20 First-Time Manager Tips: How to Succeed As a New Manager

If you've recently hit that career milestone of becoming a manager only to ask yourself, "what's next?" you're not alone. And we hate to sound negative, but 60% of new managers fail within the first two years according to Inc.

You only get one chance to make a first impression as a new manager, so you want to make the most of it—and you probably want to continue to make a good impression by being a good boss. We all know too many bad bosses and we definitely don't need another micromanager walking the halls.

That's why today we're helping you with a list of the most important things to do starting on your first day as a new manager—and beyond.

Also, we decided to include advice from two of our career coaches and ask them to share their advice on leadership roles since who better to know about this topic than real-life managers who also coach new managers. Here's our ultimate list of must-do's for new managers to be successful!

20 Tips for First-Time Managers

1. Invest In Leadership Training

Talk to any leader and they will probably tell you that managing people is the hardest job they've ever had and that they got zero training on how to do the job. Companies need to start investing in leadership training and improving managerial skills— plain and simple.

Leadership expert, trainer, and author, Melissa Nightingale, spoke in-depth about the lack of leadership training at organizations and the pitfalls of bad managers, which include higher turnover, less trust and engagement, toxic workplaces, and more.

Start by asking your company what leadership training they offer. If they don't offer anything, find a training program and see if they will reimburse you for the tuition. We offer our own online leadership course called The New Manager Manual, LinkedIn Learning offers a wide variety of leadership lessons, or you can work 1:1 with career coaches and experts like Melissa Nightingale who come into organizations with training programs. 

If your company won't pay for any leadership training, you can always turn to leadership books and podcasts for ongoing learning and tips to develop your leadership style.

2. Find a Mentor or Peer to Connect With

The challenges and questions you’re facing or will face likely aren’t new. Someone in your company, industry, or even on your team has already dealt with a difficult employee, underperformance issues, or had to have other tough conversations like telling them they aren't getting a raise or promotion.

The best way to survive these moments is with the help of mentors and peers you can turn to for support and help give you advice on navigating issues. Managers are humans, too. That means we don't always have the right answers or know what to do. It's not only normal to look to others' advice but a smart way to avoid missteps by learning from their mistakes. 

3. Practice Active Listening + Learn

One of the things that separates a good manager from a bad manager is the ability to really listen to your team and understand their interests, ideas, opinions, concerns, and challenges that they each face in their jobs. And this skill is harder to do than it sounds.

Active listening means that in your 1:1 meetings or group meetings you're giving all of your attention to whatever is being discussed. Not multitasking, checking your inbox, or thinking about your response before they have finished. Take notes, prepare organized meetings by sending an agenda ahead of time and a recap after, follow up with your team on the things you said you would.

It's a manager's role (and goal) to learn about work issues from their point of view and then you can work with them to create a plan of action. You and your team should also decide ahead of time who will be the decision-maker on certain work projects.

This way, if you're asking for input but ultimately making the call, they don't feel like they are wasting their time sharing with you. Being a good listener also helps you be more influential within your team—another win-win with this skill set.

4. Set Clear Expectations + Create Structure

While we all want to be liked, being too flexible and going with the flow can backfire. Good managers know they need to prioritize leading over being liked. In an article for Slate, Laura Smith describes her own failed experience at playing it cool as the owner of her first business:

"I allowed my coffee shop to become characterized by permissiveness. Some took advantage of this permissiveness by making up excuses for being late, or by trying to do as little work as possible. Those who didn’t take advantage became resentful of the other employees, and of me. It brought out the worst in everyone."

For most of us just starting out in management, it's easier to remember past terrible bosses—the ones that were cold or conniving, too strict or just plain absurd—than it is to remember the ones who weren't all that bad. You fear getting dubbed a "horrible boss," and you're desperate not to lose face in front of your colleagues—after all, you're a nice person. So you think: "What if I just play it cool?"

