7 Things Every New Manager Should Do In Their First Month

Becoming a new manager can be an important milestone for many workers. It can demonstrate that they’ve worked hard to advance in their career and were rewarded with a leadership position.

And yet they might not always feel like celebrating. For all the excitement it entails, moving into a managerial position can also bring on feelings of stress and intimidation. Managers have a demanding role: Recent research found that managers are significantly more likely than non-managers to report feeling burned out, and more likely to be considering quitting their jobs in the next six months.

To avoid falling into this state of burnout, new managers need to be equipped with strong tools, knowledge, and habits so they can hit the ground running. To help, we’ve rounded up top tips from leadership guru Todd Dewett’s LinkedIn Learning course, New Manager Foundations, along with some other advice and insights from expert instructors.

Models for success: 7 key tips for new managers

1. Spend time with your new boss

According to Dewett, one of the first things a newly-promoted manager should do is set up time to soak up insights from the person they’ll be reporting to. 

“Spend some time with your new supervisor,” says Dewett. “Having a few conversations with this person not only builds rapport, but it affords you the opportunity to learn a lot. You can ask about their view of the talent on your team and their expectations for you and the team. You can ask about their take on the organization's culture and of course, any suggestions they might have for how you should manage the team.

“Ultimately,” he adds, “their perspective and style might differ from yours but it will certainly help you understand your new team.”

This is also an opportunity to get a clear grasp on your boss’s goals so you can make sure yours (and those of your reports) are aligned.

2. Develop professional relationships with your staff, not friendships

Your goal as a boss should not be to make friends with your reports. After all, there’s no performance component to a friendship, whereas performance is your biggest concern as a new manager. Thinking of your reports as friends can also hinder delivering tough feedback, if and when the need arises.

Instead, Dewett says, you should aim to form strong professional relationships with your employees. That’s not to say there should be no personal aspect to your relationship — in fact, there should be. It’s just a matter of proportion, as the vast majority of your conversations with your direct reports should be about work. 

So yes, be friendly with your employees and get to know them on a personal level. But the majority of your conversations should be about work and the relationship should ultimately be a professional one.

Above all, be very careful and conscious of avoiding any appearances of favoritism or bias. “Favoritism is a tendency to see some people more as friends than employees,” says Dewett, “leading to judgments and decisions about them that are not really justified based on the merits. This practice is unfair and strongly undermines your credibility. Your goal is to lead a clear meritocracy.”

3. Stay visible

As the saying goes, 80 percent of success comes down to just showing up. According to Dewett, there’s a degree of truth to that for managers: Being visible with your team is incredibly important as the more visible you are, the more connected people will feel to you.

In that vein, try to spend 10 to 15 percent of your day informally chatting to your employees, instead of just communicating in meetings or being tucked away in your office. This can go a long way to building strong relationships with your reports.

4. Get familiar with your reports’ working styles and preferences

Dewett recommends first learning about your team with all the resources at your disposal. This might include checking out their LinkedIn profiles to see their work background and where their professional interests lie. 

Of course, chatting with team members directly is also very beneficial. “Keep it informal, but a small bit of probing can be informative,” Dewett says. You might use this as an opportunity to define your working style, decision-making process, and intentions for talking about and managing performance. 

In Nano Tips for New Managers, Lorraine K. Lee shares that she likes to start off with these five questions and conversation starters:

1. Tell me about what you're working on. 
2. How do you like to be rewarded? This can include anything from compensation and bonuses to taking on bigger projects or leading a high-visibility meeting.
3. How do you like to be acknowledged and praised? Publicly, privately, or some combination of the two? 
4. How do you like to receive feedback, written or face-to-face? 
5. What do you like doing most and what do you like doing least? 
   

Later on, Lee says, these discussions can move into things like career growth, challenges, and expectations. But the five suggestions above can be a good place to start.

5. Set expectations and establish group norms

Once you understand what makes your reports tick, it’s time to clarify expectations and establish group norms.

First, Dewett says, clarify expectations by acknowledging your team’s recent accomplishments while also sharing the goals for the next performance period and any long-term goals. Next, meet with each of your direct reports one-on-one and dig into their individual goals.

It’s also important to establish norms with the team, Dewett says. Norms are guiding behaviors for how you and your team should act, and should be written down and sent to all members of your team.

What are some examples of norms? Everyone showing up on time for meetings, everyone being prepared for each meeting, everyone treating each other with respect, etc. Ensure these norms are enforced, perhaps in a fun way. For example, you could establish that any time someone is late for a meeting (managers included!), they have to contribute a dollar to the team’s coffee fund.

6. Schedule time away from work

Research shows new managers invariably work more hours than they are used to and often feel large amounts of stress. For that reason, Dewett says, it’s important to schedule time away from work with your friends and family, or else those relationships could become strained.

Unfortunately, becoming a new manager can mean less free time. The key is working to make that time as high quality as possible by allowing yourself to shut off from work and enjoying the free moments you do have. “I know you work very hard,” Dewett says, “and sometimes any form of downtime can feel unproductive, but self-care isn't downtime. It's a powerful investment in making your best efforts sustainable for a long time.”

7. Keep a learning mindset

While you might have been a very skilled individual contributor, new managers are by definition inexperienced in management and therefore need to learn new skills. The faster you can learn these skills, the quicker you’ll become an effective manager and ultimately the less stress you’ll feel.

As a result, Dewett says, it’s critical to find time to learn when you become a new manager. That means reading articles, watching learning videos, seeking advice from more experienced managers, and taking advantage of any in-person management training. 

Looking for a place to start? The LinkedIn Learning course, Skills for Your First 90 Days as a New Manager, features guidance from leadership development coach Chelsea Jay to help cultivate formative leadership skills, including relationship-building and leading with intention. 

Final thoughts

These seven tips likely won’t completely relieve you of stress, but we do hope they will help.

Want to learn more? Watch Todd Dewett’s New Manager Foundations course today. You can also explore the full learning path, Develop Your Skills as a New Manager, for a curated series of content that helps you develop a well-rounded approach to management.