Being promoted as a First Time Manager (FTM) is the stepping stone of one’s management journey. However, as exciting as it may sound, there are various challenges that FTMs face, leading to the need for them to be developed well in order to succeed in their new role.

Let’s look at some statistics published by some leading leadership development institutions

• 85% FTMs don’t receive any training before taking up the new role
• 60% of them to underperform or fail at their people management role
• 69% of managers find communicating directly with employees uncomfortable.

These figures mean it is imperative to develop FTMs. Let’s take a look at the significance of developing them

• Gaining Clarity About Expectations – FTMs lack clarity about what results are expected out of them due to which they lack implementation. The sudden transition from an individual contributor role to one where one is responsible for the entire team’s performance can be quite daunting, and leave FTMs confused about what is expected out of them. They need to gain clarity about the goals and results to be achieved, and then drive the team towards achieving them. Thus, an initiative aimed at this can be the make-or-break factor.
• Managing Relationships – While the shift from being a team member to a team manager is very exciting, it poses a massive challenge of managing people and relationships across the management levels including one’s team, peers, supervisors, and stakeholders. One should also not lose sight of the organizational politics that need to be managed apart from the aspects of gaining respect, re-defining some relationships like with past peers and new peers, building trust and being able to employ emotional intelligence in doing all this. This is a major chunk of the tasks that newly promoted FTMs have at hand.
• Motivating, Mentoring & Coaching the Team Effectively – This is a crucial part of a manager’s role. Being responsible for the team’s performance management also involves keeping the team motivated at all times and providing team members coaching and mentoring support as and when required. Also, they need to lead the desired team culture, sometimes through innovative ideas and leading by example at other times. First-time managers may struggle at figuring out the ways to do so and a planned initiative offering the required support is critical to their success.
• Promoting Collaboration & Teamwork–Transitioning from an individual contributor to a team contributor needs the promotion of collaboration and teamwork for the success of not only one’s own team but also the greater management team that one is a part of. Thus, FTMs need to promote the spirit of teamwork and collaboration amongst teams as well as themselves for knowledge sharing, increased synergies, and more effective goal attainment. Yet, again this is a skill that not all may be well versed at and may need to acquire.
• Effective Performance & People Management – First-line managers touch the maximum number of lives at the bottom of the management pyramid as they are responsible for chasing productivity and getting the work done. This requires effective performance management and people management skills like delegation, effective listening and communication, feedback and recognition, conflict resolution and emotional intelligence, to name a few. The lack of any of these could lead to the failure of a first-time manager which in turn could have serious business ramifications.
• Time Utilization & Management– The success of any endeavor lies in ineffective time utilization. This also involves the proportionate amount of time allocated to tasks according to their relative priorities. This is a decisive skill that could make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful First Time Manager. Understanding where, how and how much time to allocate to the various priorities could make a world of difference to the attainment of the business outcomes. Thus, FTMs need to be developed on this vital aspect to ensure greater business success.

The above would lead to the attainment of a greater business impact by way of higher productivity, greater morale and motivation amongst the team and self, lower turnover rates, higher profits and, overall greater synergies both within and across teams.

For a customized intervention on FTM development, feel free to contact GrowthSqapes.

This blog has been written by Namita Singh, Consultant & Project Manager at GrowthSqapes.