How to ace your first week as a manager

Your first week as a manager will likely be stressful and overwhelming. To give yourself the best start prepare thoroughly,  keep a cool head, don’t try to do too much and focus on accomplishing a few simple goals.

Suggested goals for your first week:

1. Complete any on-boarding activities and paperwork.
2. Make good first impressions.
3. Begin to get a lay of the land.
4. Bonus: help your manager and each team member in some small way.

That’s it! There’s no need to do more in Week 1.

How to accomplish these goals:

The first week is all about meeting with people and gathering information.

1. Introduce yourself to your team right away.

By doing this early in your first day, you’re sending your team members a powerful signal that they’re a top priority to you. Introduce yourself in a friendly and casual way, be interested in them as people, and tell them all that you’d like to meet with them individually over the coming week to learn more about them and their work, and hear their perspective on how things are going in your department.

2. Figure out which meetings to attend.

In your first day, ask your team and boss which meetings you should attend this week. Get them on your calendar. Take notes and try to soak up as much information and context as you can. Ask questions if you don’t understand something. People will be patient with you during your first few weeks.

3. Meet with your boss.

Start by trying to build personal rapport. Search for a common interest or some common ground. Then ask questions to learn more about your boss’s working style and expectations for the job. A few good questions to try are:

• “What are you expectations of me and my team?”
• “What are you hoping that I focus on, and why?”
• “How would you like me to work with you?”
• “What’s working well here?”
• “What are three things you would change if you could, and why?”
• “What questions do you have for me?”
• “Who else should I talk to?”

4. If you’re given an assignment, give it your best effort.

First impressions count for a lot so make sure you knock your first assignments out of the park, even if they are trivial.

5. Hold your first team meeting.

Your new team will probably be as nervous about getting a new manager as you are about becoming one. Bring everyone together to establish rapport, set people at ease and start the process of exploring ideas and expectations together. Be upfront and receptive. As James Burgess advises, “Get to know your team, and be sure to let them get to know you, too!” You will also learn a lot by observing how your team members interact as a group.

You could set the stage by introducing yourself again and letting the team know you’ll be meeting with each member individually, but that first you want everyone to have an honest conversation about questions and concerns. Listen carefully and actively, and at this stage in the game, avoid making any grand pronouncements or decisions.

What will your team want to know about you? In The New Boss, Peter Fischer identifies some questions you might hear, as well as the subtext that probably lies behind each:

• “How long are you staying?” Subtext: Is it worth adapting to you? And are you just going to use us as a springboard to the next step?
• “What do you do when you’re not at work?” Subtext: Are you human?
• “How did you end up in the position?” Subtext: Did you deserve this promotion or did you get it through connections?
• “What did you do before?” Subtext: Are you up to the task?
• “What do you plan to do next?” Subtext: What changes are you going to spring on us?

6. Meet with each team member individually.

Build rapport by finding a common interest or some common ground. Show interest in each team member as a person, without overdoing it (it’s important to also respect boundaries and avoid “interrogating” people). Then transition to a set of general questions to help you learn more about the general situation:

• “What are you expectations of me?”
• “What are you hoping that I focus on, and why?”
• “How do you like to communicate?”
• “What’s working well here?”
• “What are three things you would change if you could, and why?”
• “What questions do you have for me?”
• “Who else should I talk to?”

7. Set up recurring weekly 1-on-1s with each team member.

Schedule weekly recurring 30-minute meetings with each team member through the next six months. Explain that the 1-on-1s are not status updates, but rather open-ended conversations to talk about the week and any issues or opportunities that have come up, and to provide support with professional development.

8. Schedule meetings with other stakeholders.

Whom should you talk to? Schedule time with managers and leaders of other teams, customers, distributors, service providers and anyone else who seems even remotely relevant.

Tip 1: Don’t overlook those whose job titles aren’t particularly lofty. Sometimes administrative staff members and customer service representatives know more about the true state of things than anyone else. And their ideas can be just as good as a vice president’s or CEO’s!

What should you talk about? Don’t get too hung up on protocol, but do try to ask the same basic questions of everyone and listen for recurring themes as well as differing views. Take good notes. Here are some sample questions:

• “What’s working well here?”
• “What are three things you would change if you could, and why?”
• “What are you hoping that I focus on, and why?”
• “What questions do you have for me?”
• “Who else should I talk to?”

Tip 2: Hold these meetings in other people’s offices, if possible. Why? It’s a golden opportunity to learn more about the people you’ll be working with. Do they display family pictures, sports memorabilia, diplomas? Or are the walls bare? Is your supervisor’s desk messy or neat? Take it all in and use what you learn to build rapport (e.g., “I’m a Red Sox fan, too. Hope they can pull it together in time for the playoffs.”), as well as assess working styles and preferences.

9. Model the behavior you’d like to see.

Whether you realize it or not, your team will be both consciously and unconsciously following your example. What messages do you want to send? For example, if you want your team to work hard, you should work hard, too — and Week 1 isn’t too early to start.

At the same time, don’t overdo it. If you stay until 9 p.m. every night and send emails all weekend, your team members will feel pressure to do so, too. Be conscious of their personal needs and time.

10. Be aware of, but try not to worry about, any pressing projects or crises.

Get used to it: There’s almost always something to worry about when you’re a manager! Although it’s important to begin noticing what will demand your attention in the near future, don’t neglect the mission-critical step of using your newbie status to talk to others and get a lay of the land. If you put your head down too early, you’ll miss the big-picture view. And that’s the view that matters most when you’re a manager.

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