What to expect when you're a new manager

The feeling of being promoted is absolutely awesome, but how do you know what to expect when you’re a new manager?

5 signs you’re being primed for promotion

You’re an individual contributor who is an aspiring leader and you are absolutely crushing it. You’re looking for promotion and want to be sure that you don’t miss the signs that it might be happening soon. A managerial role is just around the corner for you – are you ready?

How can you tell if you’re being primed for management?

There are a few signs that promotion is coming, so look out for them carefully and be sure not to miss them!

Here are the main ones:

Are you seeing any of those signs?

If not don’t despair, there may be others such as:

• Your boss has invested in you significantly lately with a great training course or path to accreditation
• You get on really well with your team mates and they often look to you to make the first move or for direction

Get used to keeping your eyes and ears open for the signs.

Take every opportunity you can to practice and showcase your leadership skills through your ordinary every day work.

How do I do that you ask?

‘Lead Through Influence’

It’s great practice for when you step into a people management role, to have already been behaving like a leader. Better still to be noticed for your leadership skills.

This is how you can stand out from all the rest!

“Most people think that you need to be promoted to start demonstrating leadership skills, they’re wrong.”

You can start now, in fact you might already be leading through influence…

Start with self-awareness

Self-awareness is one of the most difficult things to master. Even the most skilled among us aren’t fully self-aware all the time. It is really something that you need to work at. It’s a muscle that requires workout, if you don’t use it often enough, it gets weaker.

Why? It’s useful to know when you’re leading through influence so that you can advocate for yourself and explain this to your leaders.

After that, lead through influence by focusing on these five areas:

Make sure you talk about it

Don’t make the assumption that everyone around you will notice what you’re doing. You need to talk about it because no-one else will do it for you.

On the flipside – avoid being annoying and blatantly self-promoting. This type of behaviour won’t go down well with your team mates (whom you may be managing in the future) and it devalues your achievements.

Try casually dropping it into conversation during your one to ones, doing it in private with your manager is one way of being subtle.

Better still put it on your personal development plan, so you’re required to talk about it on a regular basis.

A powerful demonstration is to mention it when you are talking about an achievement. Explain how you made it happen, be clear that your leadership skills are what made this achievement possible.

Learn how to spot the signs you're about to be promoted, how to lead through influence before promotion, and what to expect when you're a new manager.

So now let’s assume you’re about to be promoted

Let’s go through what to expect when you’re a new manager:

Higher Expectations

The moment you are promoted you will notice that leaders have higher expectations of you. You will be given more autonomy, you will have more influence, the balance of power will have shifted for you, and it all leads to higher expectations. You will be required to take care of things yourself and be held accountable for the levels of success you do or don’t reach.

Decision Maker

Calling the shots always seems easy from the outside looking in, but when you’re actually doing it you might feel a bit of a weight on your shoulders. Developing a really strong decision making process for yourself will help you get through the big scary ones.

Learning Curve

Many people are promoted into leadership because they are strong individual contributors. As you probably know already a completely different skillset is needed for managing people. It can be complicated and unpredictable and this isn’t even taking into account all those performance reviews and extra admin you’ll need to manage.

Comfort Zone

People management is sometimes a bit like spinning a bunch of plates. It’s quite a lot of work to keep in touch with each of your plates to make sure they’re still okay and still spinning. If you notice one starting to wobble you’ll need to drop things and go and put some effort in with the wobbly one before it falls. Sometimes several of your plates will become wobbly at the same time, and while all of this is happening your own work doesn’t go away. Don’t despair – it gets easier over time, but for a while you might feel a bit out of your depth.

“Being promoted into a leadership role is your practical training for getting to the top”

Building an incredible team spirit with your people and winning together with them is, for many people, one of those mountain top feelings. The reason why it feels SO GOOD is because it’s just not that easy.

There is a myth circulating that in order to be a great leader you have to be a natural. I’m here to bust that myth because it’s simply not the case.

“You do not need to be a natural ‘people person’ to be one of the great leaders”

Anyone who wants to can be a great leader. You simply have to be committed, willing to learn, ready to try, not be afraid to fail, and do the best you can.

This sounds like a lot to handle on your own right?

It is – so to help new and aspiring managers I have set up an online community. Every week I post useful content such as infographics like the ones on this post, hour long free masterclasses where I bring in experts in their field, questions and answers, advice from experienced managers, and lots more.

I’m on a mission to create a new generation of amazing leaders so I am providing all of this for free and I would love for you to join us.

Managing people is hard when you’re all alone. With the right support it can be made so much easier. If you aspire to be known as a great leader, join us in the group now!

Free New Manager Guide

Download my free new manager guide: How To Relate To Your New Team Fast.

This free download takes you through some quick and simple exercises to help you bond with your new team members fast and set yourself up for success from day one.