Thinking of taking your first step in to middle management? Here are eight common challenges in your early days that you need to be aware of.
Saying that management is challenging is a bit of an understatement. When you transition from a junior position to one with responsibility in middle management there is a great deal of learning to undertake. More than a learning curve, the first year is a learning cliff.
It’s important to know that anyone who has taken a management position isn’t brilliant at it from the start. If they seem amazing, they perhaps have a mentor supporting them from the shadows and are likely putting on a brave face and completely wining it.
Every new manager must read this and realize that they are not the only ones that feel completely overwhelmed and they are a fraud because all of their peers seem to have it figured out. A few months ago, at a large organizational Manager’s meeting we were asked how we were – honestly- feeling about an upcoming large project. One by one we went around the table and quite a manager’s expressed dread, anxiety, and nervousness towards the unknown and scale of the project that was coming up. Some of them were experienced too, which just goes to show that it’s widespread.
The silver lining – there is one!
Transitioning in to the role is difficult, but it does get progressively easier. I have heard the phrase, “the first year is for learning, the second is for change, the third is for monitoring the change”.
Tracking your progress is a valuable way to look back and recognize that you have gotten better and what seemed like a big problem at the time does become easier. I reflected on the notes that I took when orienting in to the role by the outgoing manager. I can hardly believe that I thought filling out a purchase requisition was difficult! Just a few months later I could do them in my sleep and have all of the cost center codes memorized.
The eight truths of a Middle Management newbie
Below are a list of truths that every new manager should be aware of. There may be only a few that you experience, or you experience every single one and can add to the list in the comments.
It’s a bit shocking to go from comfortable to very challenged.
For your first six months, perhaps even a year, it is going to feel like you are starting all over again. For instance, you had probably cracked the “formula” for your old job and were proficient at it- otherwise, you wouldn’t have gotten that promotion. Now with the promotion, you have to think differently and have a much higher level of responsibility.
By thinking differently, I refer to the different frame of mind that you have to view all projects, tasks, and day to day operations. Not only are the most responsible for making sure the team completes a project on time and on budget, you have to have all the right answers for when something goes wrong. What happens if an employee injures themselves on the job? What are the policies for that? Now you have to know Emotional Intelligence for when an employee comes in to your office with a personal problem that is affecting their work performance.
You are going to feel dumb and out of your league sometimes
You have your areas of strengths, or the “toolbox” of skills and previous experience to back up your decision making. But when you are in a new role – even when you are experienced – you are going to make the wrong decision sometimes. The tricky part is that in a leadership role it seems much more magnified.
The best thing you can do is fix the error, learn from it, and keep on moving along. Employees respect managers who can admit that they are wrong.
You also become aware of what you don’t actually know. You didn’t know that risk assessments could be quite complex – they always seemed so easy when reading them when someone else was responsible. Now you’re that responsible person trying to over-analyze everything so you don’t mess it up.
You’re the responsible one now
Life was pretty easy when you were lamenting with some coworkers over coffee “what you would do if YOU were the manager”. That feeling of confidence will fade once you realize that with the ability to sign off on decisions, you are also approving and shouldering the consequences if things go less than perfect.
That weight that sits on you when making any decision in the early days is normal. It won’t ever go away completely, but it will adjust itself. Once you gain some experience you will have a new appreciation for what a crisis actually is, because the decisions you are confident in making will not be a blip on your radar.
They are called hard conversations for a reason.
You are going to have those hard conversations. They are not enjoyable for either person, but it is up to you to make sure that they occur when they need to.
A mistake that I made as a new manager was to put off a hard conversation that I should have had with a junior employee. I assumed that she would eventually “professionally mature” as most new employees will figure out the organizational culture through osmosis of being in a professional workplace with others behaving around them.
Not everyone will be excited and happy for you
If you happen to be internally promoted in a very small team where everyone adores you as the subject matter expert? Read on, you are a bit of a unicorn situation. Plus that’s a lot of pressure on you to keep everyone happy.
People suck sometimes, period. That is a full statement that seasoned managers will all nod along to.
Jealousy can occur, and on occasion when you don’t give the staff exactly what they want so you are a terrible manager. It’s frustrating, but you have to be aware that you are there to do what is right, not what will make everyone happy.
There’s a piece of you that morphs in to a sociopath
You just got word that Janice broke her leg? Oh no, that’s terrible news. You feel bad for Janice, but there’s a thought that will creep in to your brain, “Please don’t let that injury take place on the organization’s property”.
There is a delicate dance between being concerned about an employee’s well being due to illness or mental state, and another where you have a business to run.
You are not expected to shoulder the burdens of all of your staff. Be compassionate, and willing to grant reasonable request for the situation. If you have someone in your office that is upset because of a difficult family situation, direct the conversation with a “what can I do for you?”. This way you aren’t their ear for all of their problems, but you can assist them by providing days off or adjusting their schedule.
You will be tested
Everything is a test. That request an employee is making right now for additional time off during busy season? It’s a test. The process improvement idea that is so bizarrely inefficient that you can’t believe it’s occurring but still have to stay positive and thank them for their ideas? It’s a test.
Your life will be a series of micro-tests while staff and peer managers try and figure you out. It’s human nature to try and see what they can get away with. Try not to be too much of a hardass at first. You will find your rhythm once you are comfortable.
You will start thinking about work – even more than before
Yes there are deadlines and tasks to remember, but you will also start to think about situations as they arise. Thoughts of, “I should have said this, or NOT said that” will permeate your thoughts more when doing mundane tasks at home. That’s good when you are trying to figure out a situation at work because it means you care and you are trying to learn and improve. It’s not good when you can’t fall asleep or feel the pressure to check your inbox often on a Saturday.
If you are thinking about your future to-do list often, check out this weekly planner tool that can be customized to your week. This post will walk you through how to fully utilize it for your own needs. The benefit of this tool is that if a task written down, it leaves your brain because you know that you will get back to the task later.
The bottom line is, when you are new to a leadership role, it’s normal to not have it all figured out. Be kind to yourself while you are learning the role. Find a mentor or trusted advisor, pay attention to what your peers in other departments are doing successfully, and use the resources here at Middle: Managed.