You’ve just been hired as the new manager! You’re very excited to start your new role, and you want to get off to a strong start.
Perhaps this is a promotion, or maybe you are completely new to the organization. Either way, you want to make a great first impression in your new manager role.
The first 30 days are an exciting time. You’ll be busy learning the role, building relationships, and connecting with your staff. This article will show you how to balance your priorities to achieve both short and long term success. Let’s get started.
Understand the Business
The first thing you’ll need to do is study up on how the business works. You’ve been given stewardship over organizational resources, and your job is to use those resources wisely to help drive the organization forward. To do this, you need to understand the big picture and how your team fits in.
1. Read the Strategic Plan
Consider what goals you can set for yourself and with your team that help fulfill the objectives of the organization. Be sure to take notes, and write down questions for your own one-on-ones with your boss
2. Read the Mission and Vision Statement
Consider what values, expectations and practices you can implement and embody to contribute to the organization’s mission and vision.
3. Read Recent Meeting Minutes
Get a sense of what your team has been working on, what initiatives are on the go and how you can contribute. Take notes, and connect with others to offer your help where possible.
4. End-of-Week Report to your boss
Compile a weekly 1-page report in bulleted point-form that explains what you’ve accomplished through the week and what you intend to accomplish the following week. This helps show that you are on track and allows your boss to provide feedback (eg “Item #3 is not a priority at this point, instead focus on x”). These reports are also a good personal accountability tool; by declaring what you are up to, you are pretty much forced to follow-through. If your boss has different expectations around reporting, follow them; if not, do this proactively.
Build Relationships with Your Counterparts, Colleagues and Support Staff
You can’t win in a competitive environment by working in a silo, no matter how much work you produce. To be competitive, you need to work together in total sync with your counterparts, colleagues and other business units. By forming connections with other people and areas early-on, you’ll gain a better grasp on the big picture, benefit from advice and guidance, and form valuable bonds for when you need help with a project or initiative.
1. Contact Others in Your Organization and Introduce Yourself
Proactively connect with your counterparts and support staff (eg HR advisers, inventory specialists, admin people, etc). In-person is best for building relationships, but phone or email is better than nothing. A good way to end a chat is with something like “it was very nice getting to know you, I look forward to working together. Can you think of anyone else I should connect with?”
2. Participate in Social Initiatives
Sometimes workplaces will advertise activities like ‘Wednesday Walking Groups’, ‘Tuesday Tea in the Lunchroom’, etc. Try and participate in these when possible.
3. Meet for Coffee With Your Counterparts and Close Colleagues
Coffee works great because it’s informal, you can chat, and the person with whom you are meeting was probably going to get coffee anyways. I don’t like going for lunch because I find it to be a bit formal, it can be cost-prohibitive and time-consuming, and it’s tough to chat while you are eating.
Get to Know Your Employees
A major part of the manager role is to interpret and communicate the vision, mission, goals and priorities of the organization to staff, and hold them accountable to the expectations of their respective roles. Before you can hold your staff accountable to any sort of expectations, you need to ensure that they are capable of meeting those expectations. To do this, you need to build trust and mutual understanding with each individual on your team.
1. Month-End Review
Review performance from the past month. Did the employee meet their personal goals? Did they meet expectations? Be sure to acknowledge wins, whatever they may be. Ask questions like “what do you think you did well this past month?” After you’ve recapped the month that just passed, have your employee sets goals for the following month. Ask them questions like “what are your goals for this month?”, “why did you choose those goals?”, “What changes to your behaviour or additional activities will you do to achieve them?”. Paraphrase and repeat back to them to ensure that there is a mutual understanding of the commitments that your employee has made. Be sure to follow up on these regularly (or risk becoming a ‘paper tiger’). Don’t be afraid to negotiate if your employee is too conservative with their goals. Ask them why they chose those goals and consider pushing for more if you think they can do better.
2. Weekly 1-on-1’s
These are 30 minute weekly meetings that help build trust and understanding between you and your employee. Since supporting and managing employees is the most important part of a manager’s job, one-on-one’s are one of the most important tools a manager has.
Don’t be surprised if your first few conversations are a bit awkward. The employee may feel a need to sell themselves ‘job interview style’. Try and put them at ease by going off-site for a walk or a coffee, don’t take notes, and keep it light and personal. After a few meetings, things will become a lot more natural.
- 15 minutes for your employee. This is about building trust and developing a strong relationship with your employees. It’s a chance for them to talk about what they want to talk to you about.
- 15 minutes for you. This is your chance to ask for project status updates, follow-up on topics from the previous week, etc.
In my experience, the topics will vary wildly. Some folks will talk about their personal lives and some will talk about work. The time is primarily for them, so whatever they bring is good. Resist the urge to impose expectations, otherwise, the time becomes about you.
Click here for the complete manager’s guide to 1-on-1 meetings.
3. Review HR Files
You need to familiarize yourself with your employees’ standing within the organization (eg documented behavioural, performance or attendance issues). You do this because it’s important to know if there are any ongoing issues that could cause health or safety risks.
However, avoid pre-judging their ability to perform the job satisfactorily. I’ve managed many employees who languished under one leader and thrived under another. Give them a chance for a fresh start with you.
Get to Know Your Team
Understanding the existing culture and dynamics of your team will help you to build and strengthen the team as a unit going forward.
1. Review Governing Documents
Start by reviewing your team’s governing documents. For instance, familiarize yourself with the team’s Vision and Mission. Work units often make their own governing documents that support the overall vision and mission of the organization, but are personalized to reflect the more acute responsibilities, goals and values of that specific business unit.
