Transition Tips for New Leadership Roles

Guest article by William F. Merck II

Just landed your first position as a manager? Congratulations! Moving up in an organization to a leadership position is a big deal. I know it feels strange to find yourself working with many of the same people who only a day or two before were your peers—and now you are their supervisor.

The first thing to do is take a deep breath. You will be fine. But it will take some adjustment on your part, now that you are suddenly responsible and accountable for the actions of your former peers. Remember: you got the job promotion based on your past performance. However, in this new role, you will need to prove yourself all over again. Respect is earned, not automatically bestowed on you because of an impressive-sounding title. You will be looked at differently by the same group of employees you were a part of before. They will be curious to see how you handle yourself as their new leader and what their relationship with you will be like going forward.

Here are ten tips to think about as you make the transition:

1. Start by meeting with those who will be directly reporting to you on a regular basis. It is important they begin their new relationship with you knowing you respect them as being equally valuable to the organization in your respective roles.
2. Set some ground rules about how you want to maintain open communications and how regularly you want to meet.
3. Be careful not to show partiality to some members of your team based on relationships you had with them before you became their supervisor.
4. Know that you will be held responsible and accountable for the results of your team to those above you in the organization.
5. Be careful not to micromanage. You are now the supervisor, so set the direction and delegate the work to be done.
6. Be confident in your decision-making. Seek input and counsel but, in the end, you will own the decisions. Make decisions you believe to be right. Your people will respect that.
7. Don’t look for consensus on every decision. Keep in mind that some decisions may not be popular in all quarters. But if you act with integrity and fairness, you will be fine.
8. Don’t look to others to make tough or controversial decisions that fall in your area of responsibility.
9. Publicly recognize your staff’s accomplishments. Convey to them and others in the company that their work is meaningful and appreciated.
10. Enjoy your job, help your people grow and succeed in their career goals. Always endeavor to provide measurable value to the organization you are a part of!

You will make mistakes in your new role. It is important that you spend some time reflecting on those mistakes when they happen so you can learn from them. If you have the good fortune to have a mentor in the organization, someone who understands what you are going through, be open to their counsel. Remember that all mentors are not equal. Some offer good advice and are great sounding boards. Others mean well but their advice may sometimes be faulty. Always keep in mind that you are in charge of your career and life. You must evaluate the advice given and measure it against your values and sense of what is right in any given circumstance.

As a new member of the management team, you will have a boss you report to. They will rely on you to effectively utilize your team to achieve objectives important to the overall goals of the organization. Be sure you are clear on what they expect from you and strive to meet those expectations. Keep them continually informed so there are no surprises coming from your area of responsibility. Still, respect their time while keeping them in the loop. This usually means establishing a schedule of regular meetings and being prepared for those sessions with an agenda that is pertinent and at a suitable level of importance for the use of their time. They will appreciate that.

Beware of misusing texts and emails in keeping others, including your boss, informed. Whatever you memorialize in electronic communications never goes away. Keep details succinct and to the point. A good check on what you write is to imagine one day seeing your email or text message displayed on a big screen in a court case or on the front page of a newspaper. Will you still be comfortable with what you wrote? If you must convey something sensitive, have someone else in your office read what you have written before you hit the send key. Do they understand what you are trying to relay? Is it unnecessarily controversial? Does it reveal sensitive or classified subject matter? It always helps to have another opinion.

Best wishes in your new role!

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William F. Merck II has a lifetime of experiences in the working world that contributed to his success in a variety of leadership roles. He has authored two books including So, You Want to be a Leader: Secrets of a Lifetime of Success.