Manager: How to manage your new position well?
1 March 2012
Read by 2414 persons
For a "manager", settling into a new position remains a delicate moment. It involves communication, credibility and time. Especially if everyone is watching for a misstep.
Whether it's managing people and teams, managing service units, or managing systems, the status of "manager" implies personal and professional skills, in addition to experience, which must be known and mastered. However, is this enough to avoid immediate rejection? Opposition within the existing team, jealousy, sometimes unfamiliarity with the company culture... at the beginning, for the manager as for everyone, it's never easy. That said, it's mostly a matter of time.
Several specialists have studied the issue and have identified some common aspects to any new installation in a "manager" position. First element: Information. Be well informed about the company, then the team to manage. A very useful aspect if you want to avoid any "bad joke" during the first contacts with the team. According to Rémi Juët, a training consultant in management, author of "The Manager's Toolbox" (Dunod Edition, 2005), "the new manager must be curious and seek information beforehand, for example from the HR department or their own superior. They must inquire about the specifics of their future collaborators' jobs, their past results and the difficulties they encounter. Showing that you are informed of the current context is also important to gain their trust." Because you must aim, whatever happens, to gain the trust of your team. Rémi Juët explains that everyone always has something to say about their colleagues, whether negative or positive. "The new manager must remain impervious to these comments that influence their opinion of their future collaborators." It is therefore inadvisable to try to form an opinion on the people who make it up before joining the position. Which brings us to the second element: observation. Preferably the first few weeks. The objective is to learn how the team or service manages its daily life. To understand the different personalities of the team and the difficulties they encounter. During this period, it is better to go into direct contact with your collaborators, rather than limiting communication to emails and other memos. According to Rémi Juët, during this observation period, only short-term decisions should be made.
Medium-term actions should wait until the end of the diagnosis. Meet the people in your department or company individually. And above all, avoid calling everyone together at the same time. This is a mistake that many managers make. Meeting each person "one to one" makes it possible, on the one hand, to value the collaborator. On the other hand, it is more practical to have a fairly objective overview of the collaborator's personality in question, to know their desires and the famous "unsaid" thanks to non-verbal communication (gestures, etc.). The bond of trust is thus further optimized following a simple direct and sincere exchange. Towards the end of this observation and analysis period, it is advisable to organize a second meeting. According to Rémi Juët, "the manager must present the result of their reflections. Even during this second meeting, they must emphasize the positive points, which ideally represent about two-thirds of their observations." The manager can then legitimately announce the measures they wish to take to make the service work and, from there, let their management style express itself. Third element: Patience and adaptation. Because as soon as your presence begins to be felt in the service, and if you also want to make things move, you will automatically have to face criticism. If this is the case, there is no choice but to let the storm pass because it is a perfectly normal stage in the adaptation process. The new manager must accept this and try to adapt to the situation, within reason. The "adaptation" or "transition" period is therefore crucial for the future of the new manager. It lasts, according to specialists, between five weeks and six months (maximum). A period that the new manager will have to manage as best they can, knowing that any apparent ease, any success, is the fruit of inner rigor.
Ghassan Sabwat.
Aujourd'hui.ma
Published on January 31, 2012.
Posted online on March 1, 2012.
Whether it's managing people and teams, managing service units, or managing systems, the status of "manager" implies personal and professional skills, in addition to experience, which must be known and mastered. However, is this enough to avoid immediate rejection? Opposition within the existing team, jealousy, sometimes unfamiliarity with the company culture... at the beginning, for the manager as for everyone, it's never easy. That said, it's mostly a matter of time.
Several specialists have studied the issue and have identified some common aspects to any new installation in a "manager" position. First element: Information. Be well informed about the company, then the team to manage. A very useful aspect if you want to avoid any "bad joke" during the first contacts with the team. According to Rémi Juët, a training consultant in management, author of "The Manager's Toolbox" (Dunod Edition, 2005), "the new manager must be curious and seek information beforehand, for example from the HR department or their own superior. They must inquire about the specifics of their future collaborators' jobs, their past results and the difficulties they encounter. Showing that you are informed of the current context is also important to gain their trust." Because you must aim, whatever happens, to gain the trust of your team. Rémi Juët explains that everyone always has something to say about their colleagues, whether negative or positive. "The new manager must remain impervious to these comments that influence their opinion of their future collaborators." It is therefore inadvisable to try to form an opinion on the people who make it up before joining the position. Which brings us to the second element: observation. Preferably the first few weeks. The objective is to learn how the team or service manages its daily life. To understand the different personalities of the team and the difficulties they encounter. During this period, it is better to go into direct contact with your collaborators, rather than limiting communication to emails and other memos. According to Rémi Juët, during this observation period, only short-term decisions should be made.
Medium-term actions should wait until the end of the diagnosis. Meet the people in your department or company individually. And above all, avoid calling everyone together at the same time. This is a mistake that many managers make. Meeting each person "one to one" makes it possible, on the one hand, to value the collaborator. On the other hand, it is more practical to have a fairly objective overview of the collaborator's personality in question, to know their desires and the famous "unsaid" thanks to non-verbal communication (gestures, etc.). The bond of trust is thus further optimized following a simple direct and sincere exchange. Towards the end of this observation and analysis period, it is advisable to organize a second meeting. According to Rémi Juët, "the manager must present the result of their reflections. Even during this second meeting, they must emphasize the positive points, which ideally represent about two-thirds of their observations." The manager can then legitimately announce the measures they wish to take to make the service work and, from there, let their management style express itself. Third element: Patience and adaptation. Because as soon as your presence begins to be felt in the service, and if you also want to make things move, you will automatically have to face criticism. If this is the case, there is no choice but to let the storm pass because it is a perfectly normal stage in the adaptation process. The new manager must accept this and try to adapt to the situation, within reason. The "adaptation" or "transition" period is therefore crucial for the future of the new manager. It lasts, according to specialists, between five weeks and six months (maximum). A period that the new manager will have to manage as best they can, knowing that any apparent ease, any success, is the fruit of inner rigor.
Ghassan Sabwat.
Aujourd'hui.ma
Published on January 31, 2012.
Posted online on March 1, 2012.
