5 life hacks for a novice leader

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A new position means new concerns. Learn how to behave if you have been promoted and establish contact with subordinates.

Have you finally gotten a promotion? Congratulations! You have already proven your professionalism, now is the time to demonstrate your managerial and organizational skills. Because a new position means not only new responsibilities, but also a new role in the team. Are you ready for this?

I decided to collect recommendations for novice heads of departments, divisions, companies. After all, moving up the career ladder of one person can become a problem for the rest of the team and even negatively affect the working atmosphere.

Which leadership style should you choose? How to motivate employees? What is psychoclimate and how to understand that it is negative? With these questions, I turned to Antonina Ulyanskaya, a consultant psychologist at the Wezom agency. According to her, 80% of novice managers do not know or even think about the psychological aspects of team management. And there is something to think about if you do not want to see a decrease in productivity and a packet of resignations from disgruntled subordinates in a month or two.

What to do for a novice leader

1. Choose a democratic management style

Of the three styles - authoritarian (decisions are made solely by the leader), democratic (decisions are made collectively, the boss controls execution) and liberal (the team makes decisions on their own, the role of the leader is minimal) - it is the democratic one that can provide a comfortable working atmosphere and maximum efficiency. Because the boss is a Democrat:

• does not give tough orders, as in the army, he works in a team;
• grants subordinates the authority to solve tasks within their competence independently;
• involves employees in solving organizational issues;
• encourages creative ideas, initiatives;
• builds trusting relationships with colleagues: informs about the current state of affairs in the company and about development plans;
• sees and helps to unleash the potential of the employee.

Democratic style makes subordinates feel more like partners than just performers. For a novice leader, this style will become the key to the success of the team, of which he has become a leader.

Nuance. If the manager came from outside (not from among the employees of the department or company), we recommend:

• ask what the predecessor was in this position, what management style he used;
• get to know the team and organizational processes;
• determine the priority goals of the work, discuss them with the higher management, and then with the subordinates.

Do not forget to listen to the suggestions of the department entrusted to you.

2. Motivate not with orders, but with the help of involvement in solving problems

This method will help increase self-discipline in the team. After all, the responsibility for the decisions made is transferred to the employees. This also implies a democratic management style. Make your employees feel important. The feeling of a simple screw in a huge mechanism is unlikely to generate enthusiasm. And when subordinates become important participants in the overall process, they will approach the matter more responsibly.

If employees do not cope, the Democrat boss does not use powerful methods and in no case does he publicly scold.

Remember the rule: praise in front of everyone, punish in private.

Subordinates should not be afraid of being summoned to the carpet. To punish in a democratic style means to clarify what is wrong, to find reasons and ways to fix it.

3. Build a team

Remember that you are in charge of a team (department, department, or company), not each individual. Form a team that will implement the conceived projects. To do this, develop management skills. Be ready to set goals for the team, determine results, transform goals into clear tasks, motivate performers to solve them, monitor implementation, and eliminate problems and conflicts that have arisen.

And also learn to select people adequately to the tasks. In other words, don't squeeze a lemon in the hopes of getting tomato juice.

The mistake of novice managers is to pull the blanket over themselves with the motivation “I will do it faster and better myself”. It will not be possible to build a team with this approach.

4. Don't be arrogant

This recommendation is for those who have been promoted and taken over by their peers. The feeling of power can turn your head. But this is a temporary effect. Competent beginner leader:

• recognizes that promotion is not the crown of a career, and he is not the ruler of the world;
• understands that a new position is a big responsibility;
• takes into account personal experience before promotion;
• continues to work on himself, to improve personal and professional skills;
• does not abuse his position, does not shout at every corner that he knows everything better.

Knowledge, like omniscience, will not help to gain respect in the eyes of colleagues. The principle "I am the boss, you are a fool" is a sign of an authoritarian management style. You don't want to be quietly hated behind your back, do you?

5. Maintain distance in communication

Finding the perfect balance between friendship and service is not easy. Not every experienced leader succeeds in this, what can we say about a beginner. Some young bosses build friendships with one subordinate, thereby creating negative attitudes among other employees.

There should be no familiarity in the team. Maintain a business culture. Build a relationship of mutual respect.

If you are a supporter of the "you" appeal between subordinates and the boss, make it clear to employees that this is not a reason to be frivolous about tasks.

Nuance. How to build communication if the subordinate is older than the boss? Stick to the partner line in communication. Use the pronoun "you". Don't be afraid to ask for advice. Messages such as “I wanted to know your opinion”, “What do you think” will demonstrate respect for the senior employee, increase the sense of his importance, help to identify valuable experience and use it for the development of the company.

The main thing is not to hurt the ego of the subordinate, but to create a comfortable business relationship. Set the distance gradually.

In many respects, the type of psychoclimate that reigns in the team depends on the manager's management style.

What is psychoclimate and how to understand that it is negative

Psychoclimate is a comfortable emotional mood, an atmosphere in which employees work. Indicators of the negative climate in the team are:

• staff turnover;
• frequent sick leave;
• low labor productivity;
• tensions between colleagues;
• general irritability and dissatisfaction;
• unwillingness of employees to improve;
• mistrust;
• psychological incompatibility;
• lack of desire to work in one office.

Signs of a positive climate include:

• friendly relationship;
• a high degree of trust among team members;
• the desire to be in a team during working hours and spend leisure time together (corporate rest, joint trainings, outings, etc.);
• lack of internal conflicts and "groupings";
• cohesion of employees in force majeure situations, a high level of mutual assistance (not everyone is for himself);
• free discussion of current issues (no one is afraid to express their own opinion);
• healthy business criticism;
• lack of pressure on subordinates.

In addition to internal factors, the atmosphere in the team is influenced by:

• physical working conditions;
• the current state of affairs in the company;
• economic, political, social situation in the state.

Analyze how the sponsors communicate and interact with each other, whether they often conflict or express dissatisfaction, how they treat employees from other (related) departments.

Psychologists recommend conducting an anonymous survey to find out which psychoclimate prevails in the team. And if the head of the department is unable to influence the state of affairs in the country, then he can take care of working conditions, find out the reasons for dissatisfaction and motivate workers.

And finally

There are many more recommendations for novice managers than five. But we tried to choose basic advice, following which the young leader will smoothly enter the new role and will not become the object of negative discussions in the team.

How did you first lead the team? Share your experience in the comments!