First time manager: what to do first
Your first months as a manager decide how the team sees you. You do not need all the answers. You need to listen, keep your promises and notice what is going on with each person.
Updated
The first week
- Meet each person alone. Ask what is going well, what is not, and what they want from a manager.
- Ask your own manager what success looks like for the team.
- Change nothing yet. Write down what you hear.
The first month
- Start a weekly or fortnightly one on one meeting with each person, and never cancel it twice in a row.
- Learn who does what, and who everyone goes to with questions.
- Fix one small thing the team asked for. It shows you listened.
Mistakes most new managers make
- Doing the work yourself because it is faster. It is faster today and slower every day after.
- Spending your time on whoever asks for it. The quiet people need you too.
- Waiting for problems to be raised. Many people never raise them.
- Praising only the work you saw. Ask who helped.
How to be a good manager, week to week
Most of the job is noticing. Who has too much on, who is stuck, who has gone quiet, who did good work nobody saw. Then one conversation at a time.
The signals behind this guide
- Are you giving one person less of your time?
One person gets much less of your time than the others.
- How to tell if someone on your team is blocked
Someone is stuck waiting on a teammate.
- How to tell if a team member is overloaded
Someone is working too much.
- When an employee goes quiet: what to look for
Someone is much quieter than usual.
More guides
- Why employees leave and the signs before they go
Why employees leave, the changes a manager can see before someone resigns, and how to start the conversation while there is still time.
- Quiet quitting: the signs, and what to do
What quiet quitting looks like on a team, how it differs from a quiet week, and how a manager can respond without blame.
- One on one questions to ask your team
One on one questions for every part of a 1:1 meeting: workload, the team, growth and you as their manager. Plus what to talk about, and a simple agenda.
- Employee recognition: how to thank good work
Employee recognition that costs nothing: how to notice the work that deserves thanks, how to say it so it lands, and ideas to make sure nobody is missed.
- Signs of burnout at work a manager can see
The signs of burnout at work a manager can see early are about the work: late nights, no breaks, no say. What to look for, what to say, what to change.
- Signs an employee is secretly struggling
The work changes that show someone may be struggling, why they hide it, and how a manager can ask in a way that gets an honest answer.
- How to tell if an employee is disengaged
What disengaged looks like day to day, how it differs from a bad week, and how a manager can find the reason and respond without blame.
- Bus factor: how to find it and raise it
Your bus factor is how many people could leave before work stops. How to find the one person your team relies on, and how to spread what they know.
- How to support an employee returning from leave
What to do before, on and after someone's first day back from leave, so they can catch up without being rushed or left out.
- Overwhelmed at work: how a manager can help
What to do when someone has too much on: how to find out what they are carrying, what to take away, and how to check that it worked.
- Employee onboarding: a 90-day plan
A practical plan for a new hire's first days and first 90 days: what to prepare, who they should meet, and what to check on each week.
- Performance review examples for managers
Performance review examples you can adapt for results, teamwork, growth and problems, a short template, and how to write a fair review from facts.
- Employee retention: how to keep your best people
What employee retention depends on, why good people leave, and the habits that keep them: fair workload, real growth and a manager who notices.
- Team health check: how to run one
How to run a team health check in half an hour: what to ask, how to get honest answers, what to do with the result, and what to watch between checks.
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