What To Do on Your First Day as a Manager

My first day as a manager, I was excited but also overwhelmed. It felt like everyone suddenly expected me to have all of the answers — as if the very act of becoming a manager had bestowed magical powers and knowledge upon me that I didn’t have the day before. (It doesn’t.)

If you just became a manager for the first time, you probably have a lot swirling through your head right now: questions about what to focus on first, what changes to make on your team, and what skills you’ll need to develop along the way.

The most important thing at this point is to just begin getting to know your team on a deeper level. You won’t be able to accomplish anything without their trust.

Schedule a Team Meeting

You should schedule a meeting with your team ASAP to talk to them as a group, explain a few of the priorities you have for the team, and answer whatever questions are on people’s minds.

Ideally, you should schedule this meeting on your first day. You can open the meeting by talking about how excited you are to step into this new role. Share a bit of your background.

I’ve found that it’s helpful to share a few things that give the team reason to trust me (past experience, projects I’ve led, etc.) but also acknowledge how much I need to learn and how much everyone else can teach me. Remember, your team wants someone who is capable but not arrogant, confident but not aggressive, and knowledgable but not a know-it-all.

If you’ve had the time to begin formulating priorities, this initial meeting is a great time to share those with the team.

Formulate a Vision and Share It in the Meeting

All of your team members will also be wondering how your leadership style and priorities differ from their last manager: Will you be more strict with work hours? Will you frequently cancel 1-on-1s like their last manager did or will you help them develop and grow? Will you pull people off their existing projects and change the focus of the department?

Uncertainty breeds stress, and you can eliminate some of that employee stress right off the bat by sharing a few of the things you plan to focus on as the new manager.

To refine your vision for the team, think about what you want the team to look like in six months. What should be different then? If you could accomplish three things in the next six months, what would those be? Ideally, what do you want your team to be known for? What will you need to prioritize to get there?

Even if your vision is a bit hazy at this point, that’s okay. You just want to set a broad direction and articulate a few focus areas for the team.

For example, when I moved into my previous role as Director of Client Services for a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company, on my first day I called a meeting with my team and told everyone that we would be focused on three things:

1. Improving client implementations (how we brought new clients onto our system)
2. Instituting more proactive client service support (reaching out to clients before they had issues)
3. Developing employees (investing in our team and training them new skills)

By sharing these three priorities upfront, I helped employees understand what they could expect from my leadership. They knew that we would begin investing more time and energy in these areas.

Conduct a “Listening Tour”

But don’t feel like you need to come in and make a lot of big changes right off the bat. Many new managers mistakenly think that they need to immediately begin changing things. That’s often not the right move. You just need to articulate a few focus areas, then learn from your team how best to proceed.

One of the best things you can do at this point is to lead with your ears rather than your mouth. Spend time listening. Schedule a 1-on-1 with each person in the first week. Show them that they are your priority and that what is important to them is important to you.

In addition to asking them about what projects they’ve been working on, take some time to get to know them on a more human level. What are their favorite hobbies outside of work? What do they do on a normal weekend? What do they ultimately want out of their career?

Ask each team member what they liked and what they disliked about the last manager. Ask what they want in their career and how their current job is helping with that goal. Ask how they would change the team if they were in charge.

This “listening tour” will give you a hit-list of potential small, quick improvements you can make within the team during the first few months.

It’s important to get a few small wins early on to gather momentum and show the team that you’re actively going to make things better for them. But for now, I’d caution against making any big changes. You want to know why things are the way they are before you go changing a bunch of things.

“Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.” -G. K. Chesterton

Circle Back to Tell Them What You Learned

Once you feel like you have a good grasp on what the team should be focused on in the short-term, circle back with everyone to share what you’ve heard from them. You can do this in one of your team meetings or in individual 1-on-1s.

This action of parroting back what you’ve heard is another way to build trust. It’s a chance to prove that you’ve been paying attention and that you want to improve things within the team.

You won’t be able to resolve every concern, but pick out your top several priorities and tell the team that you’ll be focused on those things first.

Notch a Few Small Wins

You want to show your team that you’re a capable leader who’s worthy of their trust. One of the best ways to build early momentum is by completing a few quick projects that show you’re listening to your team and you plan to get things done.

These things don’t have to be big. Here are a few simple ideas of the types of small things that can have a disproportionate impact:

• If your team has complained about the bad coffee in the break room, buy a new coffee maker.
• If your team members express that they don’t know their colleagues very well, schedule a team activity or happy hour.
• If your team is frustrated by your department’s slow approval process for expense reimbursements, change the policy to make it simpler and faster.

Follow Through on the Little Things

If you keep small promises, your team will know that you’ll keep big ones. If you tell someone that you’ll follow up with them by the end of the day, then don’t leave work until you follow up. If you say that you’ll schedule a meeting tomorrow to finish discussing a project, then be sure to do it.

Much of leadership is about executing on the small things. Every tiny promise you fulfill helps the snowball roll downhill. It will gradually pick up momentum, and as it does, your people will learn to trust in your leadership.

Even though this is only your first day in this new role, there’s a lot you can do to begin building trust. Use these tips to lay a great foundation with your team:

1. Schedule a team meeting.
2. Formulate a vision, then share it in the meeting.
3. Conduct a “listening tour.”
4. Circle back to tell them what you learned.
5. Notch a few small wins.
6. Follow through on the little things.