Well, there's a "cool parent" archetype for a reason (think: Amy Poehler as Regina George's mom in Mean Girls). Failure to assert boundaries inevitably equals a failure in leadership, resulting in a parent who's susceptible to disrespect and, worse, mockery. 

To imply that managing a team is like parenting is a bit problematic, but there are certainly parallels. For a relationship, personal or professional, to function properly there must be a common understanding and clear structure. In her piece, Smith goes on to argue:

"Most people are only as good as their systems allow them to be...The idea that we must tell adults what to do and exactly how to do it is a hard pill to swallow for most...But instead of thinking of it as telling people what to do, what if we see it as simply providing people with boundaries? That’s closer to something palatable, although the paternalism still makes me cringe." 

So playing too nice will ruin us, but playing hardball means we're treading a fine line between leadership and despotism. How do you hit that sweet spot—not a jerk, not a doormat—that sets you up for managerial success?

Create a Real Structure (With Schedules, Clear Expectations, Feedback Loops...)

Boundaries get blurry when you aren't meeting with your team regularly. We've had experience in this arena. 

Without touching base in structured, recurring meetings, we were all starting to feel like we were spinning. Now we have all-team meetings that happen weekly.

They're complete with detailed agendas, plus regular check-ins with managers. And we've added online tools to help us manage projects, communicate across a team, and share schedules. These tools help not only create structure but continue to implement it. This way, everyone on the team has a clear idea of what success looks like—and how to achieve it. 

No matter how creative you are or how creative your team is, you've got to commit to a clear organizational plan. And since you're the boss, that plan falls on you. You'll design, lead, and maintain it. As Jill Jacinto puts it, you'll need to "create an atmosphere of transparency and make sure to articulately delegate tasks and responsibilities."

If you expect your team to make deadlines and follow your rules, you have to make sure the team understands what those deadlines and rules are.

5. Set Boundaries

First impressions really do mean a lot, particularly for bosses. You have to start strong, and if you're making the shift from individual contributor to manager, this might be new territory for you. When you transition to your new role as manager, you are collaborating with other people non-stop and that means your new responsibilities are much more intertwined with others.

These new relationships will also require you to do new things—like set boundaries.

"Within any relationship, it’s human nature to want to be liked and wanting to be liked is often the greatest barrier in establishing boundaries as a new manager," says Career Contessa Coach, Kara Brothers-Phillip."As a manager, your primary responsibility is to create an environment where your team members are able to reach their full potential. Being liked is nice, but being viewed as an effective and trustworthy leader is far more important."

Set Personal Boundaries ASAP

So how do you build that trust? According to PsychCentral, by setting boundaries early—as soon as you start the job—and by consistently sticking to them yourself. You'll need to clearly communicate your own limits as well as your expectations: "For instance, if you don’t want your colleagues and clients to contact you at all hours, verbally tell them the hours you will be available for work-related conversations." 

Leading by example is a very real thing. In fact, in a recent interview, the founder of the social media game-changer, Meet Edgar, Laura Roeder, argues that it's actually essential. "You can say, 'Don't email in the evening.' But then if the owners of the company are always sending you emails in the evening, it's implied that maybe you're supposed to respond." Based on this logic, MeetEdgar has a strict no evenings, no weekends email policy—and Roeder abides by it. 

6. Model The Behavior You Want to See

As we mentioned above, any behavior you are asking of your team must first be modeled by you. Your actions will always speak louder than any rule or team policy you have in place.

7. Build Rapport With Each Team Member

Rapport means having a friendly relationship—and it's essential to great working relationships. The trust and understanding you develop through building rapport leads to: 

A team that has good rapport among them will generally function better and spend less time on toxic work traits. Focusing on building rapport will help the performance of your team.

8. Learn How to Delegate

When you made the transition to manager, you changed from being all about you to being all about your team. You're no longer focused on your to-do list because your only job is helping others succeed. This means you need to learn the art of delegation.

We know it's a lot easier to take on a task that you've already mastered or work with a software program you can move quickly through versus training someone new, but fight the "I’ll just do it myself” mentality. The more time you spend upfront teaching direct reports how to solve a particular problem, the less time you waste when the assignment resurfaces later on.

