Lessons learned the hard way as a new manager

Early on in my career, I found myself leading a large team with very little experience or understanding around how to do it. We were facing a challenge within the organization: we had been overly ambitious and there were simply not enough hours in the day to meet the goals we had set out for ourselves by the end of the year. 

Upon realizing the problem, I immediately jumped into action. I locked myself in my office, calculated the number of hours needed to achieve the goals we had originally set and mapped out a new work schedule for staff that would allow us to get it done. Staff would work increased hours and two Saturdays a month for the next two months and we’d be good to go. I ran the plan by a few other managers to make sure I had the math correct, checked the budget to ensure that I had some money available to buy breakfast for new Saturday work days, and called a meeting to announce the plan. You may see where this is going…

With dread and butterflies in my stomach, I made the announcement and immediate outrage ensued. Staff were already feeling burnt out, underpaid and undervalued. How could I be asking them to sacrifice their evenings and weekends because of a mistake that had nothing to do with them? And there was no amount of free breakfast that could make this plan sit better. It seems obvious now that my approach was all wrong, but at the time I honestly had not been able to come up with any alternative options. My management style has come a long way since then, but this situation continues to serve as a pivotal moment in my career, and as terrible as it was at the time, I am grateful that it happened. 

Here are the lessons I learned from this experience:

Don’t be afraid of pulling your staff into a problem before you have the solution: as a new manager with severe imposter syndrome, I was under the impression that I needed to present the appearance to my staff that I had all of the answers. The idea of telling a whole team that I had messed up in our calculations around goals and didn’t know what I was going to do about it was not anywhere in my realm of possibilities. In my efforts to clean up this mess that I made, however, I learned that oftentimes staff are just as invested in the problem as you are and they are even more invested if they are respected and engaged around how to solve it. I also learned that far more respect can be gained from admitting that there is a problem, even if the solution is not yet clear, than it can be from trying to cover up the problem with the wrong solution.

Strong employees don’t become strong managers overnight: I was used to being successful at work. I had moved up quickly within this organization because I worked hard and demonstrated strong results. In this situation, I was confronted with a problem that I had never encountered before and, as much as I tried to convince myself differently, had no idea how to solve. I learned that the skills required to be a high functioning member of a team are often very different skills than those needed to lead said team. And at the same time, very little time and resources go into developing that skill set that managers need to be successful. Oftentimes, organizations look at training for supervisors as a “nice to have”, but I see it as essential. Think about all the implications of what my mistake likely led to: decreased staff morale, burnout, potential turnover - what would have happened if I had had the training, tools and coaching at my disposal to navigate through this challenge? Might it have turned out differently?

Becoming a better leader means owning your mistakes: at the time, there was a huge part of me that wanted to put this situation behind me and never think about it again. However what I ended up doing (after a lot of crying to loved ones) was the complete opposite. I took it as fuel to become the leader that I wanted to be. I admitted I had gone about it the wrong way, tried to change course and clean up the immediate mess as best I could, and started researching management programs to enroll in in the Fall. To this day, I use this story proudly in almost all of my interviews. More importantly than that, I have transformed my leadership style into one that centers staff as people first, encourages collaborative decision-making, and fosters transparency - the complete opposite of the values I exhibited when initially faced with this challenge. 

At ezmay consulting, we can help you avoid some of the common pitfalls I encountered as a new manager by supporting organizations and leaders to anticipate challenges that may arise as new changes are being implemented, and by offering coaching and staff development to support you through the hard decisions that come with those decisions. Please reach out if any of this resonates with you!

~Miriam