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9:30 AM Tuesday Jan 6, 2015 34 comments

Harold Hillman: Five common mistakes of theHarold Hillman: Five common mistakes of thenew managernew manager

There are predictable, common mistakes that many first me managers make. P hoto / Thinkstock

With the best of inten ons, first me managers are s ll prone to make somecommon mistakes that are best regarded as 'growing pains'

There's just something about being appointed as a first- me manager or teamleader that will o en trigger a self-imposed pressure to be this perfect leader!Predictably, there are some common mistakes that new managers make. Thepa erns have been consistent across genera ons, reinforcing the adage thatgrowing pains and the inevitable mistakes provide the founda on for futurewisdom. For first me managers, these common mistakes are the growing painsthat will help them become seasoned leaders over me.

Here are the five common mistakes made by rookie managers:

(1) First me managers are reluctant to ask for help. This is prevalent amongnew managers who o en impose this pressure on themselves to be perfect, eventhough they have very li le experience and could benefit from the support ofothers.

Rather than being guarded anddefensive, new managers shouldfeel okay about being on alearning curve. This will ease thepressure that they some mesfeel to know everything, whichthen makes it easier to ask for

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support when they need it. Theteam members are also muchmore willing to support the newmanager if they sense their helpis wanted and appreciated.

(2) First me managers arehesitant to deal with poorperformers. Being liked andpopular can be very valida ngand affirming for new managers,which is why many just don'thave the appe te or desire todeal directly with poor performers. Yet, they know a big part of their appraisal isbased on the team's performance. So, new managers will o en pick up the slackfrom a poor performer, which only amplifies the problem across me. Sooner thanlater, they should have that tough conversa on about performance standards.Their credibility suffers the longer they wait, not to men on the real risk of losingsome of the team's top performers.

(3) New managers don't delegate enough. It's no surprise that first- memanagers are o en accused of micro-managing their teams. For many of them, therealm of management is too amorphous with lots of grey area. They don't perceivethat they're adding much value; nor are they personally energized. Consequently,new managers tend to dive back into the realm they know best, where their 'handson' work was valued and also a source of personal energy for them. Unfortunately,the team experiences this as micro-managing, which is not what the new managerintends. Therefore, it's important for new managers to really appreciate thatdelega ng work to others is 'real work'.

(4) New managers are more focused on tasks and less focused on rela onships.O en they miss cri cal opportuni es to connect with people because they're toobusy 'managing'. The challenge for new managers is to avoid ge ng mired downin the details of comple ng tasks and to put equal focus on the people that drivethe results. New managers will o en focus on the end result rather thanunderstanding what mo vates each of their team members personally. And thisleads directly into the fi h common mistake........

(5) First me managers o en can't see a dis nc on between 'leading' and'managing'. They o en learn the hard way that these are two very different skillsets. Managing is largely about doing. It's about ensuring that 'business as usual'churns along effec vely and efficiently. And it's what a lot of first me managersput a premium on, because it's tangible and o en recognized as an early predictorof even broader management poten al. What many new managers have yet tolearn is that leading is largely about making those personal connec ons with theirteam, building key rela onships with peers and other important people, andbroadening their sphere of influence. New managers should invest more me intothe leadership component of their roles, as it will improve their ability to influencesuccessful outcomes.

If you're a new manager and this is your first me leading a team, take heed of thelessons learned from the many genera ons who have gone before you. While youmay not be able to avoid some of these rookie mistakes, you can at leastproac vely plan for how to deal with the hurdles when they come. With goodplanning, you'll be able to adapt quicker, which is really the true value gained frombeing on a learning curve.

- NZ Herald

Harold Hillman is a business leaders coach and author. He hasa Master's Degree in Educa on from Harvard University and aPh.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Pi sburgh(USA). Previous roles include Corporate Vice President & ChiefLearning Officer at Pruden al Financial (New York). Hillmancame to New Zealand in 2003 to join Fonterra and is now theMD of Sigmoid Curve Consul ng Group, where he coaches

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business leaders and execu ve teams. His latest book is 'TheImposter Syndrome".

For more on NZ business ambi ons go towww.businessambi on.co.nz

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A lot of managers have no people skills, and only learn from text books.People who put them in charge, are responsible for the fall out.

Managers and team leaders deal with many people in their team and in other teams but the one personthey must keep happy is their own boss.

Bollocks, I see managers with 20 years experience making the same mistakes. Poor management seemsto be the hallmark of many NZ companies.

Speaking from experience it is very hard to be a new manager especially if you are appointed from withina team. Not only is there pressure from senior management to perform well this is o en accompaniedwith resentment from other members of the team. In some respects you go from being one of them tobeing an outsider.

I t is a difficult transi on and one that requires support from senior management. New managers whohave a good understanding of the business and environment in which they are working and who aresupported will learn from their mistakes and will ul mately become be er managers.

Fair comments. I must admit when I was first a manager, I found it hard to delegate and tended tomicromanage. I was working for a rela vely small company, and of course they had no resources formanagement courses, and this is a problem. We all manage something at some stage, and it would beuseful to teach basic management skills at secondary school level.

I found a really useful book is the "one minute manager" (or some tle like that) which is a short book butteaches basic skills about running teams, and how to give team members useful instruc ons andfeedback. The system really works, and most of us don't have me to read 500 page management texts.

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Yes its book learning, but you have to start somewhere.

Agree with Dutchy. I personally think managers are born , not made . You can't just call someone amanager and think he can do the job necessarily .From my own experience , nearly all of my managers over the years were appointed because they were"yes" men and told the boss what he wanted to hear.

Li le wonder that over the years there was an endless stream of redundancies under the banner of so-called restructuring , in a variety of companies .

Good list. Although, like it says, these are lessons that are learned not taught. O en, new managers justneed to be coached and supported from the outset. As a union guy, I can say firsthand that managementappreciate it when you help them, not hurt them (unnecessarily anyway).

Agree en rely with Dutchy. He's spot on.

I agree with all the mistakes above and it especially rife in NZ because most medium / large firms growfrom small ones, then people are promoted to management for their longevity rather than their skill. Sothen you end up with people in management posi ons with very li le skills in people rela onships, letalone leadership or management skills.

And to top it all off, we also seem to be very averse to training these people. It really is a disastroussitua on in many growing companies.

Many managers these days have come straight from Uni, with no real world experience at all, and ares ll somewhat immature {not yet fla ng for the first me, which brings essen al people skills into thefore}. Some managers are quite incompetent and assume they must know what they are talking about,even if they have no knowledge of the equipment used in produc on or job descrip on of those in theirteam.

They will jump to assump ons and refuse to listen to the very people that keep the business running {theworkers}. I knew of one that assumed that three years of training to work a very expensive and largemachine was irrelevant and thought "you just press a bu on" to work such a machine, these managersare an encumbrance, and would do well to research how the machinery operates rather than simplymaking something up and end up looking foolish.

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