Your team may not have anything like this, or they may have them but haven’t committed to them. If this is the case, then work together as a team to develop (or re-develop) your own Vision and Mission. This is not a ‘first 30 days’ activity — do this after you’ve gotten well-established in your role.
2. Introductory Staff Meeting
This first meeting is about introducing yourself to the team, getting to know one another, and introducing the team to your vision.
Begin the meeting with a round-table of introductions. Start with yourself, this will help people feel a little more comfortable. Give your name, the last job you had before this one, and why you’re excited to be there. Include an ice-breaker question that is fun but not too personal (some folks are private) — I like “what’s something about yourself that your peers might not know?” and “what’s your hidden talent?”.
Don’t make a spectacle of your personal introduction (eg your educational background, career trajectory, strengths, etc). Take the same amount of time you give to each of your employees — this will signal that you are a team-player who is here in the trenches with them.
After the round-table, share your vision for the coming months and be open about your priorities. The transition to a new manager can be a very confusing time full of contradictions (eg “the last manager told us to do it this way”). If you can be clear about what is most important to you, it will make it easier for them to do their jobs with confidence.
When discussing your vision, stick to the macro-level ‘big picture’. Avoid getting into anything too specific. A good example would be something like ‘establish ourselves as the top store in the region for B2B sales’, ‘launch X new program’ or ‘migrate to X new business model’.
3. Weekly Staff Meetings
Schedule weekly meetings with your team. I suggest keeping them between 1–2 hours or less — any longer and people will struggle to stay engaged.
Ahead of the meeting, solicit agenda items from the team. They’ll often share great items regarding front-line problems that you can solve as a group. I suggest asking for these a day or two ahead of the meeting to give people time to think about it. After you’ve done this consistently for a few weeks, staff will start to refrain from bringing these problems to you, and will instead bring them to the staff meeting where you can leverage the knowledge and experience of your whole team to work through them (which is also a powerful team-building activity).
Be sure to send the agenda out early so that your employees have a chance to review it. If you can send it out the day prior, that’s great. If that’s not possible, at least get it out an hour ahead of time. Set the expectation that they review it ahead of the meeting — this will ensure that they are able to contribute meaningfully to the topics.
Your agenda should include:
- Operational updates. Any informational updates that don’t require much discussion. Do give your employees the opportunity to ask questions though.
- Topics for Discussion. These are meatier topics and you should always give ample time to work through them (at least 10 or 15 minutes). It’s better to do a great job on a few things than to do a terrible job on many things. Choose the topics that are the highest priority, and leave the others for the following week.
- Round-table Discussion. Go around the meeting table and have each employee bring up any questions or updates that they’d like to share (eg projects they are working on, a strange situation they ran into, or advice on how to deal with a specific scenario). Be sure to schedule a reasonable amount of time for this. If you don’t give enough time to get through everyone. This is a time where your employees behave like a team, show vulnerability to one another, and work through the things that are important to them.
Check out the full guide to planning and chairing an effective team meeting.
Make a Schedule
Successfully taking responsibility for a team requires the right motives and priorities, but whether you succeed or fail will depend on how consistently you follow through — this means you should make good use of your calendar! Here are the things I would schedule into my calendar for the first 30 days:
Week 1
- Introductory Team Meeting: Wednesday, 1 hour
- Weekly One-on-Ones: Throughout the week, 30 minutes each (should begin after you’ve had the introductory staff meeting)
- End of Week Report: Submit by EOD Friday
- Reach out to colleagues and support staff to introduce yourself, and schedule coffee-dates if possible: throughout the week
- Review governing documents: Monday or Tuesday (before the Introductory Team Meeting)
- Read through the Strategic Plan: Monday or Tuesday (this may be homework)
Week 2
- Weekly Staff Meeting: Wednesday, 1 hour
- Weekly One-on-Ones: Throughout the week, 30 minutes each
- End of Week Report: Submit by EOD Friday
- Reach out to colleagues and support staff to introduce yourself, and schedule coffee-dates if possible: throughout the week
- Review HR files: Throughout the week
Week 3
- Weekly Staff Meeting: Wednesday, 1 hour
- Weekly One-on-Ones: Throughout the week, 30 minutes each
- Reach out to colleagues and support staff to introduce yourself, and schedule coffee-dates if possible: throughout the week
- See if there are any social activities you can participate in: anytime
Week 4
- Weekly Staff Meeting: Wednesday, 1 hour
- End of Month Review: Throughout the week, 30 minutes each
- End of Week Report: Submit by EOD Friday
- Reach out to colleagues and support staff to introduce yourself, and schedule coffee-dates if possible: throughout the week
Through your first 30 days, you’ll be spending a lot of time training, reading, participating in meetings, talking to people, and generally getting acclimated to your new role. Don’t think that these items will be the only thing in your calendar, I’m sure your schedule will fill up!
Final Thoughts
This article offers a solid framework that has worked well for myself and many others across many different work environments. However, you need to be flexible and adopt the practices and priorities laid out by your organization. Don’t assume you know better; do offer counter-arguments derived from your knowledge, skills and abilities — they hired you for them; regardless, you need to recognize that you are the new person, and you have a lot to learn from those around you.
The first 30 days are a time where you need to be a sponge. Meet everyone there is to meet, listen, and learn. As Dr. Steven Covey says, “seek first to understand, then to be understood”.
Take this as a guideline, because your employer may have something completely different in mind. Be flexible, and of course, always follow the direction of your supervisor.
Thanks for reading!
