First Time Manager

My story began four years ago when I arrived in the US. At that time, my step-sister Tanya worked for Sodexo Live!, a food and beverage corporation serving entertainment venues in North America and the UK. One of Sodexo Live! branches is located at the Indianapolis Zoo. She contacted her manager, and he offered to take me into the team. When I first started work for Sodexo Live! it was as a cashier which proved to be an excellent experience and my first real job.

After I got some experience with the cash register and managed to build customer relationships, I started to do a more active role as a runner. This is a position that requires you to supply ice cream, drinks, and snacks to all food locations around the Zoo. When my supervisor left her position nine months later, one of my co-workers Cristina, and I were promoted as new supervisors. I worked in this position for three years, and here are the lessons I learned.

Managing People Is Really?Scary

For the first few weeks, I was way out of my comfort zone. It was challenging to tell people what to do. If you had experience in managing people, you would’ve probably felt the same way as I did. Decision-making during these first weeks was not my strongest trait, which resulted in a lot of mistakes and wasted resources. The turning point for me, when I found my voice as a manager, was during a hot weekend in the summer when we had around 10 000 visitors at the Zoo. At the time I had a team of 4 runners from Thailand. I clearly remember that I was overwhelmed because I had to be at 3 locations at once. I realized that if I do not delegate some of the tasks to my team members, we will all fail. Since that moment, I did not feel any discomfort about management, because I clearly understood the purpose of supervising and ensuring smooth teamwork.

You Are Responsible. Always.

I’ve always known that taking responsibility is an important skill. However, I did not know if I was ready to do it. After a few mistakes and a few misguided decisions, I realized that top management will always hold me responsible. Regardless of whether I was there, whether I knew or didn’t know about it or whether it was or wasn’t my fault. If you are a supervisor, you are directly responsible for every action of your team members. Ultimately, all mistakes committed by your team members reflect on you. Therefore you need to make sure your decisions are efficient, and everyone understands what you want from them and why.

You Are an Example of Customer?Service.

I learned this lesson from Thomas Roberts, a teacher in my management class. Your people will treat your customers the same way as you treat them. If you are yelling at them and making them feel bad without any reason, do not expect them to greet your customers with a smile. In psychology, this term is called “projection”. According to psychologydiscussion.net:

“A special form of projection is called displacement or transference. For example, a student nurse, who has been scolded by the tutor-sister for the negligence of duty, may feel very angry about it, but instead of showing her anger on the tutor-sister, she may show her aggressive feelings on a patient who had done nothing to hurt her feelings.”

First and foremost, management is about building relationships between people. Projection is ubiquitous in any kind of society. As a manager, you have to understand this principle, and always control your negative emotions even if there is a reason to be angry. Remember that you are an example of customer service and people will model their behavior based on yours.

Besides a considerable amount of responsibility and stress managing people is an exciting activity. I hugely recommend to everyone to pick it as a major in college. Because management is not only about your workplace. It is also about your family, the people around you, and your self-discipline. During the course “Manager of digital projects,” I heard an excellent description of what management is:

Management is easy! It’s like riding a bike.

And the bike is on fire! And everything is on fire!

Because you are in HELL!