As companies grow organically, some team members gain more experience and are perceived as natural leaders. So when a supervisory position opens up, a top performing employee may seem an obvious match for it. Although career development and growth opportunities can lead to increased retention, team members who want to grow their careers may accept promotions before they are prepared to take on the responsibility of managing a team. When new managers don’t receive support from their managers and HR and adequate management training, their companies can see high turnover on teams whose managers feel unprepared to lead them, low retention rates for new managers who are susceptible to burnout, and losses in overall productivity.
Along with taking on the responsibilities of motivating a team, offering feedback, conducting performance reviews, interviewing new candidates, and reporting to their own managers, new managers are also responsible for the quality of the work produced by their teams. This means they sometimes need to have difficult conversations with their team members (sometimes, depending on the size of the organization and the size of the team, as frequently as every day).
New managers need to understand that such tough conversations are a necessary part of the job. Changing their perception of what a new manager is “supposed” to be can help take the pressure off in these situations: rather than seeing their role as manager and seeing team members as direct reports, new managers can instead see themselves as managing not people but a function (with people as part of that function). In that capacity, the manager’s job is to support their team members’ growth in their own roles, in part through mentoring and coaching—which include having difficult conversations.
A few guidelines can guide new managers through most difficult conversations:
• Assess the situation and decide whether or not it requires immediate action.
• Be sensitive: choose a private place to have personal conversations.
• Take the group approach: discuss problems and concerns in group meetings so that no one feels singled out.
• Be helpful: dig deep to determine the cause of the behavior.
Each manager is a unique individual, of course. But all good managers share one important trait: excellent communication skills. Therefore, management training should cover continuous performance management, conflict resolution, leadership, scenario planning, and other skills and knowledge that are key for strong communicators.
By promoting team members into management positions, the organization recognizes those individuals’ potential. Potential alone isn’t enough, though. The appropriate training and support are essential to helping them excel in their new roles.
