15 tips New Managers should know BEFORE they start!

In this video, I'm going to tell you 15 things that I wish I knew before I got into management. Get your coffee because we're getting into this one. Thank you for joining my channel, Leadership with Mike, on this channel. I help managers become leaders and I do that with no nonsense sense, if that makes any sense. So like I said, today I'm going to give you 15 things that I wish somebody had told me or if they did tell me, really made sure I understood. Because these 15 things will help your management career greatly. First thing, you're a manager, you're not a friend. Now this is going to be difficult, especially if you've kind of gotten promoted from within the company. You have to be able to draw a line in the sand between friendship and work relationships. This does not mean you become a jerk. This does not mean that you forget everybody that you came up with. What this means is you have to be able to decide, am I dealing with this in a professional way or am I dealing with this in a way that I would deal with a friend? I'm trying to hook somebody up. Keep in mind that you want to deal with things in a professional manner. There's nothing wrong with being friendly. There is something wrong if you're always hooking up your friends. Next, be consistent. This comes when you're dealing with employees. Be consistent. If somebody does something wrong, you're going to be consistently dealing with it in a certain way. Don't, if let's say somebody is coming in late and after five lates something happens, well make sure that happens with everybody. Not just people that you don't really talk to or not just people that you have something against. Make sure that it even happens to your friends. I know we said we're not going to be friends but it's not in that way. You can be friends if you can maintain consistency. What you do to one, you do the other. If somebody gets some sort of an incentive for a certain number of sales, that means somebody else should get the same incentive for that number of sales. It's just to be consistent and then you don't have to look over your back to see who's watching, who's trying to get one over on you. You are consistent on how you deal with people. That will make life so much easier down the road. Next, the buck stops at your desk. Listen, when you're an employee it's very easy to be like, well I know I didn't catch it but my boss didn't catch it either. You're the boss. You have to catch it. So if there's something missing in a presentation, if there's something missing in the sales funnel, this is now your job to catch. There's no more, well you know I passed it and no, the buck stops at your desk. Once your signature's on it or once you've put approval on it, it's yours. That's it. Nowhere else to go. Next, I wish somebody would have told me to focus more on the outcome over the process. What does that mean? Well, what that means is you may be looking, let's say you got promoted internally and you know that the process, there's something wrong with it but everybody is okay working that way. Don't worry about how they get from A to B. Just make sure they're getting from A to B. When you start worrying about the how, you tend to get on that micromanagement train and it's not the best use of your time. Look at it this way. Before the pandemic, a lot of places did not want people working from home. Why? Because they couldn't see. I don't know. Are you spending eight hours a day at your desk doing the work? If the outcome is positive, I don't care if you spend one hour at your desk. That is, to me, irrelevant. I need this end result by this date. If that gets done, why worry yourself about what happens in between? It doesn't matter. Now, this one, as a new manager, you may find hard but you need to be able to delegate. People are going to put stuff on you. Shareholders, your boss, other customers, people are going to put stuff on your plate and you're going to, at times, feel overwhelmed. You need to know how to delegate. It's going to come on to your desk. From there, remember, you're a manager. That means you have people working with you and for you. Delegate what you don't absolutely have to do. That's part of management. Making sure that things get done doesn't mean you are the one doing it. This next point got one guy I know very well. Don't pretend to know more than you do. There is no problem in saying, especially as a manager, I don't know. There's no problem in saying, can you help me? Can you guide me? Can you inform me? Don't pretend to know everything. We had a guy at the airport who came in. He worked with everybody as an employee for three months. Then he got into management, which was absolutely fantastic for him. But what he didn't understand is everybody knew he didn't know everything. We had people there for 14 years. He had been there for three months. There is definitely a knowledge gap. But when he put himself in a position where he wanted to show how much he knew, all he did was, one, make a fool of himself, and two, make enemies. People don't want to help the know-it-all. If you're a new manager pretending you know it all, the employees that actually know what's going on, they are going to watch you drown. And it is probably not going to be a fun time for you. So keep that in mind. Don't pretend to know more than you do. This is going to be a tough one for some of you MBA students, MBA graduates. Theory, it don't mean shit in the real world. Boots on the ground, running, that's what you are going to learn. That's where you're going to grow. An MBA or any kind of education is theory. In theory, this is what happens. But in the real world, that is so far from the truth. Yes, it's great to have a base knowledge, and it's great to kind of give yourself those years of learning. But remember, the real education is when you're in the war zone, when you're getting dirty. That