5 crucial tips on leadership for first time managers

You just got promoted? You are new in your manager role? Congratulations! Especially at the beginning in your new position, you surely don't want to make any unnecessary mistakes, right? You want to become a good manager. In this video, I'll give you my five best tips on leadership as a new manager or supervisor. Stay tuned. If you want to learn more about leadership and career, do subscribe to my channel by clicking on the bell. You will then be notified automatically about new videos uploaded. Yesterday you were an administrative worker and today you are a team leader or a group leader. That's great. But now you think what do you have to do to be accepted and respected in your new role by your team members as well as by your boss right from the start? What's important especially during the first weeks? What makes the difference? What do you need to keep in mind? I was a managing director at a large corporation for a number of years as well as CEO of my own startup company. I ended up leading about 350 employees worldwide and I made my mistakes during that time. But over the years, I've learned what really matters as a manager and how leadership actually works. Here are my five tips for you as a newly appointed manager. First, know your boss's expectations of you. How good you are in your job and whether or not you perform well. That's something not you or your team members assess but only your boss. Therefore, make sure to understand precisely what is expected of you in your new role. Only if you truly know the expectations, you will be able to adopt and live up to them. For that reason, ask your manager to meet with you. Ask him what is important to him and how can you help him. What does your boss think what your priorities should be in the coming weeks? What should you keep in mind while working together and what kind of communication does he want? Get to know your boss how he thinks, how he works. Which decisions can you make on your own and on which ones does he want to be involved? And how does he want to be involved? My new team leader is driving me crazy. He sends me a copy of almost all his emails. All his emails as my inbox isn't overflowing already. What the hell do I need all this information for? How exactly wants your boss to be kept in the loop? Does he just want a short email once a week or does he want to be informed about everyone and everything at all times? And maybe even expects a detailed report every other day, perhaps even including a five pages excel sheet every day. Try to find out and to make it clear again, it's not you who decide whether you're doing a great job or not. It's your boss and his assessment is based on whether or not you meet his expectations. Sorry, but that's how it works. Number two, don't rely only on facts, data and figures alone. Well, Mr. Miller, as you know, I'm your new boss now and I'm looking forward to work together with you. But enough chatting. Let's get right to the point. Facts is what is most important to me. Facts, facts, facts. So could you please show me this year and last year's numbers, the budget, target, actual and you know, all the good stuff. Take your time for a conversation with your employees and colleagues. It's not just about asking for reports and numbers and data and facts. Really, it's about people. It's about understanding the people that work in your organization. What drives them? Why are they doing what they do? Listen to their earlier successes and difficulties. Keep asking so you can truly understand. And most importantly, don't judge or evaluate, at least not during the first days. During the first weeks, you try to get a glimpse, get a picture, how the organization ticks and how it functions. When are the decisions made? How, by whom and why? Try to get a feel for it. How people and departments or teams really work is nothing you can see in spreadsheets and organizational charts. But you rather need to know or get a feeling for unwritten rules and hidden agendas. Only then you can avoid dropping a brick accidentally. Number three, avoid actionism. The first four to six weeks as a new leader are your orientation phase. What matters during this time is for you to understand, to understand your environment, your team members and colleagues and to find your role. At this point, you shouldn't make any changes, even if your employees would like you to change things up. Because in the beginning, you are not familiar with hidden and unwritten rules and you don't know the customs in the organization. You can't see the full extent of the existing power relations yet. But you need this information. You need this information to make a good assessment. Some rules and principles that may seem pointless to you in the beginning might start to make sense since you understand how and why they actually came into place. Try first to comprehend and understand. Only make far-reaching decisions if you can really assess what impact they will have. Number four, don't speak badly about your predecessor. Well, ladies and gentlemen, as you know from today on, I'm your new head of department and I had a good look at everything here in this company. And to be very honest, I'm not surprised that we are not market leader. There's a lot that needs to be changed. The way that you as a team performed in the past years was, to put it mildly, not ideal. Your work leaves a lot to be desired. There's much room for improvement. Don't do that. Be appreciative towards the organization's past and towards the employees, towards the team members and the colleagues and their earlier successes. Even if it wasn't all that good and even if you already know that some things need to change, hold back. Hold back on your assessment. What my predecessor has left me with here is nothing short of an absolute mess. It seems like apart from going on business trips, he hasn't done much at all. And did I mention, don't speak negative about your predecessor. Not in your introductory speech and not later. Number five, don't aim to be popular. As a leader, you are not longer just one of many in the team. You are the team leader now. You are the boss, not a body from work anymore. You have to reconsider your previous communications and behavior and most likely make adjustments in one domain or another to adapt your new role. The real issues that a leader or manager has to deal with are almost never specialist or technical subjects, but it's the interpersonal relationships. Exactly. And that is why I also engage with my employees in activities apart from work as well. We are like a big family. I'm friends with most of my colleagues, with my employees. I help them. I help my employees wherever I can. I'm here for them. You know, it's so important to me that my team members appreciate and like me. I see. But be careful as a leader. You need to find the right balance, the right balance between closeness and distance to your employees. Of course, it's a great feeling to know that you are liked by your team members, but it's not the goal of successful leadership to be popular. What's paramount is that you are respected and not because of your position, but because of your behavior. Being a leader is about establishing trust. You don't need to be or try to become best friends with your employees. Your goal should be to become trustworthy and to be fair and honest in everything you do. If you enjoyed watching my video, please let me know by giving me a like or thumb up here on YouTube. Thank you very much and see you next time.