Are you thinking about applying for a role in management in the near future? Or do you have a role that you are going to be starting very soon? Managing a team of individuals isn’t always easy, especially when you don’t have much experience doing this kind of thing. A manager needs to be firm but understanding and needs to be a natural born leader at the same time.
The good news is that there are some ways that you can prepare yourself for your new management role. In this article, we have put together some tips to help you get prepared in advance. This will include everything from deciding your style and trying out some diversity training. Keep reading if you are interested in getting some of this advice.
Consider Your Style
Every manager leads a team in a different way but there are some distinct styles that can be easily categorised in this type of role. Will you be a manager that stays firm and distant from their team? Or will you be a member of the team who works with them and encourages them to communicate? There are so many different routes that you can take, and it is entirely down to what your own personality is like.
If you want to be prepared for your new role as manager, we suggest that you consider your style in advance. Think about how you want to portray yourself and consider the fact that being a manager with an open door policy might work better in the long run. Once you know how you are going to manage your team, you can be confident with the role.
Try Diversity Training
In 2019, diversity and inclusion strategy methods in the workplace are very common, so you need to understand how to approach this area and make sure that you are treating everyone equally. If you don’t know much about diversity or inclusion and how other cultures operate then you might need to think about taking on some training in order to be the best manager that you can be.
Diversity training is actually easier to come across than you might think, and you can easily find courses online. Simply take one of these courses and you will be able to ensure that you treat everyone as they should be treated and that you are respected as a manager. This is a great way to make sure that you are prepared as a manager.
Shadow Another Manager
Do you know another manager that is good at their job? Perhaps you are going to be moving out of a team where you had a great manager and you want to match the way in which they manage. A good way to achieve this is to ask them if you can shadow them on a day-to-day basis and learn how they interact with their team and how they keep them motivated.
If you can find a manager that is willing to let you shadow them then you will find that you can learn a lot about how to be a manager. This is a great way of preparing yourself for your new role and ensuring that you are up to the job. Ask around your office or your friends and see if there is anyone who could help you out with this kind of thing.
Meet The Team
Another great way of preparing yourself for a management role is to meet the team before you get started. This will entirely depend on the size of the team that you are going to be managing but it can actually be a very effective way of learning how they operate. There is a chance that this team has been working together for a while now and they understand how to work with each other. This is why you should get to know them and get some tips from inside the team before you get started.
A good way to achieve this is to organise a chat with each member of the team before you get started or at some point in your first week. It doesn’t have to be a scary chat, simply take them into your office or out for coffee and get to know a bit about them and what they do in the team. This will make them more open to your leadership and show that you care about the team. Consider this if you want to prepare for your new role as a manager.
Be Confident
Our final tip for those who want to prepare for a new management role is to try to be as confident as possible. You want to show these people that you are a good leader and any sort of hesitation from you or a sign of weakness could backfire. You need to believe in your ability as a manager – you were chosen for this role for a reason and so you are definitely good enough to manage this team.
Take some time to prepare yourself for the role. Write out a list of the things that you want to achieve with your team and on a personal level while you are in this particular role. This way, you can set yourself some goals and measure your success. Measuring success is very important in many different kinds of businesses so why not do this on a personal level? This is a great way of preparing and it will help you to be more confident in your ability as a manager. Make sure to try out improving your own confidence in yourself and you will find that your first day goes a lot more smoothly when it comes around.
Final Verdict
Becoming a manager for the first time isn’t a stress-free process. All of a sudden you are responsible for an entire team of people and you need to be ready to tackle any kind of problem as soon as it arises. For this reason, you need to make sure that you are preparing as much as possible before you start on your first day. Luckily, there are many online resources such as
Consider meeting up with your new team before you take on your role in order to figure out how they work and who they are as people. Try to get in touch with their previous manager to see if they have any advice on how you can manage the team more effectively. Remember that you were once in a team with a manager and consider how you would feel if they didn’t spend time getting to know you. You should also try to establish your managing style from the beginning and ensure that you show what kind of manager you are going to be.
Make sure to follow all of the advice that we have given you in this article if you want to make sure that you are prepared for your first day as a manager in your new office. We hope that you get into the swing of things in no time at all and that you become one of the best managers that you can find.
