Five Things You Owe Your Employees - And Five You Don't

Dear Liz,

I read your columns religiously. I really need your advice now, because I've just been promoted to my first supervisor job. I was in inside sales for my company for the past two years.

I was always one of the top three inside salespeople every quarter, and two months ago I talked to my manager about being promoted to outside sales.

There weren't any outside sales openings coming up, so my boss suggested that I move into an inside sales management job instead. Our last manager took a Marketing job in the company so her job was vacant. I interviewed for the inside sales manager job and got it! I'm excited. My 28th birthday was last week.

I really like the job so far. I still want to get into a sales territory one day, but my manager and my VP both told me that this leadership experience will help me in the long run.

Now for my question. I am not really sure of my job description. I have an office and my team members sit in a bull pen area just outside. I look at the inbound and outbound call reports and coach the inside sales reps when they need something.

I don't have a specific plan for the department and I haven't gotten much guidance so far. I don't want to be needy. I've been holding a weekly staff meeting and people like that. Apart from that, what should I be focusing on as a new leader?

I especially want to know, what is my responsibility to my team members? What are they expecting from me, and what do I owe them? Thanks in advance for your help Liz!

Yours,

Roger

Dear Roger,

Congratulations on your promotion! I'm impressed with your maturity and seriousness about your role and your career. I agree 100% with your managers' view that your stint in inside sales management will be a huge asset to you not just in your outside sales role but throughout your career.

As for your job description, this is a great opportunity for you to get altitude on your role and design your own job description, since your company doesn't seem to have one already. That's not a bad thing!

What do YOU believe the purpose of your role is? Write your thoughts on paper and share them with a friend you trust and look up to.

You are in your job to make sure that the inside sales reps have the information, tools, and training they need to do their jobs well. There is a production aspect to your role, in that you are almost certainly expected to hit a certain dollar volume of sales every week and month.

Here is a great chance to get altitude. What would move that monthly sales number up? Are there marketing tools that would help your team, or training on upselling, or something else? This is your golden opportunity to pitch your ideas to your leaders as you lay out your first-year management plan with them.

You could create a short presentation that spells out your management road map including your 2015 vision for the team and for yourself, the goals you plan to hit and an explanation of the steps you plan to take to hit your goals.

You asked about obligations to your team. Here are five things you owe your team members, and five more things you don't:

FIVE THINGS YOU OWE YOUR EMPLOYEES

A Safe Place to Work

The first thing your organization owes its employees is their physical safety at work. Since you are their first-line supervisor, it's your responsibility to make sure that the work area is well lit, ergonomically appropriate and free of any safety hazards.

We tend to take workplace safety for granted, and we shouldn't!

The other kind of safety is emotional safety.

The folks on your team must feel safe from bullying or hostility from people in or outside your department, including customers. To make sure you hear about and jump on any problem that might arise, ask your teammates every day "How are you doing? Anything I can help you with?" and listen to their answers!

Everyone deserves respect at work. Your co-workers deserve to be treated as adults, and with dignity. At your next weekly staff meeting, why not ask your teammates "What do respect and dignity mean to you?" That will start a lively and Team Mojo-building conversation!

The Tools, Information and Latitude To Do Their Jobs

You know how I feel about Godzilla, the mascot for pointless bureaucracy. Godzilla is the enemy of team spirit and employee motivation. A big part of your job is to make sure your employees know everything they need to know (about product changes, releases and inventory issues, e.g.) and to improve or remove bureaucratic processes that slow them down.

If they need tools, make sure they get them. You are their advocate. Your job is to let higher-ups see how equipping your teammates to do their jobs unimpeded is a win for the company, too.

You owe your employees the latitude to do their jobs without having to stop and fill out forms or get approvals every three seconds. You trust them, right? Trust them to do the right thing, and watch them respond by beating all their targets!

You are the champion for inside-sales effectiveness now. You're driving a righteous managerial bulldozer now, and you're going to use it to move boulders out of your teammates' way!

The Truth

You owe your teammates the truth about changes at work that could affect them.

Everybody wants visibility, and the more clearly your team members can see the road ahead of them at work, the more focused they can be. Being a supervisor doesn't mean keeping secrets.

Undoubtedly there will be discussions at the manager level that aren't initially appropriate for general discussion. It's up to you to let your higher-ups know when it's time to make that information public.

Your Attention

A manager's most important role is coach to his or her employees. Keep your door open as much as you can, and check in with your teammates whenever you have a moment.

When there are disturbances in the Force, you want to know about them immediately so you can figure out what's up and get them resolved.

The Authentic You

The last thing you owe your team members is for them to deal with the real Roger, the Roger they always knew, and not a fake version of Roger who looks like you but spouts supervisory B.S.

You owe it to them and to yourself to tell the truth, especially about sticky human topics like pay, conflict and the intermittent frustrations your employees will inevitably experience (as will you)!

We can solve any problem as long as we talk openly about it and stay human.

FIVE THINGS YOU DON'T OWE YOUR EMPLOYEES

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