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So you’ve just received a promotion and are now the manager of your first team. How do you feel? Excited? Apprehensive? A mixture of the two? Many managers starting their career are keen to ensure they do well in their new role. Yet there are many examples of new managers getting it horribly wrong.

The results of mis-management can be anything from demotivated and resentful staff to full blown industrial relationship issues. So what should you do to become a great manager? This article, based on the experiences of Spearheads top management trainers, answers two of the questions asked most frequently by Managers attending our Introduction to Management training course and details some of the do’s (and don’ts) for managing.

Newly promoted managers, unless they are fortunate to receive good management training, often struggle to find answers to the following two, commonly asked, questions: how do I make time to manage others as well as complete my own work; how do I maintain relationships with my team members but get them to do what I need them to do. We will look at these two questions in turn.

It is true to say that being a good manager is not easy. Trying to balance the various demands people – including your team – make on your time can be tricky. It is important to remember that when someone is new to a task it is not unusual for them to take a little longer than normal to get it done. After all, efficiency usually improves with experience. Moving into your new management role is no different. It will require dedicated hard work and you may find yourself working longer hours than you did before.

But beware! The newly promoted manager who boasts of working from the crack of dawn to midnight every day with never any time off is simply demonstrating that they cannot manage themselves let alone manage anyone else! Poor time management is probably the single biggest hallmark of managerial incompetence and bad managers routinely work excessively long hours. So to work effectively as a manager you must learn to prioritise your work and you must learn to pace yourself.

For managers, prioritisation starts with an assessment of what they need to do – and what they can delegate to the team. Do not fall into the trap of thinking you have to do everything yourself. Managers who are unwilling to delegate are bound to fail.

Having delegated effectively, the successful manager then distinguishes between the urgent and the important tasks; scheduling their discretionary time to ensure important tasks are progressed in a timely manner and don’t become a self-made crises. This means good managers set and stick to self-imposed, as well as other-imposed, deadlines.

Although planning and scheduling are an important component of managerial success, newly promoted managers should avoid becoming such “time management fanatics” that they end up wasting time by trying to micro-manage it. Remember the KIS principle!

One aspect of time management newly promoted managers can struggle with is avoiding procrastination, particularly in the area of making decisions. There are always plenty of reasons not to take a decision, reasons to wait for more information, more options, more opinions... But this type of procrastination not only wastes managerial time but also leads to missed opportunities. Successful managers display a consistent bias for action; after all, the only manager who never makes a mistake is the manager who doesn’t do anything! Get into the habit of making decisions in a timely manner; use decision making techniques (as covered in our management training courses) to help you, and if you find yourself procrastinating be honest with yourself about your reasons why then set yourself a deadline to solve those problems and make that decision you’ve been putting off.

The second area that managers can find particularly hard is making the change from being a team member to being the team manger. Newly promoted managers are often very anxious about making this transition, wanting to know how to gain the respect of their team whilst ensuring results are still achieved and targets met.

Some managers try to tackle the transition by becoming very autocratic and adopting a bossy, domineering style: “I’m the manager, so just do as I tell you…”. Other managers go the opposite way, “mothering” their team. However, if you treat your team members like children, then they will behave that way - which just means trouble.

Good managers know they must be direct and honest with their team members. If you see a problem, address it headlong then move on. If you don’t the problems won’t get resolved, they’ll simply get bigger… And don’t fall into the trap of trying to manage problems by creating more rules and imposing more procedures as this bureaucratic approach won’t necessarily solve the problem either. Remember, rules and procedures should exist to expedite business, not to ritualise it.

So how much distance should you create between the team and yourself? This is not a simply question to answer. Fellowship in the workplace is extremely important but if the manager tries to stay too close to the team problems of over-familiarity may occur. Conversely, if the manager is too distant then the team may feel unsupported. Keeping the balance is the hard bit, because situations are constantly changing - a useful question for new managers to ask is "In the present situation, how would I feel most comfortable if I were one of the team?"

Situations where it is more appropriate to emphasise the distance between yourself and the team include: when potentially unpopular or uncomfortable decisions have to be communicated, when taking disciplinary action, where over familiarity has been or is a problem, in situations of emergency or crisis where immediate reaction to commands is essential or where safety or avoidance of risk is paramount. Situations where more closeness is required include performance reviews, counselling and coaching

Finally, do make sure you are objectively assessing the needs of the situation and not simply making yourself feel more comfortable. Leadership can be lonely and it is natural for the newly promoted manager to want to use the team for their own emotional support. This can seriously backfire. So rather than depending totally on the team to fulfil your needs for fellowship, learn to also use interaction with people of the same or similar level to achieve this.

If you want to gain further guidance and develop your skills, view our introduction to management training course by clicking on the link.

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