How to Manage a New Team
How to Manage a New Team
Q: I’m a new manager and I moved into an existing team. The people are fine but I don’t see superstars—how can you tell if people are really invested in their jobs, and if they’re not, what do you do about it?A:
Congratulations on your first manager role! These roles aren’t easy and your biggest challenge will be ensuring that your team is made of up of high performers, and you support that. The best way to figure out the capabilities of each person is to meet individually with each employee. This will give you the opportunity to find out what they love about their job, what challenges they face, and who they are as people. Invest in really knowing what motivates them, what’s important to them, and what they’d like to see in their role. One-on-ones also help relieve unease they might feel—these people may view you suspiciously, wondering if you’ll be there in a year or if you’re looking for reasons to move them out. Frame the one-on-one positively as a “learning” meeting: you want to learn about their roles and how you can help them in their work.
After these meetings, you can truly assess whether or not you have the right people on your team. The data will reveal each employee’s level of engagement at work: are they “engaged,” “not engaged,” or “actively disengaged?” Engaged employees are clearly involved in and enthusiastic about their work, contributing positively to the organization. Not engaged employees are emotionally disconnected from their work, putting in the time, but not the effort, and rarely going the extra mile. Actively disengaged employees are unhappy, often miss work, and negatively influence others’ productivity. You’ll have to decide if you can shift employees from the disengaged column to the engaged column. Did your one-on-ones yield useful information for making the workplace better or increasing job satisfaction for these people? Actively disengaged employees are a big risk—people who aren’t building up the organization negatively impact colleagues and could actually convert engaged employees to disengaged employees. It’s important to use one-on-ones to decide if such employees are worth your investment—do they contribute skills that warrant the effort to get them engaged? Be prepared to decide whether anything you do can turn a disengaged employee into a superstar, and discuss this with your manager.
Many organizations do formal engagement surveys, but as a new manager, you should conduct your own. HR often implements exit interviews when employees leave; instead conduct a stay interview. Find out why engaged high performers stay, rather than why disengaged employees leave. Pamela Zlota, at Camden Consulting Group, suggests asking team members for the two greatest achievements in the last six months—why were the projects successful? What did the team do to achieve that success? According to Zlota, focusing on achievements instead of problems reminds teams that they can perform. Plus, talking positively feels good and is a rich resource of team performance information—without inviting the negative criticism that often accompanies the more common “What’s the problem?” approach. After building rapport with the team and developing more focused insight, you can ask classic stay interview questions and expect candid, helpful responses, says Zlota. Sample questions include:
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you?
- What does the team do to contribute to this rating?
- What’s the best part of the team?
- Why do you stay?
- What might lure you away?
- How can I be a more effective leader for you and the team?
Whatever emerges in the answers, incorporate more of it into your team.
Many teams will question a new manager’s skill set, knowledge, or direction that they set, all of which can affect engagement and performance. Taking time to get to know each team member will help with this transition and give invaluable insight for supporting engagement—and engagement is good for business.
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