Kelly Ehler , President, Corporate Finance Outsource Inc.
Technical skills and management skills aren’t always the same. What is the body of management knowledge first-time managers need to acquire? What are the core skills for managing people? How can you help new managers acquire those skills? Has COVID and remote or hybrid work changed the skill set—or changed the mix? How has today’s work environment affected your ability to coach them? What kind of expectations framework do you set for new managers? Communication is the most critical skill required. What does communication entail? • Both verbal and non-verbal abilities.
this myself, I get much more honest and open communication. Removing fear of reprisal at all levels helps empowerment. • COVID has made a lot of the above more difficult, since you can’t help with body language in developing communication skills. It’s made verbal communication via virtual methods more important. I ask more questions to confirm I understand my team, and conversely, I encourage more questions asked of me for the same purpose. Remember the acronym, “assume” and what it means. • Goal setting for new managers is critical, and not just for managers, but those managing the managers, all the way to the board level. This is why we have strategic sessions, tactical sessions, cultural sessions. Communicating the “why” of the corporate existence, helps empower the manager to empower the team. For both the manager and their team, regular period goals are set on the basis of them being tough to accomplish. At the end of the period, performance is measured against the goals the team and the manager have established. This creates accountability and hopefully motivates to meet corporate and personal objectives. New goals or continuation thereof are set at regular intervals. The goals must be achievable.
• Non-verbal, in that you want to pay attention to body language and to probe if you see a reaction that requires a probing question. The point here is, if possible, when communicating I try to ask managers to pay attention to body language for cues that whatever is being discussed is being understood. • In verbal communication, there’s obviously much to discuss. What I find helpful is for the manager not to be the “boss” and be overly “directive,” so that your employee doesn’t • Understanding the personality, the strengths, and the weaknesses of your team is critical to helping them achieve their best performance and succeed in the job they were hired for. Taking the time to learn the personal attributes of the manager and team members is important. Are they introverted? What mode of communication works? Are they a texter? A Zoom type? A face to face? An emailer? What yields results in the different modes of communication. This is necessary for the manager to know themself and that of their team members. • Sharing the ability to be humble and admit mistakes allows the new manager to show they have room for growth and that it’s ok for the team member to learn and improve. I find by doing
14 I ACHIEVENEXT HELPING NEW MANAGERS SUCCEED
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