Yesterday you were drinking beer with them, and today you are their boss. 7 steps to avoid becoming a laughingstock in your new role

The transition from specialist status to manager status is not just a change of sign on the door, but a fundamental change of role that requires action. Yesterday you could discuss management's mistakes with colleagues over a glass of beer, and today you yourself have become the person your subordinates look to. Here are seven steps a new manager needs to take to avoid failing the mission.

Step 1. Officially enter the role

Your first task is to officially mark your new status. You are no longer "Sanych" or "Mikhalyich," you are the manager. Everyone should know about this change of roles: friends, former colleagues, the new team, and, of course, your immediate supervisor.

To do this, hold an introductory meeting with the team. This should be an official statement, made clearly, intelligibly, but friendly. Explain: "Guys, I used to be a salesperson, now I am the head of the sales department. I have a different job, different responsibilities, and new tasks."

Ideally, your direct supervisor should introduce you to the team. Make sure he talks about your merits, experience, and the reasons for your appointment. If he doesn't, put aside false modesty and do it yourself. Talk not about how cool you are, but about your real projects and achievements.

After this, hold one-on-one meetings with key employees, adjacent managers, and your own boss. Ask what exactly they expect from you in this position. At this moment, it is important to immediately show that you understand the basics of working with human resources and know how to build trusting relationships through direct communication.

You are a newcomer and may not know all the specifics. If you even ask the secretary at the reception what they expect from you as the head of the sales department, you can learn important things. For example, that the department does not pick up the phone for a long time, and clients are angry. If you solve this problem, you will become a real, firm leader for the secretary (and for others). Do not expect everyone to tremble before you just because of your position. Authority must be earned through real actions.

Step 2. Quantify your success

You need to understand quantitatively how the results of the unit are changing under your management. Often a new manager comes to a department where there are no metrics. If there are no solid figures, you won't be able to answer yourself whether you are doing your job successfully. And without that answer, you won't have internal confidence.

Go to your supervisor and ask what quantified indicators will show that you and your department are successfully performing your work. This can be expressed in sales volume, staffing levels, or the number of resolved complaints.

If the company is not organized and there are no metrics, then invent them yourself. Collect past data, see what happened before, and start tracking indicators weekly. A manager's job involves people, which is an unstable matter. Only figures can give you a solid assessment.

Step 3. Support what worked

One of the most common mistakes is the new broom syndrome, which starts sweeping in a new way, destroying working processes. Your first task is not to harm.

Spend time studying what brought results. Find the person who managed the unit before you (unless they were fired for total failure), arrange a meeting, and find out everything:

• How did they structure the working day?
• In what form did they set tasks?
• Which employees can be relied on, and which cannot?

Write all this down to definitely keep what successfully worked. Leave creativity and bold ideas for later, when you deeply understand the processes. Even if there is chaos in the department, there is still something solid there that holds everything together. Find it.

Step 4. Flip the "Specialist — Manager" switch

This is a step that must happen in your head. The main trap for a new manager who has grown from a great specialist is to continue solving problems with specialist tools.

For example, a good salesperson, having become a boss, tries to sell himself or teaches others based on the principle of "look how it should be done." But this is not management. You will have to step on the throat of your own ego and accept the fact that your subordinates may do the job slower and worse than you. And that's normal.

It is important for you not to do the work yourself, but to ensure that the team does it. The manager's first thought when a task appears should be: "Who can I delegate this to?", and not "How can I do this better?".

If you have only two people reporting to you, managing them will take about 10 hours a week, and the rest of the time you will work as a specialist. This is a challenge, but you must clearly separate these two modes in your head until the staff grows.

Step 5. Implement basic management tools

Regardless of whether the company has systematic management, you can implement a foundation in your unit. Here are three tools you must have:

1. One-on-one meetings with your supervisor. Once a week, meet with your boss and talk about plans, achievements, and align expectations. Your career depends on how much you meet the expectations of the management.
2. Meetings with subordinates. With the same frequency, discuss their work plan with each employee, helping to set priorities.
3. Team coordinations. Once a week, gather the entire team for about an hour. Let everyone talk about the results and plans for the next week. This is needed not for lectures, but for synchronizing the team's actions.

Step 6. Manage employee motives and plans

People are not machines that can simply be turned on with a button. Their fuel is motivation. You must understand what your employees live for, what their goals and values are.

Create an "internal dossier" for yourself. Record details: what motivates each person, who has ambitions, and who is just clocking in hours. The more accurately you understand the employee, the easier it is to manage them. Use informal communication. This can be lunches or conversations over coffee.

And use a simple life hack — praise people. Even if they just did their job, for which they are paid a salary. Gratitude improves mood and motivation, and it becomes easier for you to manage.

If you ignore this step, you will face surprises: a talented employee you were counting on will suddenly quit because you simply didn't understand what was in their head.

Step 7. Turn on the proactive mode

Perhaps this is the most important advice for your career and life. Stop being in reactive mode, that is, simply reacting to incoming problems. Turn on proactivity.

Proactive mode means that when you see a problem before others notice it, you arrive with a solution. Don't just bring data ("Boss, our demand has dropped"), but propose a solution: "I analyzed the elasticity of demand, we need to change the product line...".

You will make mistakes, but don't be afraid of that. If you do not try to influence the situation, you become just a "consequence," that is, a person who works for a salary. Such people have neither great achievements nor a career. The value of a manager lies in the ability to act proactively and create big results through the hands of their team.

An example is the case of Jack Welch at General Electric. In the early 1980s, he faced the inefficiency of dozens of units. Instead of reactive management, Welch initiated the Work-Out program, which required managers to proactively identify problems and propose solutions. This became one of the reasons for GE's growth and its transformation into one of the most valuable companies in the world.

From first steps — to a systematic business

Implementing these seven principles will allow you to confidently take office and avoid typical management mistakes. But to scale this success, stop putting out fires, and turn chaos into structure, a manager needs a reliable foundation.

Proactivity, which we talked about in the last step, implies constant learning and the search for the best tools. If you want to get a clear development map, I invite you to the master class "How to strengthen the team, fortify the foundation of the business, and reach a new level." Registration via the link: https://go.bbooster.online/ynj2