New Manager, two questions.

Submitted by ehyde111 on Saturday June 23rd, 2007 5:14 pm
in

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Hello,
As a brief introduction, I'm a relatively new manager (1 1/2 years in current position), have 12 direct reports all of whom I had previously worked with under a different supervisor. I've been listening to the podcasts and have taken some great ideas from it. Two general questions I have that I was hoping for comments on before I proceed.

1. Implementing these practices (one-on-ones, structured staff meetings) will be an obvious change in from the way the dept was run under my and the previous managers supervision. Is there a good way to explain this to my staff?

2. I wish my director would work this way (we don't have regular staff or one on one meetings). How do I explain this to her without being insulting (for lack of a better word).

Thanks in advance for the input

Submitted by juliahhavener on Saturday June 23rd, 2007 6:40 pm

New Manager, two questions.

On 1: Use the email template from the website. Explain it as a way for you to improve YOUR communications and relationships. Don't worry about how the last supervisor did it. If someone wants to grouse about it, return to, "I know that it is different. I want to make sure I'm communicating with every member of the team as well as I can and I believe this tool will help." It's not negotiable if you do them - every team member gets an O3.

On 2: It's almost impossible to manage up the ladder. Typically, the best way to do it is to implement your changes. Show your improvements, and be ready to say HOW you accomplished it. You may be able to do something along the lines of 'I'm implementing these changes, I'm very excited about them.' If he shows interest, share where you got the information from!