For many people, actually being promoted is a huge achievement. Being promoted to a managerial position is a goal for many workers. Those that move into this type of role often bring along with them grandiose ideas on improving the workplace quickly. Not everyone can manage employees effectively, but even those who become great leaders make mistakes along the way. Perfection is not achievable, but the following mistakes are most often made by new managers and should be avoided in your career.
Making Empty Promises
As a new manager, you’ll likely discover that some of your employees deserve raises and promotions within the company. Unless you’re the one who can make the decision on promotions and pay raises, avoid promising that employees will receive them. You may forget that you promised a raise to an employee or be unable to follow through, but I guarantee that employee will remember the promise. Breaking promises will not only make you look like a liar, it will make the employee feel cheated, and they will be more likely to begin job searching.
What to do instead:
Never make promises you aren’t 100% certain you can follow up on. Keep in touch with your supervisor and let them know who in your team is standing out. Make sure to foster their growth whenever possible and celebrate their achievements. If someone on your team asks for a raise, tell them you’ll bring it up with your superiors and get back to them within a set time frame. Then follow through with those actions.
Pretending to Know What You’re Doing
Filling your new role as manager will inevitably come with growing pains and misunderstandings. You are still trying to figure out your position and no one should be expecting perfection. Pretending that you know exactly what you’re doing and not asking for clarification when needed will lead to avoidable errors in projects.
What to do instead:
Rather than pretending you know everything in fear of showing your inexperience, expand your knowledge and ask questions. No one should be expecting you to inherently know everything there is to know about managing others, so ask questions and ask for clarifications because it will help you grow into the role.
Micromanaging
First-time as well as seasoned managers are both susceptible to making the mistake of hovering over their employees to make sure work is being completed. Micromanagers continuously review their employees’ project, get caught up in details and deadlines, and typically frustrate employees and push them to look for other employment or a transfer to another department.
What to do instead:
When you delegate projects to your employees, make sure to be clear on what you’re looking for and offer up suggestions on what to do next. Instead of checking in constantly, schedule a meeting once a week so they can feel independent and proud of their work, while giving you the opportunity to find out how the project is going.
Not one manager is perfect, but looking at the mistakes that others often make when appointed to this leadership role will help you learn from them and become the best manager you can be.