The First 100: Lessons Learned and Mistakes Made as a New Manager

I did it, ladies and gents! I made it through the first 100 business days as a new team manager. I thought getting my doctorate would be the biggest challenge in my life, but this is bananas. And somehow, the only struggles I've endured include a recycling bin full of empty wine bottles and Monkey Dog coffee cups (best local coffee shop), a new chiropractor, and over $300 in ergonomic office equipment (not bad, right?). I've had some amazing leaders advise and guide me through these initial days, but nothing prepares you for what you will endure. And we won't experience the same thing - your first 100 days will be completely different than mine! But it might be valuable to share some general lessons learned and mistakes made for those who are working hard to make the leap into people leadership.

Lesson Learned #1: Formulate How to Introduce Yourself to Your Team

When you are a new manager, your team, whether they are newly formulated or not, doesn't know your management style. They are curious if you'll be the type to come in and immediately make changes. Will you be a micromanager? Will you be laissez-faire? Will you run around like a chicken with its head cut off? These are all the questions running through your teams' heads. Before you make your grand entrance, think (long and hard) about what you want your team to take away from their first interaction with you. And don't overdo it - be mellow, be prepared, and be clear.

Mistake Made #1: Letting Deadlines Lead to Bad Decisions

I had the challenge of filling 3 brand new contract-for-hire positions and backfilling 1 full-time equivalent position in the first 50 business days of my new role. I spent most days scheduling interviews with myself, my boss, and agencies. Each position I was hiring for had a go-live date for our software, and I needed to onboard, train, and groom the final hire before then. And that date didn't move. So, the more time I wasted interviewing, the less time I had with the final hire. I was fretting about my deadlines, and my boss (oh, wise one) told me that it was better to have less time with the right candidate than have more time with the wrong candidate. I realized the fear of deadlines caused me to interview people who weren't worth it (wasting valuable time I'll never get back) and caused my boss and agencies the hassle of interviewing people who really weren't worth the headache (wasting their valuable time). Don't let deadlines make you make bad decisions - if you take the time to approach them properly, you may end up with 4 phenomenal new hires like I did!

Lesson Learned #2: Establish Standards Across the Board (Or Revisit Existing Ones)

Most important takeaway: Having standards gives you something to hold your team accountable for. I get not wanting to be a micromanager, so don't. Have standards and enforce them. Standards apply across the board and are intended to be general enough so you don't feel like you are micromanaging. For example, my company uses Slack to communicate internally. With an entirely remote team, Slack is the only way I can "see" my team working. In addition to several other areas, I wanted to specifically call out certain standards for using Slack. Things like when an employee is out of office or onsite at an agency, they need to utilize their Slack status so the rest of us can see that they may be unavailable, or responses delayed. There are certain channels they should use for reasons X, Y, and Z. Documenting small things like this are multi-purposed and so effective for you as a manager, your team as a whole, and others within the organization that interact with your team.

Lesson Learned #3: Empower Yourself

Shout out to my boss for reminding me of this all the time, especially when I was reflecting on my first 100 days. As a new manager, you are tasked with making decisions every hour of every day. How do you fix this? How should I document that? Should I interview this candidate? In my boss' words (and he said it best), "it is 100% okay to make a decision and stand behind it." Remember, you were hired for this role in particular, which means someone somewhere chose YOU to do this role. They trust you to make the right decision. It might not always be the best decision, or the most efficient, or the most diversified, or whatever else our decisions need to account for these days. Trust your gut more than you normally would initially. As a newbie your instincts will most likely guide you better than your newly established management decision-making process (if you've even gotten far enough in your role yet to have that conceptualized). But let the greatest takeaway from this be: Not making a decision is making a decision. And that, I can tell you, is the wrong decision to make.

Final Decision: Any decision will suffice.        

Mistake Made #2: Allocating Resources in the Wrong Places

I made the mistake of focusing all (not just some) of my energy and resources within my first 30 business days on administrative stuff. Which, let's be honest, is easy to do as a new manager. But I completely ignored the fact that some of my team members could use some guidance in further refining their skillset and building relationships with teams we work closely with. Part of adopting a new team is taking the time to learn who they are and what their skillsets are (or lack thereof). Nobody is perfect, and we're all going to be stronger in certain areas over others. But knowing my team enough to identify areas that they excel in and need improvement in was something I overlooked from the get-go. I figured, meh, they are good to go as is, right? Only until I started onboarding new folks did I realize that I should probably circle back with the existing folks to see what I can offer them - whether it be additional resources, knowledge, or tips/tricks to help them become better. Not only did I teach them new things, but I learned so much about my team I didn't know previously. Hidden skillsets that could be extremely valuable for our team in the long run. My course correction for this mistake was setting out to build out an entire onboarding program as a result so that my new hires going forward didn't get stuck in this position. And so that I would remember to take the time to get to know my team members and what they are truly capable of - we all can get lost in the flutter of administrative work.

I was asked by someone entering a new management role to give some advice on what to expect. Since I just went through these first 100 business days, it was a great opportunity to reflect! I put together the following to highlight my first 100 business days as a new manager at Axon and the lesson's I learned (derived from mistakes I've made).