With Generation Y staff always keen for new and exciting roles, many employers are promoting younger employees to management roles. But such moves are often not sufficiently supported by the wider organisation. There is often little guidance to ensure these up-and-comers can ease into their new role.
Without ample support, new managers often make mistakes. Such mistakes, like the five detailed below, can lead to consequences like staff attrition and disengagement.
1 Underestimating team diversity and personality differences
Being young and working in a global economy, many new managers lack the experience of managing team members from today’s diverse generations and backgrounds. They need to take time to understand the personalities and profiles of people reporting to them.
2 Failure to Delegate
New managers often take on more than they can manage. They either do not know how to delegate or are not willing to release control. Either way, at best they become a bottleneck, or worse, they frustrate their team members who feel they are not being developed.
3 Too Eager to Please
Managers who are newly-promoted are often eager to please their superiors and tend to take up many challenges. In their eagerness, they may have to step on a few toes to accomplish the tasks set before them.
4 Failure to Earn Trust and Credibility
New managers often fail to realise that a management title does not elicit automatic respect. Being in management is clearly not about “barking orders”. Instead of “walking the talk’, some young managers just “talk the talk”. Before you see an exodus of employees leaving a particular department, make sure that new managers understand they are supposed to motivate and lead by example.
5 Being Too Complacent
New managers are often complacent and fail to recognise warning signals from more mature and experienced team members. They tend to rely on their instincts instead of asking for help. Learning to build a network of mentors and advocates within the organisation will help the new manager progress well.
New managers can upgrade their people-management skills by keeping themselves abreast of the latest practices. Lee Hecht Harrison’s Talent Builder programme trains managers on the 5 A+ Management Practices: Appreciate Uniqueness, Assess Capabilities, Anticipate Future, Align Aspirations and Accelerate Learning.
New managers need to remember that dealing with people requires emotional intelligence as well as sensitivity. By understanding team members better, they will be able to build stronger and more cohesive teams. This will also help young managers plan work; resulting in more delegation and efficiency.
New managers should also engage their team members in career discussions. When staff feel their managers are taking responsibility for their growth, young managers will naturally earn that all-important trust and credibility.
Last but not least, new managers should look for a mentor who can provide them with honest feedback.
+ About Lee Hecht Harrison
Established in 1974, Lee Hecht Harrison is a global talent management solutions company with over 240 offices worldwide providing expertise in Career Transition, Leadership Consulting and Workforce Solutions.
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