Submitted by RossK on
in
Forums
I have managed a pretty hectic department with 7 DR's for about a year. My department is slowly falling apart due to me now realizing how I poorly handled my DR situations in the past. I am realizing I was less than prepared for the position but I still have support of my manager for the time. I was pretty much on my own and possibly did not consult HR enough. I also did not communicate enough with DR's and I am changing that. I am new to Manager Tools and plan to go through the Manager Tools "Basics" as a start unless I get other advice. I feel like my grace period is gone and simply wanted to ask if anyone had advice on prioritizing my next steps to get back on track. Any comments are appreciated! Thanks!
long road but doable
The basics is the right road. Its a good 16 hours of sound advice and guidance. If you follow it, you will see a great deal of results in 6 months. One thing that will help which is later in the guidance is 'never introduce a managerial change without introducing a managerial change'. In short, let your directs konw what your doing. Transparency will help significantly if I read your situation correctly. Good luck.
Neil
It sounds like your situation
It sounds like your situation might be similar to mine early in my working career. I was promoted to manager of a retail showroom but I had no management training, and none was forthcoming once I took the position. I would reach out to the main office for advice on situations when they occurred, but it was piecemeal, incomplete guidance. They just threw me in and told me to swim for it.
If that's the case you need to rely on yourself to learn what you need to know. This is a great site with lots of knowledge waiting to be accessed. If the company doesn't have much of a management training program, don't rely on them. Trust your own instincts.
The Trust Equation
I've survived from this equation:
Trust = Changed Behavior / Time
Changed behavior over time is about defining the dos and don'ts your team is looking for in terms of what is mutually expected. Managers that do this well take two steps. They first pull the team together to define their guiding principles. It starts with a question like, "What are we all about?" The second thing they do is redefine those behavioral expectations so that over time the right behaviors expected are exhibited.
~Davis