Need to effectively transition new managers into their role?

Every company struggles with the transitioning of individual performers into the management role. In many cases, the organization loses a great individual contributor and gains a mediocre manager.

New managers need to become comfortable and confident in supervising direct reports who were formerly peers. In addition, they need to transition their focus from maintaining their own specific technical skill, goals, and deadlines to managing these aspects for others. They are now in a position where they need to be open to upward feedback, actively providing feedback to others, reinforcing good performance, and mastering the art of delegation.

New managers need the appropriate tools to help soften the transition from peer to manager, as well as a way to understand their new role.

Candid feedback on one's management competencies gives the new manager clarification on their role, as well as what behaviors need to continue, be stopped, or be changed. Identifying areas for improvement, and communicating their developmental goals to their team, will help the manager be viewed as effective and credible.

Individual Perspective

Survey of Management Practices - New managers assess their current competencies using the Survey of Management Practices. This survey efficiently clarifies the role of management, providing feedback on the supervisory skills that are vital to producing deliverables through other employees.

Goal setting is the key skill measured, as well as collaborative planning, giving feedback on progress, making control adjustments when needed, and providing recognition with rewards.

Coaching - Candid feedback can be overwhelming for a new manager. Therefore, coaching is encouraged to defuse emotional responses and help guide and focus development towards improvement, so the manager gets the most from the feedback process.

Training - Training is encouraged to target areas that need improvement indicated by the feedback results.

Basic management training can be taught in our 2-Day Managing Through The Task Cycle® course. This class has managers learn and practice the basics of supervision, such as setting goals, managing difficult employees, planning, and problem solving.

Organizational Perspective

Group Report For Planning Training & Development - A group feedback report(aka composite or aggregate report) can be utilized to identify how the group's skills rated compared to the organization as whole, or to TBC's international norms. Results can clearly highlight the particular areas that a group might need training in helping provide the foundational knowledge necessary to build targeted leadership/management development curriculum.

Click here to see an example of a matrix from a group report.