The new manager’s playbook (part 1): expectations for yourself
Starting your first leadership role can be exciting yet intimidating.
Setting yourself up in your first 90 days as a new manager can help you build the habits, discipline, and support that you (and your team) need to be successful over the long-term. Even better, having these structures in place will help naturally build up your confidence and leadership skills.
The most important thing to understand first is the difference between leadership and management.
Leadership is about bringing people together to achieve a common vision.
Management is about managing the steps, tasks, and processes to achieve an objective.
See the differences there? Leadership tends to be more about people, where management is more about tasks. Also leadership is more long-term focused and management is more short-term focused.
It's also important to note that you can be a leader without having any direct reports. Being a leader is more about the influence, direction, and vision you have.
My focus in this post (and my coaching) is about first-time people managers becoming leaders. It's an important distinction because you produce greater results and have more engaged team members when you're focused on leadership (not simply management).
When you're first getting started, I recommend looking at your leadership development from two angles: setting expectations for yourself and your team. Here, we'll cover expectations for yourself, then we will cover expectations for your team in our next blog post.
Part 1: Setting expectations for yourself
Make yourself a priority.
Know that your cup needs to be full for you to pour into others as a leader, so what activities do you need to do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis to keep your cup full? Consider various areas like your health and well-being, social time, creativity, time outside, and being offline.
You also will likely want to block time on your calendar weekly for focus time. This is where you're setting yourself up for success by specifically dedicating time to thinking and planning more strategically and proactively. This is a crucial piece that most people forget about. They let meetings take over their calendar and 'don’t have time' to look ahead.
Understand the expectations of your own manager.
Schedule an intentional meeting with your manager to make sure you're both on the same page for your new role's expectations. You want to have a specific list, in writing, covering:
what your roles and responsibilities are (i.e. what does this look like on a daily and weekly basis)
any specific KPIs or metrics that you (and the people on your team) are responsible for
how your performance will be measured
and how often the KPIs and/or performance will be measured
You should leave this meeting feeling clear and confident of what's expected of you, how you will know you're successful, and with an idea of how you'll get there.
Psst... you'll want to schedule these types of meetings with each member on your team as well.
Schedule meetings with yourself to build up proactive professional habits.
The point here is to identify and consistently execute the habits that will allow you and your team to perform at the highest level. Think about what the daily, weekly, or monthly habits that need to be done in order for you team to perform at your best.
These meetings are game-changers for emerging leaders. They can be as little as 15-30 minutes depending on what you're focusing on.
Some ideas inspired by my clients to get you started:
End of day wrap up routine:
Acknowledge progress made today
Identify your top 2 priorities for tomorrow
Review schedule for tomorrow - do you need any time blocked for travel, focus work, etc.? Do you need to prepare for any of your meetings or send anything in advance to team members?
End of week reflections and planning for next week:
Review team's progress against monthly or quarterly goals
Celebrate your wins
Acknowledge your team members
Block time as needed for next week (focus time, travel time, buffers between meetings, etc.)
If your first 90 days as a manager feel overwhelming, a Leader Reset Session can help you build a clear, sustainable plan. Learn more and book here.
Brittany Canaski is a highly-rated Leadership Coach, Trainer, and Founder of Hello Velocity where she builds confident leaders and high-performing teams. When she's not building her business, you can find her planning her next travel adventure with her husband, watching Formula 1 racing, or volunteering in her local community of Charlotte, NC.