And when you delegate a task, you're showing your team you trust them to get the job done correctly. Gallup research shows that managers are mostly responsible for their employees’ engagement levels. One way to keep them engaged is by providing new learning opportunities. 

9. Believe In Your Team First, Doubt Them Second

We all know the pitfalls of playing it too strictly. Maybe you had a military regimented household growing up or maybe you just remember a horrible elementary school teacher who didn't allow you room to breathe, let alone get creative. Management requires placing a little faith in your leadership team. 

Says Jacinto: "Employees want to feel needed and respected. Do not be condescending, share your viewpoints with them, your strategy and ask for them to contribute."

When Roeder launched MeetEdgar, she'd never been a boss before. "I had never hired anyone. I had never been anyone's superior in any way. But a lot of that, honestly, was a blessing in disguise because I never had to unlearn bad corporate behaviors," says Roeder, "A lot of the ways that I've managed people is just: respect people, assume that people are doing their best." 

We take jobs knowing full well that they're going to be an integral part of our lives. So why assume that your employees aren't doing the best they can? Give every person you supervise enough space and freedom to get their work done, plus take some risks along the way.

If they mess up, you can address it then, but don't assume they will simply because you don't know how they work yet or you think they lack experience. Let them try, remain open and available to them so they feel comfortable soliciting your feedback, then wait. 

And in the event that they do mess up (just like you), make sure there's a road for them to regain trust. One mistake doesn't warrant ostracisation. 

10. Instead of Forcing Unity, Plan For Differences

Don't assume that you need to regulate someone simply because they work differently than you. Instead plan, adapt, and compensate for those differences. You can regulate how work gets done to an extent, but you should also accept feedback and hold regular meetings with each of your employees to see how they're feeling and what they need to get the work done.

Maybe they do better with strict deadlines. Maybe they thrive when they're planning their own hours. By adapting your environment to suit multiple work styles and communication styles, you'll set yourself up for a more productive workday all around. 

11. Treat Mistakes With The Appropriate Weight

Here at Career Contessa, when we're stressing about getting the editorial calendar in order before one of us goes on vacation or about what will happen when the marketing manager gets sick, we can count on our manager to say, "This isn't brain surgery." 

And she's right. If an article fails to publish one Tuesday morning, or if there's a glaring typo in our weekly newsletter, we're not harming anyone. We're probably annoying people, and we're certainly going to be embarrassed, but we're not neurosurgeons responsible for saving lives. 

That logic can and should be applied to anything you do. It's not that you need to tell your employees that they don't need to worry about the work they're doing, but keeping it all in perspective is key. 

Expect your employees to do their jobs and do them well. Hold them responsible for their mistakes (the key word here is their—team mistakes are team mistakes, and you're part of them). But if a mistake happens? Treat it with the weight it deserves. 

No exaggerated panic attacks, no yelling, no shaming, no team meeting roasts. Your team will respect you that much more for keeping sight of what really matters—like getting the work done and done well so that everyone can go home to their families and friends and actually get a good night's rest.

12. Adopt a Growth Mindset

Making the switch from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset is one of the biggest mental shifts new managers need to make.  

Taking on any new role comes with a steep learning curve. And taking on a new manager role comes with an entirely new skill set to learn because you're now in charge of people. Managing people comes with interpersonal relationships, cultural fit, values, and much more. It also comes with a need to believe that people can grow, develop, and change.

Stanford psychologist, Carol Dweck, spoke about this in her TED talk. She noted that belief is the key ingredient to improvement. If you have a fixed mindset – you believe that people can't change or improve – it directly impacts your ability to grow and develop.

However, it doesn't just change how you act and treat yourself, it affects how you treat your entire team, which is why it's important for both a manager and the team to adopt a growth mindset.

13. Give Effective Feedback

People love clear expectations, and they love even more to know where they stand. This is supported by a survey by PwC where they found that nearly 60 percent of respondents would like feedback on a daily or weekly basis. As a manager, it's your job to not only give this feedback on a regular basis but learn how to make sure it's effective. 

