Three Questions I Wish I Asked When I Became a Manager

The story of my promotion to my first managerial role sounds very similar to many others. I had been working at my company for about two years - I had been promoted from my initial account manager role to senior account manager and was managing many of the companies largest clients. I was seen as a “go-to” person on our team, helped with special projects and departmental process documents, and when my direct manager decided to move on from the company, the role was essentially handed to me without a traditional interview process. I was so excited to take on this new challenge, I neglected to ask a few questions that would have made for a smoother transition to a people leader position.

1. What sort of training will I receive to prepare for my new role? Eighty-five percent of new managers do not receive any training prior to becoming a manager.* A shocking statistic when managers have such a significant impact on overall employee happiness in the workplace. While I was a strong individual contributor and had solid communication and prioritization skills, I had never led a team. While I had my Masters and had taken courses on workplace communication and conflict management, those topics take on a new perspective when you're in a leadership role. I should have asked about available training options and sought out my own mentors and learning opportunities earlier in my transition when I wasn’t offered any formal guidance from my company at the onset.

2. How long will I be in this player/coach position? Like many who are promoted from within, the expectation was that I would continue to manage all of my current job responsibilities and take on day-to-day management of the team. Player/coach roles can be temporary while a company looks to backfill your individual contributor role or a more permanent solution if the size of the department does not require a full-time people manager. However, keeping all of your individual contributor responsibilities and adding the weight of managerial duties is not a viable long-term solution and does not set up new managers for success. I should have asked what the long-term plan was for my position and should have set clear expectations on when I would transition part of my individual contributor responsibilities to others so I could devote the necessary time to managing my team. Instead, I juggled my existing full-time client list, added new, challenging responsibilities and quickly became overwhelmed.

3. Did anyone else on the team or at the company express interested in this position? Since I took on my first manager job without a formal set of interviews, it did not really occur to me to ask if anyone else was considered or interested in the role. What I found out later was that someone else on the team had been interested and was disappointed that I had gotten the job without others being considered. This was someone that ultimately reported to me. I didn’t know about this until several months into my transition and while we had a positive, professional relationship on the surface, I had no idea there were some underlying hurt feelings. This person ultimately left the team. Had I been aware of this situation, I could have addressed their feelings directly and had a chance to repair the damage done when someone feels wrongfully passed over for a promotion. Perhaps addressing this head on would not have changed their decision to leave, but it would have given me advance notice that someone on my team felt overlooked and ultimately was a flight risk. 

Looking back on your first role in management, is there anything you wish you would have asked when taking on the job?

* New Managers: 37 Facts You Must Know About Leadership and Workplace Culture (LinkedIn, 2019)