New Manager Training: What it REALLY Take to Transition to a new Role

As we settle into the new year, some employees are also settling into new manager roles. Let’s keep the momentum of enhancing our skills and continue making this year the best year yet. At Advantexe, we recently spent the better part of a year researching and developing the re-launch of our core, Foundational Business Leadership training program that provides the critical skills needed for new managers to be successful.

As we re-launch our flagship leadership simulation and learning journey, we wanted to share our top 5 key insights on what it really takes to transition to a new manager role.

1) Communications

When you move from an individual contributor to a manager role the skill of being able to communicate is probably the most important skill to develop. Clear, open, and effective communication is the only path to success. Whether it's setting SMART goals, conveying expectations, giving feedback, or just establishing a cadence for sharing information, strong communication is the foundation of effective leadership. Especially for new managers.

One of the biggest and most unspoken challenges of transitioning to a new people manager role is the question, “How can I manage them when they are also my friends?” This is an extremely difficult issue and one that can derail your ability to effectively lead if you don’t resolve the issues quickly. First and foremost, you must establish clear expectations and boundaries from the start. Make sure everyone understands their roles and responsibilities and set the tone for a professional working environment. It’s crucial to have clear distinctions between what’s needed in the workplace and keeping personal connections separate. This will require great preparation, practice, and coaching from your manager or other mentors you have established.

You are going to have non-stop problems. Small and big. Urgent and more urgent. A new problem will most likely arise before you’re finished with solving the problem at hand. It’s a juggling act. It is why you have been promoted to being a manager: your ability to find effective solutions will set you apart as a strong manager. Some of it will be creative problem solving and some of it will be pure perseverance. But ultimately, it’s going to come down to your mindset. If your mindset is, “every problem has a solution,” and you are able to keep a positive attitude and use your skills to implement the solution you will be a good manager. The warning that must be shared is that the moment you let the "negative" and the “this won’t work” attitude permeate your approach is the moment you start to introduce doubt into those you are trying to manage.

When you were an individual contributor the key to success was working harder and smarter and many times you did that alone and with your own motivation. As a new manager, one of the first things you learn is that you can’t do it all alone. You will fail and implode if you try. You need to build and maintain a team that you can trust and then you need to find the tools and methods to delegate work, tasks, and projects accordingly.

One of the biggest struggles new managers have is coaching and giving feedforward. You will notice that I use the term “feedforward” instead of “feedback.” Feedback is a look backward, and it usually is a discussion of something negative. Feedforward is a method of looking forward and having an open dialogue with the person you are coaching to identify behaviors that need to change for the future in order to be more successful. Leveraging that “solution-focused” mindset mentioned above will be paramount to your coaching and feedforward efforts.

In summary, there is nothing easy about being a new manager. It is full of challenges and limited rewards. However, through new manager training, managers can learn how to become a great manager, which will open many opportunities for a career, financial success, and improved company performance.