There are going to be times during your management career when you are given team members who are coming from a previous manager. There could be any number of reasons for this, including:
- Their previous manager has left the company.
- The person you’re managing has moved teams.
- You’ve joined a new company and taken over a team.
Whatever the reason may be, you should be aware of a number of things that should slightly change your approach to managing these new people.
When you are managing someone who is perhaps super early in their career or never been managed by someone else in your company, you’re pretty much starting with a fresh slate in terms of how you manage them. There are few, if any, benchmarks for them to compare their experience with you against.
Let’s take a look at what you should be aware of when taking over management of someone. Then we’ll look at some very concrete actions that you can take to ensure that you’re being an effective manager for your new team members.
Things to be aware of when taking over management of someone
People are open to change, but are nervous about uncertainty
Typically, we’re open to change, especially when we expect the changes to be positive. But with every type of change, there is a large degree of uncertainty. It’s the uncertainty that can cause problems when taking over management of someone and make your job a little more difficult.
Understanding the root causes of this uncertainty and then removing it as quickly as possible is really important if you want to get off to a strong start managing new people.
You may not be welcomed by your new team members
It’s very possible that their old manager was well liked, well respected and did a very good job. As a result, and no matter how good a manager you are, your new team members may not welcome you as a new manager.
This can make it hard to make changes to how things run, even if the changes will be positive ones. You’re being instantly compared to their old manager without any time to show that you are a good manager. This isn’t your fault, but it is very understandable and something that you need to quickly overcome.
Start with the assumption that you need to earn trust and respect
You may well be a great manager and have the trust and respect of other team members or your peers. You probably deserve the trust and respect that you already have as a result of being a good manager.
But don’t allow this to make you believe that you will instantly deserve (and get) the trust and respect of your new team members.
Frankly, they probably won’t care about your history or reputation as a manager. They will care what you can do for them moving forward.
Therefore, it’s actually worth starting with a bit of a cynical mindset – assume that you need to start from scratch and earn their trust and respect.
By doing this, you’ll focus on putting the right amount of effort and time into all aspects of managing your new team.
Tactical ways to take over management of a team
Now, let’s get into some concrete actions that you can take when you do take over management of a team, whilst keeping the principles above in mind.
Give everyone the same chance
Start by telling your team very clearly and openly that as far as you’re concerned, you’re starting from a clean slate with everyone. This means that whilst you’ll talk about their historical performance and how things went with their previous manager – both the good and the not so good – that you’ll start from the point of wanting them to succeed and helping to support their career development.
This can help reset any historical problems that your team may have had with their previous manager. For example, it may be possible that someone didn’t quite gel with their old manager and that this affected their performance.
Making it clear that you’re prepared to reset things and not hold this type of problem over them will give them hope and confidence in you as their new manager.
Of course, if historical problems repeat themselves, then you’ll need to deal with those as you normally would. But the point is that your new team needs to know that you have a fair chance to perform well and not have previous issues with their manager held over them unfairly.
Define and communicate your standards and expectations
Coming into a team that has been managed by someone else almost certainty means that they will be accustomed to certain ways of working. Some of this may be positive and some of it may be negative.
Either way, you need to be clear with your new team what your expectations of them are.
This doesn’t need to be a huge announcement or big team meeting – although this can work well at some point.
Instead, you can start to talk about your expectations and standards with your new team on a one to one basis. This can be done via their personal development plans and generally via one-on-one meetings where you discuss their day-to-day work.
Once you’ve spoken to them individually about your standards and expectations, you can start to reiterate and reinforce them via team meetings.
Ask what worked and what didn’t about their previous manager
Whilst I’m not a huge fan of focusing too much on the past, it is worthwhile to have a conversation about their previous experience working with their previous manager. This is particularly useful for very positive and very negative experiences. All of the stuff in the middle is probably not going to be overly meaningful for either of you.
Whereas learning about what you really enjoyed or what they really didn’t enjoy can be useful and factored into your own management of them.
A few things that you can ask about include:
- What their previous manager did really well when it came to day-to-day support.
- How much they liked (or didn’t like) their personal development planning.
- Examples of where they felt they progressed really well and when they felt like they were perhaps held back a little.
These types of questions can help you understand what worked and didn’t work for their previous manager and potentially avoid repeating any mistakes that their previous manager made.
Refrain from commenting on their old manager
Finally, and leading on from the previous point – make sure that you avoid commenting on anything that their old manager did. This relates particularly to anything negative that your new team member describes.
It’s never a good idea to indulge negative comments or conversations about their old manager. Even if the comments seem fair, try to just listen and don’t add to the conversation or extend it longer than necessary.
This shows that you maintain respect for their old manager but also shows that you’re someone who doesn’t partake in these kinds of conversations – no matter who they relate to.
And that’s it. Ultimately, the fundamentals of managing your new team are going to be the same. But don’t assume that how you approach these fundamentals and put them in place is exactly the same as when you manage people who haven’t been managed before.
