7 top tips for first time managers.

One of my team, Joey Kmeid, is about to embark on his first role in sales leadership. This has made me think about the top tips that I would pass on to new people managers.

I don't pretend to be the world's best leader or manager, however I have been fortunate while working at LinkedIn to have had fantastic line managers Ollie Sharpe, Vernon Bubb, Liam Halpin, Maria Trincheira and Ian McIlwain. The tips below are really the best bits of advice that I was fortunate to receive from them and am now hoping to pay forwards.

1. The job is people, people, people.

It sounds obvious, right? But in reality there are many things that can take you away from your team. The key is to minimise the time given to anything not directly related to the people in your team in order to maximise the time that you can dedicate to the people in your team.

LinkedIn's CEO Jeff Weiner states that "Talent is our No. 1 Operating Priority". A manifestation of this our Previous SVP Sales Mike Gamson mandating that managers spend 50% of their time on coaching.

Invest as much time in talent acquisition and talent development as you can and pretty much everything else will take care of itself.

2. Don't make too many changes too quickly.

Avoid the temptation. Instead spend time to observe and listen in order to understand. Managing through change is challenging (plug for this LinkedIn Learning course) so pick your changes carefully. The priority matrix below is a useful tool in determining which changes to choose.

3. Communicate the priorities; prioritise the communications.

Alastair Campbell's excellent book 'Winners' explains that high functioning teams have clarity on the team's priorities as well as their individual priorities, whereas poorer performing teams lacked clarity as to the team's priorities and poorer performing team members are less clear on their individual priorities. Taking this a step further, keeping the list of priorities minimal, consistent and repeated is crucial in maintaining focus. Do fewer things, better.

As a new manager you'll often find there is a lot to communicate to the team about. Don't drown them in communications - they won't thank you, they won't read them and key messages will be lost. Your job is to selectively filter and selectively amplify.

4. Manage: Up and down.

If you can't manage up, you won't be seen as an effective leader by your team. If you can't manage down, you won't be seen as an effective manager by your boss.

Owning the message(s) from leadership that you pass on to your team is a skill to master. It requires compassion and authenticity. You are never 'just the messenger'.

Being the voice of your team is essential in helping the company make decisions (such as resource allocation). But just amplifying 'noise' upwards is quick route to a loss in credibility. Managing up requires understanding the System (the company) and the Subsystem (your team).

5. Balance empowerment and accountability.

Employees crave (and expect) empowerment. As Steve Jobs famously said “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do". However, empowerment without accountability can lead to poor decision-making and overtime to a company not meeting their objectives or responsibilities.

Shareholders hold the board accountable, the board holds the leadership accountable, and this accountability flows all the way down through the company. However, accountability without empowerment creates a culture of micromanagement which few, if any, employees are satisfied working in.

6. Co-own the recovery plan (if there is a gap to what is expected of the team).

An interesting question that Ali Matar posed to his leadership team recently was "What is the most important number - the team's Plan (sales quota) number or the team's Forecast (sales prediction) number?". The answer is 'the highest number'. That is to say you need to deliver what the business expects of you or if you have committed to deliver more than that then you must honour that commitment.

The tip to share, is that if your Forecast is below Plan then you simply must have a plan for how to bridge the gap. This plan will only be effective it is co-owned (see tip 5) by the team and in particular those who are calling below their own Quota.

7. Don't tell; Role model.

One of our Values at LinkedIn is Demand Excellence. Demand excellence of yourself and demand excellence of other people. As a leader, demonstrating excellence to your team is the first step in then demanding excellence of them.

An example of this would be collaboration with cross-functional partners. Telling your team to collaborate and explaining how to do it will provide some functional guidance. However, how you are seen to collaborate will set a clearer example.

Remember: There is simply no room for dissonance between your words and your actions.

I'd love to know, what are the top tips that you have for new managers?