You’ve been working away, doing a great job for several years. You’re competent, technically proficient and you’ve been noticed at work for doing well.

So much so that you’ve just been promoted and will be managing a small team. How do you make the leap from employee to manager?

Recognise that you have a new job

“This sounds obvious, but countless people take on a managerial role with a view that the new role will be done on top of their usual client-facing role,” Sue Willcock, business change manager at Ellis Whittam, says. “The phrase: “How will I have time to manage people?” is a classic tell-tale saying that new managers are approaching their role from the wrong viewpoint”.

Tip: The role of manager is not just a case of adding things to your to do list, it’s learning how to manage your new role and delegate when you need to.

Take a step back

Your new role will probably involve a number of new skills, including planning, reporting, making judgement calls, presenting ideas, coaching and encouraging, performance managing and inspiring others to perform.

“Whilst some of these things are about doing ‘stuff’, many more are about how you get stuff done. Take some time to ponder the word ‘leverage’” advises Willcock.

Tip: Consider how you will achieve business goals by using your skills and new role to get the most from others.

Be crystal clear on what’s expected

In some organisations, especially if a role is brand new, expectations can be a little vague at first. In others, the role may be clearly set out, but because you are new in role, you are still working out what things mean for you.

Tip: Make sure you get hold of a job description and take time to go through it. Have a conversation with your own line manager about their personal expectation of both the role and how they like to work.

Believe in yourself

One of the biggest hurdles you might have to overcome when it comes to going from an employee to a manager is confidence, says Catherine Morgan, financial coach at The Money Panel.

“The biggest obstacles that many will have is confidence in themselves and their ability to deliver and manage,” she notes. “You may find that you have gone from doing to managing others doing the doing!

Tip: Understanding your people and getting the best from them will stand you in good stead.

Don’t micro-manage

“It is important to give the people in your team autonomy, recognition and responsibility,” says Morgan. “Get them on your side. Be personable and be interested in them more than anything else”.

Tip: Position yourself as someone who is going to help your team to achieve success because your success is dependent on their success. And don’t micromanage them.

Communicate

Helen Brent, a manager at Sunflower Accounts, says communication is one of the most important things when you move into a management role.

“Make yourself available to listen to your former colleagues and to fully empathize with them as the change in structure can cause feelings of uncertainty and can be emotionally stressful,” she advises.
Discuss and understand any frustrations, expectations and their future goals. This can help gain their trust and confidence.

Tip: Hold one-on-one meetings to explain the vision for the team and allow them to have an input on the end goal.

Set boundaries

“Going from a colleague to the boss, people can make the mistake of treating everyone as ‘friends’. Whilst going for a night out can be good for team moral, maybe stay for one drink,” says Brent. “Avoid gossip and remain highly approachable. You can be friendly whilst being their manager.”

Recognise that you need to keep learning

“Some people expect to be a good manager with little investment in themselves or the consideration that they may need to learn new skills. Don’t be this person!” says Willcock. “Know that you are learning and that it takes the same effort, resilience and reflection that it took to become the technical expert that you are.

Tip: Just as you made mistakes in your technical role, you will make mistakes now, as you learn to be a manager. Accept that you are learning and do the best you can for your team but also give yourself permission to learn.

In summary

Successful management is as much about self awareness as the relationship between the manager and his or her staff. Good relationships are based on trust and engagement, and a good manager’s role is to build these relationships early on. Expect to make mistakes but if you take on your new role willing to learn and grow, then you’re on the right track.

Read more about leadership and personal growth here:

Top traits of effective managers

Emotional intelligence and why you need it

Growth and leadership – what are your personal goals

Many people, when they get promoted, become ‘accidental managers’. They’ve had previous training, or have learnt well in a particular role, and someone has thought – they’ll make a good manager.

If this is you, it can be good to think about the skills and attributes you now need to focus on, to turn yourself from a good manager into an excellent one.

What does the role mean?

Before you can develop as a manager, you need to be clear about exactly what it means to be a manager. What does it look, sound and feel like?

Usually, being a manager means being put in a position where you have a strategy or plan that needs to be implemented. It’s your job to ensure the team can implement that plan effectively.

In practice, ultimately this usually means one of two things:

1. Establishing and maintaining the status quo, or
2. Creating change

As a manager, there will be specific tasks – to manage budgets, suppliers, processes, customers, etc. This means that you’re operating both inside and outside the organisation. But it’s likely that your main responsibility will be towards people – your team around you, and a leader or director above you.   

