Do you have advice for a new manager?

Remember to duck aoften and cyoa all the time!!

-duck

At least as far as your team is concerned, always accept that it's your job to [ultimately] take care of things - whether they be helping out with HR related issues, clarifying upper management vision [heh] or whatever they throw at you.

The teamthat respects you, and doesn't see you whine, works hard and rarely whine themselves.

Never make a decision, never accept blame, and institute a liquid lunch for all your employees.

Treat your people in a professional manner. Know when to step in, but otherwise let them do their jobs. If you're not already planning on it, hold a weekly staff meeting in which veryone can take a turn to briefly discuss what they have been working on during the past week. Lead by example; when re-wiring a building for 100 Mbps ethernet, I found my crew was much more motiviated when I was in on the weekends with them pulling cable.

Just a few ideas!

1) Take responsibility for your team's actions - later you can take it out of their hides in private. ;)
2) Clear the road so your team can get on with the job - handle their issues whether it is HR, business, or other
3) Don't be afraid to change your mind if something isn't working but don't vacillate either
4) Treat all your people with respect and courtesy
5) Lead by example
6) Don't try to be popular and don't play favorites - you're not there to win a popularity contest and sometimes you are going to need to make some unpalatable decisions
7) Learn to work with interruptions
8) Communicate, communicate, communicate

Jon Barnett
Amity Solutions

9. Communicate with your people often.
10. Make sure you communicate with you boss.
11. Don't act like they must treat you as the boss, if they respect you, they will.
12. Listen to your people. Listening to your people really helps.
13. Do stress too much..... ask for help when needed

It can be difficult at first, but like anything you will gain experience every day and it will become fun when things go right.

Good luck!!!!!

Listen
Ask Questions
Act

In that order.

:)

Talk less and listen more. You can not focus on just you anymore. You have a staff that needs your attention and your consideration. If you are a good listener and provide positive feedback to your employees, you will have their loyalty for all time.
Don't tell them what to do, but ask them what they need to do their jobs.

After being forced into managing an IT support center for an international firm for 2 years now, I have plenty experience under my belt and even more Advice. A good point is to remember to be friends outside of work. I was placed over people that had been there before I arrived and it was a total uphill battle the whole time. I have terminated people and have completed a "shake-up of sorts, to re-organize and structure it the way that I wanted. Another important aspect is to be fair across the board. It can be difficult at times, but you must learn to do this. It was also a challenge to acquire the trust of the CIO and other IT directors that knew I was the "new kid on the block" and second guessed almost every decision I made. But,never take it personal, which can be hard not to do. Listen to advice, what applies soak it up, what doesn't, let it roll. Much luck and success to all of you Newbies!!!!!!!!!!

Three key areas to master:
- Respect.
- Know your people.
- Marketing.

Respect. As a manager (of ANY type), this is one of the most important aspects. You need to respect your folks as contributors to the process. Give them leeway to do their job (i.e., don't micro-manage unless absolutely necessary), give them the tools to succeed. If you don't respect your folks, don't plan on having highly-motivated, highly-efficient and effective people working for you.

Know your people. Know how they operate, what their skills are, who they're comfortable with and what challenges them. Many a team has failed because the manager didn't know how to properly allocate his human resources.

Marketing. From an IT-specific perspective, I think marketing is even more important than many "general" business management positions. Given that most folks do not understand IT (the function of IT, the specific technologies, etc.), being able to communicate and market the benefits (not the features) of what you do is vital. I have seen IT folks let go because they couldn't adequately explain to people how they provided value to the process. Sometimes that's valid (there are a lot of non-value-added people roaming around companies), butoften times it's not. It's usually only after the folks have been released that their value becomes apparent, and that's a BAD situation all around.

It is very important that see you sure of yourself and of what you are commenting them when you have to express something about your work. People that doesn't have technical knowledge are prone to doubt of all that is said in this respect, mainly ifthe one that is questioning you is a high directive or the one in charge of authorizing the budget dedicated to the IT areas. This doesn't mean that you have to be extremely technical to impress them, this can be counteractive, but rather it is important to conjugate the technical language with the colloquial one but in a way that is comprehensible for the non technicians.

1) Recognize that the sum capabilities of your staff is your maximum output. Just because you have high standards don't expect your team members to hold the same values. Recognize there strengths and provide good training for their weaknesses.

2) Read Ken Blanchard 1 minute manager series and you needn't read any other manager handbooks. Apply his 3 easy steps to management and Situational leadership.

3) Invest your time in enabling your staff to succeed and field off the crap for them.
4) Learn what the internal politics of your organization and start to network with peer and upper managers. Ask their advise. Managers always like to help other managers. (Usually).

5) Learn to understand how to manage an IT budget down to thelast penny and clear show the business where money can be saved.

6) If you do project work as well as support work try to keep the two separate. It's a lot easier to justify bringing in extra staff for a new project as long as you define this is in the cost of implementing a project. Don't allow your staff to be pulled in both directions. Justify your case.

7) Record and report everything. Get you team to do time sheets so you can factually show where resources time is spent. This helps the argument over extra resources and keeps you on top of what the team is doing. It also makes writing your Monthly report easier.

8) Ensure you have good disaster/recovery plans and get the company to take responsibility for business recovery. You job is to get the systems back in place.

9) If you are swamped with calls for help into the department then create a centralized Help Desk. Outsource this function if necessary. Once you go down this route you can create KPI's and SLA's which outline your complete services.

10) Perform staff appraisals once or twice a year. Give clear objectives and then help them reach them.

11) Learn Monkey Management. When an employee comes looking for help make sure you send them away with the next move (next action). Don’t take on their workload, you'll have enough to do.

12) Hold regular team meetings. This is usually difficult because of deadlines or because everyone is always busy. If necessary have lunch time meetings, but make sure you provide the sandwiches and coffee.

13) Treat the team once per quarter to a meal out. If you control the budget then you can manage the cost.

14) Understand your own weaknesses in the early days. You are allowed to go on training as well. Make sure you get it.

15) Don't take problems to your boss. Take issues but always have optional solutions and ask which they would recommend.

What I've learned since I was elevated to IT manager about 3 years ago....

(In no particular order)

1) Communication is critical
2) Treating your team with respect and fairness is the only way to ensure quality and timely results in return
3) Listen, have an open door policy - this is an important part of that whole "trust" thing.
4) Do NOT play favorites, simply put - nothing good EVER comes out of that in the long run
5) Never "lay into" an employee in the open, that's just dumb....

Don't be dumb. ;)

Communicate, both up the line and down the line--early and often. Rumors grow in the absence of meaningful communication.

Be Honest--not brutal, just candid. People may not want to hear the truth, but the truth doesn't necessarily have to be painful.

Bad news NEVER gets any better with age. The sooner you pass it on--whether to your boss or to your team--the better it will be for everybody.