{"id":1976,"date":"2013-11-04T10:00:27","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=661"},"modified":"2013-11-04T10:00:27","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T10:00:27","slug":"tips-for-first-time-managers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/tips-for-first-time-managers\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for First Time Managers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Being a first time manager can be scary.\u00a0 A thousand scenarios run through your head while you desperately fight to prevent becoming the kind of boss you hate, all while still reaching the goals your boss demands of you.\u00a0 These tips are useful for a first time manager, or a seasoned manager looking for a refresher.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have Open Communication \u2013 Communication with your team shouldn\u2019t just occur in monthly meetings or staff performance reviews.\u00a0 Ongoing dialogue is essential to a well-oiled team.\u00a0 You shouldn\u2019t need emails sent every day to catch you up on what happened in the office, or weekly 3 hour meetings to find out what your staff have accomplished. If you find these necessary, you aren\u2019t talking to your employees enough.<\/li>\n<li>Ask Questions \u2013 If you need to know something from your staff, ask.\u00a0 Don\u2019t wait for it to be told to you.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t ask, and something bad happens, you can only blame yourself.\u00a0 It also shows that you are interested in what they are working on, and willing to follow up on the results.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t try to finish it all in one day \u2013 You can\u2019t close every file, enter all the data, or fix every problem in one day.\u00a0 Trying to will just stress you out and make you irritable. Keep in mind that your staff can\u2019t either, so don\u2019t expect them to.\u00a0 Remember that if you stress yourself out, you are probably projecting that onto them.<\/li>\n<li>Manage your time \u2013 Be on time to meetings, make enough time for projects, and show up\/leave work when you are supposed to.\u00a0 Remember you are setting an example for your employees.\u00a0 If you show up late to everything, are always rushing, and can\u2019t keep up with your share of the workload (like signing their timesheets or vacation requests) you are making it appear okay for them to do that.<\/li>\n<li>Learn to not take it personally \u2013 Even though it is typically shown the other way in shows and movies, employees will take out their frustrations on their boss too.\u00a0 You often will have to give them news they may not want to hear, like denied vacation, extra workload, or a poor performance review.\u00a0 These kinds of things can cause a blowback that are easy to take to heart, even if the decision was made by someone above you and you had nothing to do with it.\u00a0 Try not to take it personal.\u00a0 It will only lead to frustration.<\/li>\n<li>Thrive in your environment \u2013 It is easy to get lazy when you are the boss.\u00a0 Many people start to let others take over tasks for them.\u00a0 That is the last thing you want to happen.\u00a0 If you are the leader of the department, you should be the best resource in that area.\u00a0 You should be the person everyone wants to come to about your specific job area.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being a first time manager can be scary.\u00a0 A thousand [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[508],"tags":[1097,392,1098],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}