New Managers: 9 Ways to Succeed & Thrive In Your New Position

New managers out there: Congratulations! You’ve been a standout at your job and you got the promotion. But now what?

The transition from employee to manager can be tough. Obviously, it’s not for lack of intelligence, work ethic or any other reason really – other than lack of experience.

Managing requires a different set of skills than an employee to succeed.

Check out the 9 tips below to make sure you are building the foundation for success and setting yourself – and your team and organization – to win.

1) Seek Mentorship and Guidance

As a new leader, finding mentors within & outside the organization ASAP is imperative.

As a new leader, finding mentors within & outside the organization is imperative, as they can close your knowledge gap and provide invaluable guidance, wisdom, and support to navigate the complexities of the managerial role.

Leveraging mentorship for professional development is akin to getting their years of experience and downloading their wins and losses, allowing you to be a more complete leader, sooner.

2) Develop Your Leadership Style

Understanding different leadership approaches & cultivating your own distinct leadership style is vital to building credibility and gaining the trust of your team.

Similar to seeking mentorship and guidance mentioned above, leadership development is a surefire way for new managers to close the knowledge gap compacting years of experience allowing new leaders find their leadership style to lead with confidence, authenticity, and effectiveness while building a cohesive, motivated team.

3) Build Strong Relationships

As a leader, you need to build strong relationships on a professional and personal level.

Connecting with your team – those you manage, peers, and senior management – is going to be crucial for you so you can understand what drives your team and what is important to them.

When you understand what’s important to your team – you can help them experience more of that, for a happier, more productive team.

4) Delegate and Empower

As an employee – you did all the work. To a high degree. To the point you stood out to upper management for promotion.

Now it’s time to recognize delegation as a tool for efficiency & growth.

Bottom line managers need to be excellent delegators.

Managers need to delegate and create easy-to-understand SOPS that empower team members to take ownership of their responsibilities so that the managers can focus on driving business-oriented KPI’s and lead your department to success.

5) Set Goals and Measure Progress

As a new manager, it’s important to hit the ground running with tracking data, measuring progress and setting goals.

Clear & well-defined goals provide a roadmap for success, guiding new managers in prioritizing tasks and aligning their efforts with the organization’s objectives.

Goal-setting & progress measurement serve as powerful motivational tools as well.

Meeting and breezing past goals is a great motivational tool for teams and the organization as a whole.

6) Celebrate Successes and Learn from Failures

Following up on setting goals and measuring progress, acknowledging achievements, both big and small is super important for team reflection.

Acknowledging peoples hard work and acknowledging where we fell short is key to building an actual team – not just a bunch of people working together.

Group buy-in and understanding, celebrating and extracting valuable lessons from setbacks is what makes a team.

7) Prioritize Self-Care and Work-Life Balance

As a manager, you are not only responsible for your performance but the performance of your team, which can be incredibly stressful.

Prioritizing self-care & work-life balance is very important to avoid burnout and manage stress.

Balancing managerial responsibilities with personal well-being is a key part of success when you are a manager so though it is not technically a task to be done at work – it is work-related and does have an impact on your performance, team performance, and organizational performance as a whole.

8) Master Effective Communication

As a leader, you must master effectively communicating with your team.

Listening and understanding team members, understanding how each of them communicate and retain information, being emotionally intelligent enough to understand when something is going on – are all key to managing interpersonal relationships at the workplace.

You must also be able to take this information and use it to articulate your vision and goals clearly to every person on your team.

9) Handle Challenges Gracefully

As a manager – understand that the crap goes UPhill – not downhill.

You will be responsible for resolving various issues within your team, whether they are interpersonal or performance-related.

Effectively addressing conflicts and difficult situations will be an integral part of your role, and by viewing obstacles as opportunities for learning, you can foster a resilient and growth-oriented team environment.

Embracing the journey of growth as a new manager requires a multifaceted approach that combines self-awareness, adaptability, structure, and a commitment to continuous self-improvement.

Becoming a new manager can potentially change your life – but not because of the position or the bump in pay – but because of the skills you learn and implement that make you valuable as an asset to any business – the ability to manage and scale the most important part of a business – it’s employees.

As a new manager, if you can hit the ground running keeping the tips above in mind, you can navigate the challenges, ups, downs, but most importantly – the wins – with confidence and poise, understanding that it was a team effort after all.