Promoted to Management…
Now What?

Congratulations on your promotion into management! You have worked hard and achieved your goal, proving yourself to be the ideal candidate for the management position in your department. The interviewing process was nerve racking, but upper management told you that you were the right person for the job. Yea, time to celebrate! Oh, but wait. Now it sinks in, you ARE management. You wonder how you are going to make the transition from staff to leading the team you have been a peer member of for a while.

Self-doubt starts to creep in and you wonder just what management skills they saw in you for this promotion. How are you going to make the change from peer to manager? These feelings are quite normal. As vice president of HR in several healthcare companies, coaching individuals during this change was common. Based on my experiences, there are critical steps I would recommend to individuals making the transition into their first management position.

1) Stop and celebrate the promotion! Recognize that others have seen potential in you, your skills, and capabilities to promote you to a leading role. This is the time to sit down and review the self-inventory you did when going through the interview process. During this process, you had to communicate your strengths, weaknesses, and desire for a management position. Make sure you understand these for yourself. Why did you choose to lead? What leadership talents come naturally? What are your weaknesses? A quality of good managers is the ability to surround themselves with people that have strengths in the areas in which the managers are weak.

2) Understand for scope of responsibilities of the management position. Leave nothing to assumptions or chance. Now is the time to talk with upper management about goals, expectations, and the timelines associated with each. What are the priorities? What needs to happen in the first 30, 60, 90 days? What is this position (read: What are you) accountable for?

3) Learn how upper management thinks. What is their management style? Do they micromanage? Are they hands off? What are their goals and what is expected of them? Understanding their responsibilities will give you a wider view of how your position will make them successful in reaching their goals. Take this time to also understand the corporate goals. All positions feed into the corporation successfully meeting its mission and goals (you know, that bottom line).

4) What other departments will your position and/or department partner? Do you need to understand budgets, marketing, and operations? Depending on the scope of your responsibilities, it is imperative that you understand how other departments operate. Arrange to meet with every departmental manager, asking the same questions above: What are their goals and expectations, and how do the departments correlate. Begin to build relations that will be play a part in your department’s success.

5) Understand the team you are leading. What are each member’s strengths, weaknesses, and professional goals? How do they see themselves as team members? Review their most recent performance appraisals. Communicate the goals and expectations of the department. Ask for advice as to how the team will achieve the goals within the timeline assigned. Communicate your expectations as the manager.

Mastering these steps will take time, energy, and attention. It is important that you are comfortable with each of the above, however, keep in mind that qualities of a good manager also include not asking anyone on your team to do anything you are not willing to do yourself (builds loyalty), allowing the team to give suggestions as to how goals should be met (strengthens the team), improving your listening skills by hearing what people say, and giving praise and recognition and asking for feedback (develops commitment & shows appreciation). Employees are least likely to change jobs if they feel they are contributing to the goals and their efforts are appreciated. Admit to your mistakes (this shows you are human).

Last but not least, “plan your work and work your plan,” and do it daily!