Confessions of a Young Manager

Congratulations on your first management gig! You’ve worked so hard for this moment and to be recognized is more delightful than you dreamt. The excitement is almost palatable as you think of the teams you’ll lead, the clients you’ll serve, and the bosses you’ll report to. They’re all perfect, in your mind, until you arrive at your job and learn otherwise. I’ve been there—through both the congratulatory and the imperfect stages and have scars to show and war stories to share. Yet I hope your journey is as fulfilling as mine was. The truth is there were many more good (even great) days than bad ones. And while I didn’t cause all the bad days, I naively contributed to many of them by making the following three mistakes as a young manager. 

Mistake # 1: Prioritizing Employee’s Potential over Performance

Employee E, was bright and extroverted and I genuinely believed he could do almost anything.  But E was lazy and full of excuses. His performance peaked promisingly on climax days, validating my confidence in E and my choice to keep him on our team. Yet E had many anticlimactic days and with each of those days I’d innocently remind myself of his potential and how high he’d soared on the last climactic day.  The problem was that E’s great days were far less than E’s bad ones and the trend showed that E’s performance was brilliantly calculated to give hope right around the times when my patience was running thin, close to our next one-on-one, or in time for a performance evaluation.  

I’m ashamed to say that the cycle of great performance followed by gross underperformance lasted much longer than it should have. And sadly, as with most poor management decisions, this mistake affected the rest of my team as I spent more time counseling someone who had chosen to check out and less time coaching those who had reliably performed. I spent more time encouraging E for doing his job and less time recognizing the other team members for carrying E’s weight and performing beyond my expectations. 

There’s nothing wrong with seeing the best in someone but there is something unfair about keeping an underperformer on your team. An employee isn’t hired for what he could be but chooses not to be. And your team does not deserve to carry the burden of his choices. The lesson learned is that someone’s performance is more important than his potential, his achievement more important than his aptitude. Let’s make this performance-trumps-potential more practical. You win an all-expense-paid trip abroad to somewhere warm and wonderful. You have a choice to fly out with one of two pilots. Pilot 1 is an experienced pilot, with 20 year history of flying accident free and average intelligence. Pilot 2 possesses Einstein-level-intelligence but has never flown a plane, helicopter, or anything similar before.  Which pilot would you choose?  

Mistake #2: Misunderstanding Employee Motivations

We may hate to admit this but most of us see the world through very limited lenses—ours. We often expect the people we encounter to think like us, be like us, and act like us. Management can be empowering in that it forces you to experience diverse thoughts, behaviors, and people. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been ambitious. I lived for the next challenge, promotion, or opportunity. When I became a manager, I assumed everyone was like me. I expected them to be. I was disappointed when they weren’t. And they were likely disappointed that I was so clueless. 

I wrongly assumed that those who were not like me were not motivated. Employees are not you (or me). They must be treated as individuals, not herds. A manager’s understanding of what motivates each individual employee is critical to the team’s success.  The range of employee motivations may vary. Some employees work to feed their families; others work to feed their desire for success. Some work because they want something to do; others work because they want to make a difference.  Some work for the pending retirement; others work until they figure out what they want to be when they grow up. And, some employees may work for a combination of these reasons and others. 

I learned I needed to find out what motivated each employee and to be considerate of that employee’s primary motivation in mundane and major matters. For example, when I knew challenging changes were around the corner, I would meet with each employee and discuss the changes in light of his or her individual motivations. This approach taught me to value each employee as an individual, with unique needs and perspectives. 

So, as you prepare for your new role. I suggest you schedule a one-on-one with your team members, shortly after you begin. Ask them to share what their expectations of management are. Ask them to share what has worked and what hasn’t. And remember to ask them what motivates them. While their motivations may differ from yours, it’s no less important than yours. 

Mistake #3: Prioritizing Tasks over Trust

We failed our audit. Next to firing someone, it was the worst feeling I’d experienced as a manager. Shortly after assuming my position, I began to work on making sure everyone in our branch was trained on the operations so that we would be prepared for the audit.     For months, I worked with each employee—teaching various areas of the operations. I was convinced that my team was prepared for the audit until the day of the audit. I was out of the office when we were audited. By the time I was notified of the audit and came in to the branch, my team had completed their tests, answered the auditor’s questions, and demonstrated how little they knew despite my efforts.

Looking back, I should have seen it coming. I started my transition as a branch manager on rocky grounds—with a few terminations within my first weeks in the position. In many ways, I simply expected the team to trust me and take instructions from me—the person who had just let several team members go. I didn’t invest enough time building trust with them before getting onto the task of making the branch operationally solid. 

Beyond that mistake, a review of the audit showed we failed at things we should not have failed at and had I been around to answer the auditor’s questions we would not have done as poorly as we performed. The greatest lesson I learned was that what I knew did not matter as much as what my team demonstrably knew. I now know that it’s much easier for managers to invest in themselves than to transfer their knowledge to their teams. 

If transferring knowledge is like sowing seeds, I made the mistake of planting before confirming the soil had the proper nutrients needed to grow those seeds. Trust was an important nutrient that was missing in my relationship with my team. I genuinely wanted the best for each team member and I shared my intentions with each of them. However, I didn’t give them enough time to realize I meant what I said before going about my agenda of improving things. I should have known it would take them time to come to that realization, especially when I’d just fired other team members. Despite having the knowledge, being willing to share that knowledge, and attempting to share it, I was limited without their trust. The audit confirmed that and I learned that knowledge, no matter how much of it you possess as a manager, will not displace lack of trust. 

In conclusion, I wish you learn from my mistakes. Choose the experienced pilot. Discover diverse but equal motivations. And, build trust. I hope your teams, clients, and bosses are better than you imagine. But where they fall short, I hope you will graciously remember their areas of strengths and treasure the growth the bad days cultivate in you. After all, this may be your request of your team, clients, and bosses years after you’ve reflected on your mistakes.