Top Rookie Manager Mistakes (That Make You Look Like a Jerk)
Congratulations! You just received
your first big promotion. Woo hoo!! Chances are you’re about to make one of
these rookie mistakes:
Saying how troubled the business is
that you’ve just taken over. That
way, if your results are poor, it’s not your fault, because you inherited a
dog. And if the results are good, you’ve been successful in the face of
almost-impossible circumstances. People see through this.
Talking badly about people who quit.
Like talking badly about the
business you’ve just taken over, this is another transparent means to manage
your ego. But this only serves to make your team wonder what you might say
about them one day. And while being gracious to departing colleagues might seem
obvious, you’d be amazed how often “Well, I was just about to fire him anyway”
is said, even at the most senior levels.
Immediately replacing the old team
with “your” team, and particularly a team that looks
and sounds a lot like you. There’s comfort in choosing everyone on your team,
all of whom then “owe” you for their jobs. But the best business strategies can
emerge out of discomfort, and that can mean having people on your team whom you
may not particularly want to have to your home for dinner.
Getting detached from the clients. Customers and clients are messy. It can be very easy to
spend more time away from them. PowerPoint slides and spreadsheets deliver much
crisper answers than what you can hear from an actual person.
“Taking the hill” on your strategy
without first getting buy-in from the team.
The days of decreeing a strategy and then telling folks to execute on it are
fading in the rear-view mirror. And that’s a good thing, because a strategy
that doesn’t incorporate what your team and customers can tell you will almost
certainly be sub-optimal. I’ve seen more than one manager decree a
not-well-thought-out strategy and have his team essentially wait him out; after
all, the next boss will be announced soon.
Not recognizing that your words
carry more weight than they used to. Once
you’re in management, your words (and your mood and your tone) are subject to
interpretation by those who can be impacted by them. A poorly thought-out
comment or joke can cause significant unintended anxiety.
Being overly certain and acting like
you’re invulnerable. The right types of candor can go a
long way, such as recognizing the uncertainty in a business situation. Being
absolutely certain and then dead wrong can be fatal for a new manager. It’s ok
to let your team see you sweat a bit. That said, there are few highly
successful pessimistic leaders; optimism, even in the face of adversity, goes a
long way.
Continue to do your old job, because
you can do it better than the new guy. A
corollary of this is insisting that your replacement do your old job the way
you did it.
Getting too big for your britches. Years ago, when I joined Citi, one of my new partners
invited me to lunch. When we sat at the table, his assistant brought him a
stack of message and papers; he read them while I sat on ice. Then he barked at
her to get various people on the phone so that he could dole out some orders
while I twiddled my thumbs. Classic power play. I never liked him from that moment
on.
Talking more than listening. I’ve written before that I recall sitting through one
business review in which the senior person did literally 90%+ of the talking. I
wondered why he even bothered because he certainly didn’t learn anything….but
I’m sure he felt pretty important.
Not talking enough. Yes, I recognize that this flies in the face of what I
wrote above. But once you have settled on a strategy and communicated it
doesn’t mean that your team has taken it in. People typically have to hear it several
times, in several different forums, for it to sink in. I saw this first hand
from a friend of mine who worked as a senior banker at a competitor. Every once
in awhile, over a glass of wine, I used to pretend-casually ask her about her
firm’s latest strategic initiative or product roll-out; she typically had
little idea what I was talking about.
These are the rookie managers errors
I’ve observed most often. What did I miss?
Sallie Krawcheck is the Business
Leader of the professional woman’s network,
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