What does an effective manager look like?

An effective manager is a role model – but this is easier to say than do, and in some cases you have to challenge the status quo to create change. It’s about inspiring people, motivating people, and creating new thinking. To do that, you need to be able to plan methodically, to communicate well, and to identify, motivate and reward effective behaviours in others.

You cannot be a good manager without good planning skills; and that planning is likely to centre on objectives. A proven method of effective management is to give your team SMART objectives – any task should be Specific, Measurable, Realistic, Achievable and Timebound.

Understanding how people work well together and individually

It’s a cliché to say that your best assets are your people – but it’s a cliché because it’s absolutely true. In order to manage people well, you have to understand that different people thrive in different ways, and it’s essential for you to be able to communicate with them effectively to understand how they’ll work best themselves, and what they can bring to the organisation.

For example: not everyone is motivated by money. So you need to create those motivators yourself and ask for regular feedback from your team; that way, you’ll understand what’s important to them and be able to motivate them more effectively.

You need to think: how can I motivate and empower, and leave people satisfied? Generally speaking, this involves leading by example, and recognising that most change comes from nurturing behaviours.

Those behaviours revolve around five elements:

1. Communicating
2. Empowering
3. Delegating
4. Inspiring
5. Mentoring

Where managers really come into their own is when the organisation’s business plan cascades down into an operational plan.

Ensure you can see the wider picture, as well as the detail – part of your role as manager is to help the individual understand what they do and how it fits into the team. As things cascade upwards, they become more strategic.

Moving into pole position

Management guru Peter Drucker once said that as a manager it’s easy to set tasks, but you only reach objectives in partnership with the individual.

Key point: In other words – don’t decide who’s doing what and then send them an email. Instead, sit down with them and say five things. This is what we’ll do as a team; this is what I would like you as an individual to do; these are the targets; this is how we’ll measure success; and what do you think?

At this point, if there’s resistance or things don’t go entirely according to plan, be proactive and positive about that; don’t just criticise people or ignore a problem.

Where there are weaknesses, which we might rename ‘development areas’, put those into the plan and offer training. That’s how you enhance capability, and how you continually ensure that your people are an asset and can enhance the organisation’s growth or development.

Consider how that would look in your business. Does everyone know what’s expected of them? Do they have the skills to deliver? Are they motivated towards delivering? If you can answer yes to all those questions, you have some context to work towards.

How to become a truly great manager, rather than simply an excellent one

To do this, think behaviourally. Many managers think the job is about giving tasks – but there might be behavioural objectives too, such as asking a team member to consider values or ethics.

Decide what your priorities are, and which objectives are more important than others. If there’s a sequence, help team members understand that others in the team are relying on them to do things in a certain order. The key is to ensure people feel part of a team, rather than at the bottom of a series of jobs.

Good management behaviours can be remembered as being ABCD:

ABLE – Leaders demonstrate competence by having the knowledge, skills, and expertise for their roles

BELIEVABLE – Leaders act with integrity when they tell the truth, keep confidences, and admit their mistakes. 

CONNECTED – Trustworthy leaders care about others. They are kind, compassionate, and concerned with others’ well-being. 

DEPENDABLE – People trust leaders who honour their commitments. DWYSYWD—doing what you say you will do is a hallmark of dependable leaders.

Being an effective manager – 5 key takeaways

1. Know the organisation’s culture. This is ‘the way we do things round here.’ Without understanding it, you can’t make changes – you need to translate the culture into ‘this is what I need to do’ when you speak to staff.
2. Be knowledgeable about frameworks. These include the legal and regulatory framework in which you operate; the economic and political environment in which you work; and the social and technological opportunities and threats to the organisation’s business.
3. Get the best out of your people. People work in different ways and have different strengths. Know when to discuss things face-to-face, in team meetings, by email or phone, or over the Intranet. Don’t rely on one particular channel, and make what you’re doing relevant to each person.
4. Interpret, translate and make relevant. Then, ask for feedback. When your staff tell you what they think – good and bad – it can influence and help you adjust what you’re doing going forward.
5. Gain the staff’s trust. Trust is the most powerful single quality you can engender in your staff – but it takes time and integrity. Give time and resources; and reward positive behaviours, not just results.

This article is an excerpt from an AAT Knowledge Hub webinar. You can listen to the full webinar here (log in required):

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Being emotionally intelligent means that you are aware of your own emotions and able to handle interpersonal relationships empathetically

While it applies to all professionals, high emotional intelligence is a must for accountants in leadership positions..

