Submitted by MaxSteinmetz on
in
Forums
Hello to one and all,
My name is Max and I'm a former graphic designer who recently applied for a design job and was hired as the Dept. head (Manager, Creative is the title i think i'm going with - their letting me choose my title and I'm going with Manager, Creative so i can upgrade to Creative Director once I know what it is that I'm doing and how effectively to do it!). I've been a designer for almost twenty years and worked with a lot of great bosses and currently I'm doing everything I can to bone up on being a good manager - I've asked in advance if my company uses things like launch meetings, control sheets, one-on-ones, team meetings, etc. and to my surprise their past managers haven't.
I'm going to!
This is the first time I'm posting to the forums, I'll probably be asking for lots of advice, thoughts and opinions and I hope that all of you out their will lend a new manager your support, advice and ideas. Once I've got some wind in sails and idea of how to effectively determine direction, I promise I'll pay that help forward to others.
Thanks and thanks to everyone for creating this place and making it a great place to read and learn from.
Max
What a great opportunity!
G'day Max,
As M&M always say, "in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king". There's also something about, "you don't have to be great, you just have to be better than everyone else".
If your company hasn't been doing any of the basics, even the simplest action will be seen as an amazing step forward.
The first thing I did that changed things was so simple: I started meetings on time and made sure they finished on time or early. You can do that from the second you walk in the door of any new role and you're probably going to be the only manager doing it.
Cheers!
Rick Measham
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Read my blog: Geek Herding - Explorations in the art of leading IT professionals