How To Get Confident As A New Manager

Moving into a management role for the first time can be darn scary. Whether you’re promoted internally or hired straight into a position where you have a team reporting to you, there are some key things that will help you find your feet and ramp up your confidence quickly.nn1. Fake it just enough You can’t know it all and pretending that you do is sure to get you into hot water. If you adopt the approach of ‘faking it til you make it’ your team will see straight through you, and sooner or later you’ll trip up big time. Of course, if you answer every question with a shrug of your shoulders and a blank stare your team will lose all confidence in you and respect for you, so there’s a balance to be struck. You need to fake it just enough so that you build trust and respect in your team, but not too far that you pretend you can do it all yourself. It’s really down to being ready to wing it, something that will always be part of the job of a manager. nn2. Find your groove Don’t walk around doing an impression of ‘a manager’. It’ll feel fake and it just won’t get the results you need. Finding your style as a manager can take a while, but it’s the only way you’ll be able to bring everything together and deliver consistently. Learn from the best managers you know and by all means look for a mentor, but don’t take on someone else’s approach and style wholesale. Don’t assume that your team want to be managed the way you want to be managed. Look at what your team needs and how to manage them to get the best out of them, and figure out what strengths, talents, experience and skills you have that will meet those needs. In the Business Week article ’’Becoming the Boss’, Linda A. Hill suggests that to succeed as a new manager you need to: “Demonstrate character (intending to do the right thing), managerial competence (listening more than talking), and influence (getting others to do the right thing). She cites a great example, ”An investment bank manager won employees’ respect by shifting from showing off his technical competence to asking them about their knowledge and ideas.” nn3. Focus on the relationships A manager will thrive or die on their ability to build relationships. You’ll have all kinds of conflicting demands made of you and your team, and it’s through your relationships with people that things change and things get done. Hill suggests that “it’s imperative to earn respect and credibility by leveraging the knowledge of the people around you”, and the only way to do that is by building positive, enabling relationships, not just in your own team but with the people your team depends on to get things done. I’ve seen that whenever I’m helping organisations out as a Project Manager I always place a high priority on building relationships, and that effort shows results pretty much instantly. People will respect you, trust you and go that little bit further if you have a good relationship in place. One last thing - always remember that you’ll ramp up your confidence and find things easier if you add your own personality and strengths into the mix.