“In fact, it’s been proven that EI accounts for 85% of what sets the outstanding leaders apart from the average,” says Amanda Davie, Emotional Intelligence in Leadership coach at coaching consultancy Equal Talent.

Attributes of emotionally intelligent leaders

Dr Ruth Smith, executive coach at PM-Management and author of Where Authentic Leaders DARE (due to be published in August/September) has asked over 500 people to describe the behaviours and attributes of leaders who had inspired them. “Without exception, they’ve listed facets of emotional intelligence: empathy, calm, consistency and the fact that they ‘get you’. Technical skills and IQ are not on the list.” 

Repercussions of low EI

“Failing to ‘read’ others results in eroded trust, lack of engagement, inefficiency and low productivity,” says Smith.

Leadership coach Lynn Scott points out that it is your role as a leader to create an environment where people are valued, understood and able to give their best. And this is nigh on impossible if you fail to recognise and regulate your own emotions, and if you are unaware of the impact your emotions and behaviour have on others.

“You can be the smartest person in the world in terms of IQ but if you lack Emotional Intelligence people won’t warm to you, they’ll often avoid telling you the truth (too risky), they probably won’t even want to work with you.”

Scott adds: “If you constantly lose staff, it could be a sign that you aren’t leading or connecting with people in an emotionally intelligent way.”

Importance of EI in a digital workplace

EI is even more important now we are working in increasingly fast-paced, digital environments, where it’s easy to rely on remote communication.

“There are fewer verbal and non-verbal cues (body language, tone of voice, eye contact) that allow you to connect with and understand your people and, therefore, to motivate and inspire them,” Smith says.

When most of your conversations are by email, it’s very easy to write something that your staff might take in the wrong way. It’s very easy to rush to wrong conclusions, too.

How you can boost your EI 

The good news is EI isn’t an innate quality – it can be developed and improved, but only if you make a conscious decision to do so.

Davie says: “Many male execs in particular shy away from this skills development area. This harks back to the olden days when men never talked about thoughts and feelings. But ‘emotions’ isn’t a dirty word and empathy is now a necessary leadership skill. So the choice is to either remain in the dark ages or to become enlightened.”

Firstly, focus on you

Scott says: “You need to become much more aware of what you’re feeling or thinking at any given time and why – and, importantly, how you react as a result of those thoughts and feelings. Will your response help people do their best or will it cause them to ‘fight, flee or freeze’?”

• When you’re self-aware, you can change any unhelpful default reactions.
• Breathe deeply for a few seconds and then choose a more suitable, emotionally intelligent response,” says Scott.
• Also, get feedback (this can be anonymous). Scott suggests that you ask your team these two questions: What do I do well as a leader? and What could I do differently to be a better leader?

Secondly, focus on others and seek to understand them

You must be genuinely interested to hope for a genuine connection, but Scott says that’s easier than you might think: “listen more, ask more, and tell less”.

• You need to listen to what is being said as well as to what isn’t.
• Sometimes people say they are ok when they are not, so look beyond words and observe for signs of anxiety, stress or any other emotional upheaval.

Build a culture of Emotional Intelligence

Role modelling emotionally intelligent behaviour will encourage your staff to exercise EI, too.

Scott says: “For example, when there are different opinions about something, an emotionally intelligent response is That’s interesting, but I have a different perspective. I’d love to understand your thinking a bit more, rather than That’ll never work or That’s a terrible idea.” So think about the language you want people to use and lead by example.

She adds: “Ensure that everyone has a chance to contribute in meetings, that people listen to each other without interrupting and that you all recognise what’s gone well rather than focusing on what isn’t going so well. Genuine appreciation makes for open, honest conversations and a supportive environment.”

Hire emotionally intelligent people, too

The job interview is your opportunity to assess the EI of a candidate, their self-awareness and their empathy levels. 

Smith says: “For example, ask them to talk about a difficult relationship or situation. What you want to probe for is whether the candidate is able to see things from another’s point of view. Also, ask them what they think the other person felt or thought in that situation.”

Pay attention to their choice of words, their tone of voice and read their body language. And listen to your intuition. “Quite often your intuition will have worked out something before you can fully rationalise it,” says Smith.

In summary

Good bosses and managers have the ability to understand and take into account the feelings, emotions and viewpoints of others, they solve problems by listening first and by putting themselves in other people’s shoes. They are also highly self-aware, in touch with their own feelings, needs and intuitions. All this helps them build trust and a connection with their people.

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