Tips for a First-time Manager

So you've just been promoted. Congratulations and welcome to one of the most rewarding and enriching phases of your career. Management, when practiced properly, makes you a better human being. So, here are a few tips to help you hit the road running.

Dont try to be a know-all
Being a manager is not about being better than the people who report to you. While it is competence (I hope so) that must have got you there,  to be successful, you need to transfer that competence to the people in your team. Your success depends on the success of the people you manage.

Delegate "responsibly" NOT "responsibility"
Delegating work does not mean shirking responsibility. As a manager, the buck stops at you. Your job is to focus on the big picture and ensure that the goals of your group are aligned with the goals of the organization. What this means is that, if your group does not deliver, it is your responsibility. So delegate work in a way that the right people, do the right job, to get the right results. If things don't go well, take responsibility and fix the problem.

You are NOT the boss
Managers are meant to serve as enablers. The term "boss" has long since disappeared from modern management lexicon and I suggest that you purge it from your vocabulary as well. Attempting to force people to do something will not work - even if they don't have other opportunities. It will simply frustrate them. A frustrated employee can easily create discontentment within the team and bring down productivity. Work on convincing people, not arm-twisting them.

Track to help - not to persecute
Using data to persecute someone is completely unethical and unproductive. If your employees are unproductive, the reason could be you. Make sure that your employees know exactly why they are being asked to do something. Remember, you are dealing with adults and they deserve to understand and buy into the bigger picture. Set measurable and realistic goals and make your employees responsible for them.

Build a dashboard
Define your key performance indices, track them regularly, and commit them to memory. Good managers always know how their team is faring. For example, if you are running a garage, make it a point to know how many vehicle each employee is handling, what the common problems are, inventory levels, etc. Having a dashboard gives you the big picture and helps you foresee issues and plan for them. It also helps you assign work in a meaningful manner.

Keep things Transparent
Never hide things from your team. Sharing concerns and admitting failure is ok. There will always be a bunch of folks baying for your blood, waiting for you to fail. They should not be a reason for you to hold things back from your team.

Never extrapolate - trust your people
Just because you can do 1/10th of a job in 10 minutes, doesn't mean that your team can do 10 times that work in 100 minutes. Mathematics fails in real life. Trust your people and accept their judgement. They could be right. If you feel that they are not, convince them without hurting their dignity.

To sum it all up, "Do to others as you would have them do to you." Remember, you were on the other side of the fence once. Resentment against authority is a common human trait. However, managers have the unenviable job of serving as a bridge between corporate leadership and workers. As a manager, your success depends on the success of your team members. So, work hard to make your team succeed!