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I'm starting at a new company soon, and whilst I've managed a team before, I've never entered the organisation as a manager -- I've always been promoted into management in the past, taking over a team of colleagues I already had a good working relationship with.  I'm confident in my ability to do the job, but I'm wondering about the steps I should be taking between walking in the front door on the first day through to "business as usual" operation.

I'm thinking of issues like introducing myself to the team, learning everyone's names, introducing the trinity, that sort of thing.  Should I have one huge multi-hour meeting with everyone and run through everything, or keep things very low key and take the "softly, softly" approach?  What have people found to be most effective when starting as a manager at a new job?

If this has been covered before, I'd be happy to take references to previous forum posts or podcasts and learn from those. I've found the podcasts I've listened to to be invaluable in improving my confidence and broadening my ideas of how to manage in my new role.

buhlerar's picture

Try these casts -- first one about taking on a new role

http://www.manager-tools.com/2008/03/the-first-rule-for-new-managers

And this series talks specifically about how to roll out the trinity (4 parts - this is link to part 1):

http://www.manager-tools.com/2008/08/rolling-out-the-manager-tools-trinity-part-1

 

mattpalmer's picture

 I've already got the "rolling out the trinity" series in the listening queue (along with everything else on the "Manager Tools Basics" page), but the "first rule for new managers" cast looks like the exact thing I need.  Headphones on...

mfculbert's picture

The first comment in John Lucht's book, Insight for the Journey is to fit in. Mike and Mark have commented and underscore how critically important this is.

Additional points, be patient, take tons of notes, build relationships as fast and you can and, if you are a disciple of David Allen's Getting Things Done, be aware that you will have a lot more new projects and actions while you master your new responsibilities. 

jkanderson's picture
Training Badge

I take some of my guidance from my father who worked for HP for 35 years.  In that time, he worked for so many different managers, including new graduates and consultants.  His experiences taught me that as a new manager, you will gain the loyalty of your team by showing respect for the practices the team has in place and asking the team members to contribute their knowledge, as a starting point for changes you may wish to make.  It sounds perhaps similar to your comment for going 'softly', but I think of it more as respect for the current experts.