Imagine you’ve just accepted the role as People Manager to a team of ten employees. You are new to the company and not the first to manage this team…how should you begin?
First, get to know the company, (the product and/or the services), inside and out. Learn what is expected of you as a leader and get to know your peers. This foundation of knowledge and support will help you in creating consistency and aligning your role with the company’s goals. As a new leader of a company, it is highly encouraged to connect with your fellow people manager peers to learn how they problem solve, delegate, escalate and more; create a productive community of your own as you take the reins and lead the team.
Second, build rapport and set expectations with your team. How you achieve this is by understanding the roles and goals of your team and by connecting with each of them 1:1. This initial and on-going connection between you and each employee should be used to define success, ask how you can support them in achieving that success, and to confirm how they like to receive communication, feedback and recognition. This initial connection will set the tone for how you will lead and support; but it also builds trust and respect with your team. You, (the people manager) are not there to be the answer to all problems or to be a friend to the team you are leading. Instead, you are there to be a respected (and respectful) leader in achieving the goals set by the organization.
Lastly, keep the first and the second recommendations on repeat. As a leader, you should always know what your mission is, you should always be consistent with how you lead, and you should always be a leader to your team. A leader is not just a manager who hires, fires, disciplines and approves time-off requests; a leader is a mentor, a coach, an offer of support and solution to others. A leader is one who hires the right people to get the job done and separates their own ego and goals to instead elevate others in achieving the desired success.
Now to the boring HR stuff. Yes, the items above are the most important, but you do need to know the ins and outs of people management. As an HR professional, I recommend that you should review the employee file of each member on your team. This research will help you in confirming any individual accommodation requests, specials skills or knowledge that this employee has, areas of concerns (both performance and attendance) and any goals that are defined in their past performance reviews. If there are areas of concerns, you are not to be observing them more closely, but rather keeping an eye out for patterns of those concerns to become re-occurring; don’t use their files to place judgement, use their files to ensure you are aware in how you can be a support to them.
I definitely encourage you to read the employee handbook; know the leave of absence and time-off protocols, basic employment policies and procedures and where to go and who to ask if anything needs escalation or additional support. Know your resources, know basic answers to questions but also where to go to find the solution to problems that may arise; be an administrative support to your team to offset those burdens so they may perform at the desired levels expected of them.
As a people leader, whether new to a team or a seasoned leader, adopt a growth mindset. Please don’t be stagnant in your leadership style. Just as you want your team to succeed and evolve/adapt; you too should be looking at ways in which you too can stretch your thinking to offer various ways in supporting and navigating solutions with your team members. Please don’t be a leader who is annoyed with your team when they fail; own those failures too and find ways to avoid failure again. When your team succeeds, praise each of them on how they contributed to that success, don’t take credit for it. Your job, “in my HR opinion,” is to elevate your team to further enhance their knowledge, skills and abilities in getting the job done and accomplishing a common goal.
Learn how to be a leader by reading, listening to and observing other leaders that you aspire to be like. A few books that I recommend for your leadership pleasure are: No Ego (by Cy Wakeman), The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (by Patrick Lencioni), The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (by John C. Maxwell), Impact Players and Multipliers (both by Liz Wiseman). There are many more, but these are a few of my personal favorites. I also recommend you becoming a member of SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management), regardless of if you are interested in HR or not; there are excellent resources and templates available to use and customize for your people management needs. It is important that you know the laws specific to people management, as well as best-practices and ideas for creating a balanced workplace where success and satisfaction are equally considered.
If you desire to achieve success through leadership, then look inwards, seek out and manage up!
Heather Wall is the director of Human Resources at Brightways Counseling Group. She has 15 years in the HR profession, a master’s degree in management, SHRM-CP, certified strategic HR business partner, certified in strategic workforce planning and a certified human capital strategist. Residing in Central Oregon for the last two years, Wall has worked with several small to mid-size business throughout the state of Oregon, Washington and California as a business partner focusing on building HR infrastructure and balancing compliance and culture within the workplace. In addition to her HR work, Wall volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) in Deschutes County, serving as an advocate for children in foster care. She resides in Sisters with her husband and two sons. In her spare time, she enjoys doing puzzles, playing in the snow and water (depending on the season), exploring new restaurants and spending time with friends and family.
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