Building trust and confidence among your direct reports is essential if you want to be an effective manager.
The Success Habit
When assigning tasks to your team, and more specifically to new members, give tasks that can be mastered and build from there. Don’t assign an extremely challenging task such that the poor employee is stressed, struggling and destined to fail. Start with the small success to faciliate the larger ones later on.
Furthermore, if an employee should fail at a given task, never criticize them publicly. Talk to them privately in your office and never make it seem like the end of the world. Explain why an action was wrong and how it should be done next time. Remember, people come to work wanting to do a good job.
Do You Expect Perfectionism?
I must admit I do, for myself, as a project engineer. But I don’t make the mistake of thinking that others are the same as me. People have different abilities.
As a manager, don’t pretend to be perfect – others will resent you for it. Involve your employees when formulating a plan to improve your business or divisional performance. This brings ownership and a better chance of success as your team want to “make their idea work”.
Building Trust
Some other ways to build trust:
- Give clear directions when you are assigning tasks. Explain why the task is required and how long they have to complete it.
- Share the vision or your goals. Don’t guard everything close to your chest because you think people only need to know the minimum to do the job. Communication is key. If you explain how each task fits in to the bigger picture, your team will appreciate its importance and take more care in their work as they understand how it affects other people’s work.
- Share your “success and failure” experiences. This makes you human and you will develop a better relationship with your team, making you a more effective manager.
Making People Management Easy
Use Employee Handbook Templates to help you manage your staff in half the time.
Note: these are designed for Australian businesses.
Trust or Bust: How to Win by Building Trust in the Workplace
Your first week as a Manager may not be an easy one. There are many temptations that accompany the role that could work against you. It is your opportunity to create a good first impression amongst your team.
Settling In
When you become a manager, you may or may not feel a little resistance from your coworkers. People being human can be jealous of you, particularly if one of your peers had his eye on the role. At the same time you are replacing another manager and your initial actions will be judged against your predecessor’s. If he/she was a great manager and has been promoted (hence your promotion) you could have some big shoes to fill.
If circumstances permit, use the first few days to get to know the team. Employees generally communicate better with their superiors than with the people they are managing. It is worth noting that your direct reports will have more to say about your future than your supervisors. People talk. More importantly, your supervisors will talk to your direct reports about your performance and this will influence which way you move next in the organisation (up, sideways or down).
Use of Authority
Do NOT go around changing things and undoing the systems and procedures of your predecessor on Day One. This will not work in your favour at all. Restraint is the key.
As a Manager, what you don’t say to a direct report is as important as what you do say. Never demands that tasks are carried out, always “request” them. If they are not completed, then you may exert a little authority. Exerting your authority as soon as you acquire the role will only cause a lot of resentment towards you in the workplace. I repeat: Restraint Is The Key.
The Personal Touch
When meeting each team member for the first time, the objective should be to open the lines of communication between them and you. When talking with anyone you should give them your full attention. Do not type an email or look around the office like you have somewhere else to be or something more important to do. Do not fake interest as this is plainly obvious to everyone.
Find out their goals and aspirations at work, people will appreciate help towards achieving them. As a Manager, you will quickly realise that your technical skills are far less important now than your ability to deal with people.
(This is often a rude awakening as sometimes people are promoted to management because they have been good at a certain technical ability. This is one of the reasons why management is not for everyone.)
The Peers You Left Behind
Can you still be friends with Coworkers after your promotion to a Manager? Sure. Just be sure to separate the work from the friendship. Do not let the two interfere. If he/she is a good friend they will know that you are now in a difficult position at work. This should not be taken personally as a Manager is there to ensure that a job gets done – he is not there to make friends (his friend is not paying his salary).
Avoid the tempation to use him/her as a confidant. This will appear as though you favor that old friend over other people in your team. If you need someone to talk to, find another manager in a different department. Confidentiality relating to work and insider knowledge pertaining to your level of responsibility is also maintained if you speak with someone else at your level.
Mood Swings
Your direct reports are well aware of your current mood and if/when you have other mood swings. Some managers use mood swings as a manipulative tactic. While it sounds smart, this should be avoided if you are expecting any kind of respect in the workforce and to be viewed as a mature manager. In fact, dramatic mood changes make you a less effective manager as people will wait until you’re in a good mood to approach you. At the same time, it is unrealistic to try and pretend you are not human and you do not have times when you are overjoyed, pissed off or upset.
Being A Manager Can Be A Fantastically Successful Career When You Know What You Are Doing… - First Class Manager
How was your first week as a Manager?
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