Three essentials to set every new manager up for success

When it comes to recruiting managers, the adage ‘you only get out, what you put in’ rings especially true. Jonathan Tabah, Director, Advisory at Gartner, shares why you need to refine your onboarding approach.

According to Gartner research, the direct reports of new managers who receive effective onboarding show a 14 per cent increase in performance, a 15 per cent increase in intent to stay, and a 13 per cent increase in commitment to the company and team.

Inducting a new manager should never be a tick-a-box exercise. To maximise your recruitment efforts and instantly improve team performance in 2024, make the following three initiatives part of your onboarding process.

Establish a culture of self-reflection

Once induction basics are out of the way, a great starting point in the onboarding process is to have a discussion with new managers about their prior leadership experience.

With the pressure to hit the ground running and a lack of guidance, some may automatically draw on those successful behaviours from their previous job, without considering the need to adapt to the organisation’s culture, business objectives, or processes.

To set up new managers for success, ensure your conversation covers:

• Their current managerial strengths and how to apply these skills to their new position
• How they can implement a start/stop/continue model as it applies to their role
• Tips for reflecting on and addressing any derailing behaviours, both personally and from their team, quickly and effectively.

Provide tools to embrace people management and build trust

Good people management skills come with time and experience. When starting in a new leadership role, people can feel hesitant, overwhelmed or lack confidence depending on how they achieved the position.

For those joining a new organisation, they face the challenge of stepping into a completely different team dynamic, with established relationships. For workers stepping up into a management position, they must overcome the discomfort of directing older colleagues, avoiding favouritism, and even disciplining former peers.

According to Gartner, coaching and developing others, and building psychological safety within teams, are the top two leadership capability gaps in frontline managers.

Ensure you conduct regular check-ins with new managers to determine whether they have the necessary tools and skills to oversee, and work through, their team. With open lines of communication and the right guidance, you can ensure both the manager and their team have confidence in each other.

For example, one critical ability for new managers to master is understanding sustainable work and the impact this can have on a team’s performance and mindset. Supporting managers to identify ‘quick wins’ and showing them how they can teach their direct reports to do the same will drive motivation and enhance job satisfaction.

Sharing resources on how to grow psychological safety will also encourage co-workers to be more open to new ideas and management styles.

Foster a path to success through networking

Forging relationships is one of the most important factors in our careers. When onboarding a new manager, it’s important to encourage them to build a network of people who will be able to help them succeed.

Set them on the right path by connecting them with key people both within and outside of your organisation, whether they be technical experts, partners, stakeholders or suppliers.

Those who have worked at the company for an extended period of time, in particular, have a wealth of company knowledge and can provide the wisdom and expertise to help them thrive. You can even suggest meetings or coffee catch ups with previous team leads and co-workers to strengthen relationships.

A ‘cheat sheet’ of essential contacts with background information about what each person brings to the table can help new managers make the most out of these crucial first conversations.

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