Don’t just wait for the annual review to give feedback. Give it in a timely manner so improvements can be made in real-time.

14. Ask For Feedback

Similarly, you should be making an effort as the manager to also be asking for feedback. It's part of that growth mindset you're bringing to this role where you're open to assessing your own strengths and weaknesses to help yourself grow over time. 

15. Build Trust

So it turns out there is an easy way to create more fulfilled employees—with trust. Research shows that when employees feel trusted by their managers, they are more engaged, put in a bigger effort, and are more fulfilled at work.

You can build trust by scheduling 1:1 meetings, learning about the goals of your team, and then helping them grow their careers. If they want to get more experience with a certain type of project, can you help them get more involved? Can you offer advice and coach them through an interpersonal situation at work? If you invest in their future, it’s likely they’ll feel more invested in the company.

As Jacinto mentioned earlier, transparency can also help build trust. When you're more open about how decisions are made, why you're making them, and what the results mean for the entire team, that important information makes employees feel part of a bigger role. That open and honest communication will foster trust amongst the team.

16. Create Psychological Safety

A team can't build trust and do their best work without feeling psychologically safe at work. Building diverse, inclusive, and safe teams requires ongoing learning, listening, and implementing important changes.

17. Know What Motivates Your Team

Each person is unique—and what motivates them to do their best work will also be unique. Take the time to understand what motivates each person on your team and use that information to filter assignments and collaborations. Your team will be more productive when working on tasks that they enjoy.

18. Learn Your Team's Communication Styles

Another thing that is unique to each person is how they prefer to communicate with others and vice-versa—how they want to be communicated with. Use this free guide to learn about each person's preferred way to communicate. Next, use that information going forward and make sure you're editing your style to ensure the best communication is happening between you two. 

19. Focus on Outcomes, Not Facetime

With the rise of remote work and hybrid work, it's important to make sure you're focused on rewarding employees for their results and not their office facetime. Make sure you're creating an equitable workplace setup so everyone knows what success looks like and there isn't a disproportionate amount of non-promotable tasks being assigned to the remote workers vs. office workers.

20. Don't Forget to Manage Up

Lastly, don't forget about your own career and make time to connect with the people above you. Create quality relationships with your boss or bosses by managing up. 

By managing up, you'll create more influence which will also trickle down to help your own team. Perhaps your boss is willing to give you more budget, support, or resources because you have built a strong relationship. Just another win-win for you.

What If There's a Real Issue? 

This is the least fun part of the article, but we're sure, like us, you were wondering: what if an employee does something bad? Like, really bad. How do I respond? 

"There will always be employees who miss a meeting, blow a sales demo, clash with higher-ups and it is your job to fix this issue ASAP," says Jacinto: "A good leader always keeps their temper under wraps. Have a private meeting with the team member and give them the opportunity to explain their actions.

Next, let them know that mistakes happen and how they approached the solution (or whatever it may be) was unacceptable and needs to be course-corrected. Give them guidance on how to move forward, and create an open-door policy. Explain to them why and how their actions affect the company's bottom line.

Depending on the severity of their behavior, be firm in your response. Let them know the type of behavior you expect to see and work with day in and day out and what will not be tolerated."

Brothers-Phillips agrees that you should have the conversation in private, but argues that you should bring up their behavior in relation to the big picture: "In your conversation, reinforce that your primary responsibility is to your company and part of that responsibility means creating an atmosphere of fairness within the team. You value them as a team member. However, their behavior could be jeopardizing how others view your dedicated loyalty to everyone and you need them to stop doing x,y,z behavior in the best interest of the team."

All in all, there's a pretty clear theme here: transparency, honesty, and open dialogue. Make sure that your employees know that they can come to you to discuss any issues or questions they have. And always focus on communicating your own expectations as clearly as possible.

Employees can only respect the structure, boundaries, and expectations they know exist.