The Newly Appointed Manager: Guidelines for Interpersonal Success

Congratulations on Your New Role!

Have you recently been promoted to a supervisory, team leadership, or management position? Congratulations! But how prepared are you for the challenges that lie ahead?

Many employees are promoted because of their technical expertise, but often, little preparation is provided for management roles. Most new managers rely on their experiences of good and bad management, making the learning curve difficult and sometimes torturous. During this critical transition, the pressures can impair performance. This phenomenon, identified by psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson in 1908, remains relevant today. Fortunately, modern management training offers tools and techniques to cope with these pressures more effectively.

Adapting to Management Demands Cognitive Restructuring

Transitioning to a management role requires a new perspective on the working world. Struggling to adjust can lead to a loss of self-belief and low self-esteem. Hanlon’s Paradox aptly captures this by stating, “impending or actual change lowers self-esteem and the ability to cope with change just at a time when we need to learn.” At such times, personal reflection, external support, and guidance on essential management practices are invaluable. New managers often find that the skills required for success differ from their previous skill set. Here are some insights and guiding principles to ease the transition and facilitate interpersonal success.

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Building Understanding and Avoiding Isolation

When you become a new manager, changes occur not just in skills and competencies but also in how people perceive you. Former colleagues may view you differently or even ostracize you, making your new role a lonely place. It’s crucial to understand your company’s culture, micro-political behaviors, and how these can support or hinder your performance goals. Shifting from being a “doer” to leading others to “do” is essential, yet challenging. Effective delegation is vital, but avoid micromanagement, which creates a counterproductive “manager dependency” culture. Check Operational Excellence training courses

Mastering Interpersonal Skills

Good interpersonal skills are a manager’s most significant challenge. Whether called “people skills” or “emotional intelligence,” understanding fundamental human psychology is essential. Treating employees as unique individuals, recognizing their motivations, values, and drivers, and understanding their perspectives fosters better relationships and reduces conflict. Building rapport with personalities like your own is easy, but bridging the divide with those who are different requires effort. Vew: Human Resource HR Management Training courses

Appreciating Individual Differences

Everyone has idiosyncrasies and preferences that shape their behavior, essentially forming their personality. Managing everyone the same way might seem fair, but it’s not always successful. Knowing what makes each person “tick” improves outcomes and reduces conflict. Solving technical problems is usually simpler than addressing complex interpersonal issues. Machines are predictable, but people choose their attitudes.

Leveraging Diversity for Continuous Improvement

Pearman and Albritton (1997) researched human behavior complexities, explaining why people appear alike yet so different. They concluded that successful relationships require recognizing and valuing differences. From a management perspective, diversity is a creative force for continuous improvement, not a source of conflict. Their mantra, “I’m not crazy, I’m just not you,” highlights the importance of appreciating differences to build high-performing teams, enhance communication, and improve decision-making.

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The Critical Role of Communication

Communication is the most critical management skill, underlying everything managers do. It’s the tool through which managers express opinions, requests, ideas, and feelings. Effective communication is essential for achieving individual and organizational goals. Charles Irvine (2006) promoted communication as the mechanism for success and advocated a “partnering” relationship with employees. Differences between people can drive development for both managers and teams.

The Johari Window, created by Jo Luft and Harry Ingham, emphasizes the importance of feedback and information sharing. Managers must remember that the quality of their communication determines the quality of their personal and organizational outcomes.

Reflecting on Practice

In our busy lives, we often neglect time for reflection. Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” emphasizes the importance of taking time to “Sharpen the Saw.” Reflecting on practice and setting improvement goals is crucial. Only by understanding how and why you want to manage can you inspire others to follow you.

Conclusion

This article highlights key features for interpersonal success as a manager, but many other factors contribute to excellence. Whether you’re a new manager or seeking to refresh your thinking, attending one of our courses can help. Aztech’s highly-acclaimed Management and Leadership programs assist and enable you to reflect on your experience, inform future practice, and set structured goals for performance transformation.

References

• Yerkes, R. M. & Dodson, J. D. (1908). The relationship of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, 18, 459–482.
• Pearman, R., & Albritton, S. (1997). I’m not crazy I’m just not you. Davies Black Publishing.
• Irvine, C. (2006). Cash in On Conflict: Professional and Personal Success through Partnering. Author House.
• Luft, J., & Ingham, H. (1955). “The Johari window, a graphic model of interpersonal awareness.” Proceedings of the western training laboratory in group development. Los Angeles: UCLA.
• Covey, S. R. (2004). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Restoring the character ethic ([Rev. ed.].). New York: Free Press.

Dr. Rod Linter is a Leadership and Project Consultant with over 25 years of global experience working with individuals, teams, major projects, and organizations. He has been a Senior Consultant with Aztech for over 10 years and brings a wealth of theoretical and practical knowledge from his experience in the energy sector to his learning programs.