6 BIG mistakes
I made as a new manager
(so you don’t make
them too!)
1
Radiating stress to my team
I thought if I seemed stressed,
it would show my team their
work was important.
Instead it just worried and
distracted them.
Now, I work on staying calm,
and use words to show that
our work is important
2
Being too indirect with my
requests
In my first manager role I didn’t feel
comfortable telling people what to
work on. This made me vague and
unclear - even when I was actually
sure.
At last a team member said, “You know
you are allowed to tell us to do things,
right?”
(I’m grateful for her honesty!)
These days, I’m comfortable clearly
asking for what I want
3
Not knowing when to be
directive, and when to give
space
Some people know what
they’re doing and can crack on.
Others need clear direction.
It took time to learn how to tell
the difference.
4
Not giving enough context
to my team
I had to learn the importance of
giving lots of context about
projects, to help people make
good decisions and be
autonomous
The more context I gave, the
better their work became
[Until... read the next page!]
5
Giving TOO much context
I started giving SO much context that
it just bamboozled my team members.
I had a few moments where my team
were ‘rabbits in the headlights’.
I learned that they don’t need to know
the WHOLE HISTORY and ALL the
details.
And to be more thoughtful about
selecting the most important context
to share.
6
Not celebrating wins
enough
There was always more to do,
and I focused too much on
what we hadn’t done yet,
rather than what we had
achieved.
I’m so impatient to build what
needs to exist!
To be honest I’m still working
on this one.
6
Any of these sound
familiar? Management
is hard!
Repost to help others, and follow
Rachel Carrell for more like this