3 Vitals of First Time Managers

Today I got a message on my LinkedIn from one of the Business Managers of a big corporate who wanted to enquire about the way I could coach him to come out of his office politics. Though I generally fix an appointment before any client call schedule and then proceed to keep the conversation experience comfortable for my client. But the way the message was sent made me too inquisitive to know about the situation and helping him out. So, I gave a quick call on the shared cell number. It came to my utter surprise as if he was waiting for a call, and as soon as I called him and gave my introduction, he showered me with so many questions like:

“What can you do to solve my office politics?

What can you do to pull down other managers in the annual target league?

What can you do to make me the star Manager of this Quarter?

What can you do to make me achieve the highest Sales Revenues?

I had been a star performer always and I have the worst team on this planet.”

After putting all the questions on “What I can Do” for 10 odd minutes he stopped and said “Hello! Hello! can you solve all of them?” and I replied a cold “NO!”

The client was so much in a hurry that he just disconnected the call without any further clarification from my end.

This incident made me feel that how easily people miss on the very fact that their performance as Managers is solely dependent on a few vitals which they need to develop and grow each day in themselves to prove their skills of Management.

Self-Awareness: First- Time managers have to be aware of their strengths and should know what to explore more in themselves. They should be focusing on growing both their strengths & weakness. Though in today’s era focus is more on building strength, it can sometimes derail and make us behave in ways that are not right for any situation. So, as managers and especially first-time ones, we have to be self-aware and spread our knowledge in our team selflessly. As a lot of time especially as first-time managers, we keep our entire focus on comparing our earlier performance with our team and hence tend to lose our people’s faith in our leadership style.

Strategy: Before entering into any managerial role we all are generally independent performers most of our end results are solely dependent on our commitment and dedication. But as first-time managers, we need to know what we aim to get even from our team which comprises high, medium & low performers, and hence a holistic strategy is absolutely crucial with a backup.

Environment: Career enhancement always brings a gift of responsibility and a lot of accountability not just in job hours but to our overall lifestyle. As a first-time manager, we should not just spread the stress of numbers and make our team get executed on the hot plate rather our focus should be on developing a team under us which is standing in the time of need of each other. And also understand us in the critical last-minute deadlines

Life as a first-time manager could be true bliss or a nightmare but it simply depends on how we make ourselves win rather than depending to get a winning tablet from outside. A coach could help you to reach there and stay there but the destination is full of the Manager.

So, peep within you as you are the best solution for all your problems!