is how you develop a new skill set or expand on one.

First week! First MONTH very little is expected, just be nosy and try to
figure out who people are and how things work. Ask your manager about any urgent deliverables, and what meetings you are expected to be in, and expect to be clueless for ages and ages.
Very worst case scenario- it’s a shit few months and then the mat cover is over. You made it through your teens, you made it (presumably, since you are on mumsnet) through either pregnancy or not-getting-pregnant. You can make it through this. Notice your feelings (rather then being overwhelmed by them), carry on. Congrats on getting the job!

Look at using something like Asana, Clickup or Monday to manage workloads, budgets etc. They act like a dashboard so you can see everything.

Give yourself time at the start of each day to set your intentions and priorities and delegate where you can. It will give you room to breathe.

When someone does something wrong, explain it to them and pass it back to them, don't be tempted to correct it yourself as it makes more work for you and they won't learn what you were looking for.

I've just been given my first managerial role.

They chose me over people with experience, so they saw something in me worth having.

I am in HE and it's manic right now! I'm just getting my team through welcome, and then we can get to work on sorting out what I've inherited.

I feel very out of my depth, while also feeling like I'm not doing anything!

Ask chatgpt. Its a lifesaver for my menopausal brain these days!

This is really good!

You have imposter syndrome. I recommend listening to this podcast - these women are fantastic business coaches

https://shows.acast.com/amazingif/episodes/impostersyndrome

You do have the skills to do this job, but right now you are feeling that you don't because it's all new.

Ask your line manager what are the key priorities for your first 3 months. For a mat cover, it really should just be keeping the team going and the 2-3 most important outputs of the job (the first 2-3 things on the job description).

Put 1-2-1 in with your team members. Understand how they like to work, what their roles are, what they need from you to do their roles well. Find the person who can be your #2, who can support on the things that aren't in your key priorities but pop up. There may be different skill sets in your team, find that out and use it to help you. Nurturing your team will pay back in dividends. The best managers are those that manage people-first rather than task-first but it took me many, many years to learn this!

Asana is good and i use that but day to day the outlook task list in outlook is a great way to make sure that you have listed everything you need to do. I colour categorise mine for project activities so it is easier to see what needs doing.

Means that if i can't think what i need to be doing next i can refer to that and crack on.

And yes imposter syndrome. It never goes away!

Thank you all for such kind words
I have woken up every morning with anxiety, my DH said to me today about the tennis player being sick: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/articles/c049kw6dln5o

I even woke up this morning feeling anxious -even though I am not due back in office until Tuesday.
I am sure there are peri things at play too which doesn't help:
Going to try and chill as much as poss over the weekend : and maybe fit in some time with the podcast below too.
🤯🤯🤯

It takes 6 months usually to completely settle into a job and know exactly what you're doing.
Give yourself a break and keep asking questions!