• Replies 18 replies
  • Subscribers 10 subscribers
  • Views 965 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

Are We Setting People Up to Succeed?

Michelle Battista

We've all seen it, or perhaps experienced it ourselves.

Someone is brilliant at their job. They're knowledgeable, highly capable, respected by their colleagues, and naturally become the obvious choice when a management opportunity comes along.

But managing people is a very different skill from doing the job itself.

Many managers find themselves leading teams not because they set out to become leaders, but because they excelled in their previous role. They're often referred to as "accidental managers."

This has been a big topic of conversation in my house recently. My 21-year-old daughter has applied for a Team Leader role after doing exceptionally well in her current position. One of the interview questions she was asked was how she would feel managing colleagues who have been with the organisation longer than her, people who applied for the role and weren't successful, and even friends she currently works alongside.

We often promote people because they're great at what they do, but we don't always equip them with the skills needed to manage people, navigate difficult conversations, build credibility, or lead former peers.

Management can be one of the most rewarding roles in an organisation, but it can also be one of the most challenging. The impact a manager has on employee experience, engagement, wellbeing and performance is huge.

There may be some new managers out there that could do with a bit of moral support or some practical advice and guidance to support them on their new journey so I’d love to hear your experiences and tips for those stepping into leadership for the first time.

Looking back, what's one piece of advice you wish you'd been given before managing people for the first time?

Or, if you're new to management, what's been your biggest learning so far?

P.S. I'll be sharing these tips with my daughter too Wink, so thank you in advance for any words of wisdom!

As a little return from me, the CIPD and FutureLearn offer a free People Management Skills course that's ideal for aspiring, new, or existing line managers looking for a refresher.

The course takes around 3 hours per week over 5 weeks and covers practical people management skills to help build confidence in leading others. There's also the option to purchase a certificate on completion if you'd like one.


Feel free to share it with anyone who is stepping into management for the first time, considering a leadership role, or simply looking to strengthen their people management skills. Blush

Parents

  • Drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by me.

    A structural point to add to the excellent personal advice here: new managers often struggle less with confidence than with unclear decision rights. They are promoted, but nobody tells them which decisions are now theirs, such as approving leave, setting priorities, rating performance or raising a concern formally, and which still need someone else.

    One thing HR can do on day one is give every new manager a one-page list of the decisions they now own and where to escalate the rest, linked to the relevant policies. It removes a lot of the hesitation behind the manager inaction Teresa described, and it makes the first difficult conversation easier because the manager knows it is theirs to have.

  • in reply to Ramy El Ziny

    But that implies that HR are in a position to say what decisions they can or cannot do.

    In many companies, if someone like HR  dictated what a newly promoted manager could or should not do you be told to mind your business   Shouldn't that  decision  be left to the line-management and not HR ?

    But what you have said is correct because someones the person who does the promoting doesn't really want to let go all areas of their work.

    It also works both ways.   Clear lines of authority and accountability can sound good and be made to work, but it often fails when a decision maker is absent or unavailable.   

    But on the other hand flexible management roles should allow people to make decisions in urgent situations when the normal decision maker isn't present. But that doesn't always work either  because the person making a decision gets told off or worse, disciplined for making the wrong decision.

Reply
  • in reply to Ramy El Ziny

    But that implies that HR are in a position to say what decisions they can or cannot do.

    In many companies, if someone like HR  dictated what a newly promoted manager could or should not do you be told to mind your business   Shouldn't that  decision  be left to the line-management and not HR ?

    But what you have said is correct because someones the person who does the promoting doesn't really want to let go all areas of their work.

    It also works both ways.   Clear lines of authority and accountability can sound good and be made to work, but it often fails when a decision maker is absent or unavailable.   

    But on the other hand flexible management roles should allow people to make decisions in urgent situations when the normal decision maker isn't present. But that doesn't always work either  because the person making a decision gets told off or worse, disciplined for making the wrong decision.

Children
No Data