is when you're going to really understand what you're made of, what knowledge you need to keep, and what BS you need to throw out. That's how it happens. So theory is great in theory. Just say no. For some reason, as a new manager, I always felt like it was hard for me to say no to people. But sometimes it's actually beneficial for everybody if you can just look at what's being asked and not be afraid to say no. You don't have to say no all the time. But just, I guess my point would be, make sure you're not afraid to say no. You're going to want to make sure that you are able to share your vision. If you have a plan, now, when you come in, like within the first like couple weeks, don't come in with this grand vision of a huge plan on how you're going to change everything. Because that, we've talked in other videos, that will sink you faster than anything. But once you've built some rapport with the employees, once you've built a relationship with your team, share your vision. What is the big picture? What are we trying to accomplish and why? When you just give people just a little bit of information, they kind of become resentful. They kind of like, they don't get it. Because it's not theirs to get. But if you share this information, you're building more of a with your team. So don't be afraid to share the vision. Now, talking about sharing. Don't feel, don't be afraid to open up to people. Now, I'm not saying air out your dirty laundry that your problems you're having at home. But at the same time, if you're struggling with something, don't be afraid to talk to people about it. Don't be afraid to say what's going on. Not everything has to be top secret. And no, I don't know anything about my boss. Share some stuff. Be open. By being open, this is building trust. And when you build trust with your team, your team will work so much more efficiently and confidently with and for you. So don't be afraid. Just open up a little bit. Like I said, just little stories, little tidbits of information, hobbies that you're interested in. Just stuff. This one's a doozy. It's better to get in trouble for the things that you did than the things that you didn't do. What does that mean? It means it's better if your higher ups give you crap because you tried something and failed. Because the last thing you want is your higher up coming and say, but why did we not do anything? Why did you just sit there? Why did you allow this to happen? You're better off. You're seen in a better light if you are at least trying. You're not going to get the right answer all the time. But when your higher ups and those around you see that you're making an effort to make a positive change, to make something happen, take that gamble. Because I bet you, you get a crap a lot less for trying something than you do for not. Under promise over delivery. You don't want to be seen as an underachiever. No siree. I mean saying, okay, we can have this project done in three weeks when you know it could probably be done in two. But by giving yourself that extra one week buffer, really make sure you don't look like a fool. It gives your team some wiggle room in case anything happens. But over deliver, that means if you can get it done in two weeks and it blows the expectations of your boss or the client away, that's what you want to aim for. Under promise, probably get it to three weeks. Over deliver, two weeks and it blows their socks off. That's what you want to build your reputation on, especially when you're starting out. Here's one that snuck up on me. If anybody says anything that you find of value, get it in writing. If somebody says you do X, Y, and Z, this is what your bonus is. Get it in writing. If somebody says, I will have this completed by this date, get it in writing. Now, I'm not saying it has to be literally handwritten out, but have it confirmed in an email. If you have a meeting and the team says, yes, this will be delivered on Friday, compose an email saying just to reiterate our discussion today that we will have such and such deliverables ready for Friday. Then nobody can say, well, I didn't know. I didn't say that. I said I was going to give you a bonus. What day was that? No, just have it in writing. It doesn't have to be a confrontational, you need to sign here because this is what you said. No, just, oh, if you wouldn't mind, the easiest way I find is just a follow-up email. As per our discussion earlier today, I just want to confirm, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then it's done. It's been sent to them. It's in writing. This one, I find the absolute most valuable, especially for a new manager building a name for themselves. Never ask somebody to do something that you wouldn't do yourself. I'll give you an example of how this works well for me. It really drove home the idea. I was working at a bar and I was the restaurant manager at the time, starting to get busy. The dishwasher didn't show up. The kitchen is pumping out food, dishes are piling up, and nobody's there to wash dishes. What are you going to do? What I did, because I've been in restaurants for so long, I had one of the other managers take over the floor. I threw on the dish apron. I started scrubbing dishes for an hour until the dishwasher was able to show up. I didn't have to ask anybody else because I had the ability and the time to make it work. I didn't have to interrupt the kitchen. They were getting killed at the moment. I went in. I did the dishes. After that, I could walk in that kitchen and ask anybody to do any job in the restaurant and get an absolute yes because I wasn't afraid to do something myself. And the staff saw that firsthand. So always keep that in mind. If you're going to ask somebody to plunge out a toilet, would you do it? If you wouldn't do it, don't ask somebody else to. That's only fair. Anyway, I'm gonna get my caffeine, finish up, and I'm gonna see you in the next video. Ciao.