Welcome to your new role as a first-time manager in the hospitality industry! This step marks a pivotal moment in your career, opening doors to personal and professional advancement. However, it’s essential to acknowledge that this new role has challenges that require adept navigation. Your company may have prepared you well technically, but despite this, there are common pitfalls almost all first-time managers and assistant managers experience.
Mistakes are part of normal development. They are part of sharpening the saw and developing your soft skills. They offer valuable lessons for honing leadership skills and ensuring sustained success. In my two blog posts, I share detailed insights and actionable strategies for overcoming these challenges by maintaining brevity.
When you transition into your first management role, you will experience a paradigm shift. Suddenly, you’re tasked with addressing holistic and operations-related issues with technical expertise and management skills. While mistakes are expected during this transition, some can significantly hinder your career growth. Your demeanor and approach are pivotal; understanding these potential pitfalls can be career savers. Now, let’s explore these critical pitfalls you should anticipate and strive to avoid entirely.
MISTAKE NO. 1: YOU HAVE NO CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT YOUR SUPERIOR EXPECTS FROM YOU
Uncertainty about your boss’s expectations can lead to a rocky start. Even if you have a good job description and understand the role, your boss holds the keys to your success, shaping your trajectory within the organization. It’s like a puzzle, and understanding their expectations is the first piece. Clarifying these expectations early on is essential; avoiding stumbling into this common pitfall is crucial.
Craft tailored questions for your inaugural meeting to set the stage for clarity and alignment. Initiate the conversation positively, expressing your eagerness to understand your boss’s style, priorities, and vision for success. Inquire about specific milestones, tasks, and preferred communication methods, prioritizing based on relevance and urgency.
Reflect on the insights gained post-meeting and plan your next steps accordingly. Approach it with genuine curiosity and a commitment to aligning your goals with your boss’s expectations. In my book, you can review the entire arsenal of actionable strategies to foster a productive relationship with your boss and ensure success in your new position. Remember, clarity and alignment from the outset are critical for a successful journey in your leadership role.
MISTAKE NO. 2: NEGLECTING TEAM EXPECTATIONS
A common oversight lies in needing to understand your team’s expectations entirely. Instead of meeting your supervisor’s demands, overlooking your team’s needs can lead to disengagement and inefficiency. To excel in your leadership role, it’s essential to conduct a thorough analysis of what each team member expects from you. This includes clarifying job expectations, ensuring access to necessary resources, aligning roles with individual strengths, providing adequate recognition, valuing individual contributions, supporting professional development, seeking team input, and fostering a positive team atmosphere. These aspects are necessary to maintain team morale and productivity and their positive feedback about you as their manager. There is a fine line between positive feedback and respect. Mastering this will be challenging initially; however, as you spend more time in this new role, you will slowly develop different degrees of perception toward your team members.
MISTAKE NO. 3: LACK OF CLEARLY DEFINED GOALS
Now that you understand the expectations from both your superiors and your team, it’s time to establish clear goals derived from these expectations. These goals should align with company objectives and create an environment conducive to your team’s effectiveness. After analyzing the current situation thoroughly, identify specific goals to achieve within a defined period. Here are some approaches:
1. Personal and professional development: Enhance leadership skills, all reports related to your department, and relevant expertise.
2. Increase satisfaction: Improve customer, colleague, and superior satisfaction with team performance based on measurable metrics.
3. Performance improvement: Boost team productivity through efficiency or better results with less effort. Introduce new metrics if necessary or refine the existing ones.
4. Build competence: Develop team members’ skills to enhance coverage during absences.
Concrete goals are essential—wishful thinking becomes measurable objectives. As already pointed out, improving team efficiency requires quantifiable criteria. Analyze current performance and identify areas for improvement. Consider the “Overall Service Quality” metric. If it has a 75% excellent score, aim to increase it to 80% or even to 85%. Outline specific steps and timelines. For instance, implement training and collaborate with departments to achieve this goal. Your plan should be focused, with a maximum of three significant goals. Achieve one within 100 days to demonstrate managerial effectiveness and generate early successes. Shoot for what is achievable in this short time, and don’t let ambition get the better of you.
MISTAKE NO. 4: INEFFICIENT GOAL COMMUNICATION
Having a clear plan is excellent, but it’s crucial to communicate it effectively and ensure buy-in. Start by discussing your goals with your boss and then with your team. Make sure they understand the purpose and significance of the goals. Answer key questions: What are the goals, and why are they important? Present them in a dedicated team meeting and follow up with individual discussions tailored to each team member’s needs and experience. Understand that every team member is different and may require varying guidance. Adjust your leadership style accordingly, considering experience level and personal preferences. Use tools like Eric Berne’s five inner drivers to understand yourself better.
Set up a reporting system to track progress regularly and ensure alignment with team goals. Connect individual goals with overarching company objectives to reinforce motivation and purpose. Use the 6W formula to explain goals clearly and comprehensively: What, Who, How, When, Where, and Why. Keep the conversation ongoing to maintain motivation and ensure everyone understands the bigger picture.
MISTAKE NO. 5: YOU WANT TO DO EVERYTHING DIFFERENTLY FROM NOW ON
Imagine joining a new team with a new boss eager to shake things up. While change can be positive, an immediate overhaul of established practices can backfire. Respect the organization’s history and take a measured approach to change. Of course, different scenarios may apply to your specific situation, which will modify your approach. Engage with existing team members and calmly reflect on potential improvements. Avoid abrupt actions like rearranging seating or altering policies prematurely. Instead, observe and gather insights during the initial phase. Resist the urge to scrap existing projects without understanding their context. Appreciate the work done and listen to team members’ perspectives. Fostering collaboration and inclusion will pave the way for successful change management in the future.
Here, you have the first part of the series on the top 10 Mistakes of young nanagers. Just being aware of them helps you to avoid making them. In the next post, I will discuss addressing challenges, hesitation scenarios, stakeholder interaction, and micro-management.
Best!
Helmut
