After many hours of hard work, his employer promoted him to boss. For the first time in your life, you have several employees who report to you. Do you want to make your mark and take your career to the next level? But how to do it?
Like any new responsibility, being a boss implies a set of rules not pronounced. In fact, there are a few things about a manager’s job that you probably never noticed. The following five points are important to keep in mind.
1- You will be in the spotlight, so use wisdom
As a manager, you are either loved or hated, but you are never ignored. It can be an uncomfortable situation, even if one of your goals is to be more visible to company leaders.
When you’re in the spotlight, people are watching you and forming opinions about you. This means that they are reading your words, actions and gestures more closely than they were before.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. You don’t have to change your personality or be a martyr at work (in fact, that way can even hurt your performance).
However, you must recognize the impact of your new powers and see them as an opportunity to define your work culture.
2- You will have more information about your colleagues than you really need
You will also find that, by becoming the main source of complaints, you will hear things you never thought to hear. From reports of dramas in the workplace or even complaints against one of your co-workers.
You may also find that you will receive complaints about matters outside the office. Employees will come to you with your personal problems, from health to exhaustion.
As a boss, it’s not part of your job to solve all your employees’ problems. There may be times when it is appropriate for you to take care of the situation, but other times you need to direct them elsewhere.
The key is to understand how to handle the situation. You may have to use trial and error to get that insight, but be aware that the actions taken can have a broad impact on the company.
3- You will spend more time than you want in low performances
When you start managing people, you’ll know how to distinguish high-performing from low-performing employees.
If you’re not careful, you can spend a lot of your time in the past. That is why it is important to identify which problems are a matter of ability, skill or knowledge and whether it is something they can overcome. If you think they can’t change (and you’ve given them a lot of opportunities), then you should think hard about whether to keep them in your team. After all, the time you spend correcting these people’s mistakes is the time you don’t spend developing (and training) your high-performing employees.
4- You will be the designated trainer
The manager’s job is to translate the strategy into the daily actions of his team. It will consistently reinterpret the company’s strategy and objectives and explain the connection between the two.
No matter how many times you have repeated the company’s new priorities, there is always someone on your team who has not yet noticed and asks you to explain for the millionth time.
Unfortunately, this is one of the requirements for the job that you simply have to face. And just as people bring their personal problems to you, they also ask questions to which you may not know the answer (for example, questions about HR and benefits).
As a boss, you must have sufficient knowledge of company policy to answer these questions, but if it is something that transcends you, be sure to direct your questions to someone who knows the answer.
5- You may feel alone sometimes
Sometimes being a boss means keeping information that no one else can know that can isolate you.
This sometimes means being at odds with other officials when it comes to resource allocation. And, at times, you will face circumstances you never imagined you were in.
You may be tempted to share this information with your employees. That’s what I used to do, after all. However, as a manager, you know that it is sometimes in everyone’s interest to keep certain specific information confidential.
If you have to talk to someone about it, try to find an external mentor you trust. That way, you can maintain your composure at work without violating your duties as a boss.
When you are aware of these five points, you can have a plan for dealing with possible challenges before facing them. Just understand that there may be cases where you will not be able to get it right the first time.
