Bruce Tulgan is a leadership and management expert and bestselling author whose latest book The 27 Challenges Managers Face: Step-by-Step Solutions to (Nearly) All of Your Management Problems is due out in September. I recently connected with him to get some advice for new managers and how their employers can help them succeed.
Here’s what he had to say:
You previously wrote about how to manage Millennials, now Millennials are becoming the managers. How is that going to change the American workplace?
That’s a great question, but a very complicated one. Remember more than half of the first wave Millennials are already well into their thirties and their second and third career stages. Many have been moving into leadership roles over the last decade. So they are already having a huge impact on the American — and global — workplace.
The short answer is that as Gen Yers move more and more into positions of supervisory responsibility and leadership, they will continue to push the prevailing approach to employment relationships away from the old-fashioned, long-term hierarchical logic (pay your dues, climb the ladder, and hope for long-term vesting rewards), and toward more short-term transactional based employment relationships — in their attitudes and expectations, and behavior and business practices.
They will also continue the move away from traditional boundaries of place and time — increasingly we will see the 24/7/365, anywhere, everywhere, all-the-time approach to work. And of course the flip side of that boundaryless workplace, one hopes, is more room for increasing flexibility.
What do employers need to know about coaching and supporting their Millennial managers?
They need to understand that so many GenYers in leadership roles are under even more pressure, often managing too many people, with significant resource constraints, and logistical challenges, not to mention insufficient experience and leadership training.
The No. 1 thing new young managers tell us is that they need more leadership training. If you move someone into a supervisory role, it is absolutely critical to provide her with more than rudimentary training. New young managers need to learn the fundamentals and they need support and feedback as they begin applying those fundamentals.
When we train new young managers, this is the first lesson we emphasize: Don’t soft-pedal your authority, but also don’t come on too strong. Take charge. Own your new authority. But don’t be arrogant. Your first order of business is you need to get introduced to everyone and everything. You need to get on-board and up-to-speed with everyone and everything by learning the nuts and bolts of their jobs from day one. But don’t make the mistake of thinking you have to learn first and take charge later. You take charge by learning, one person at a time, one day at a time.
These days, Management Challenge #21 When Managing in an Environment of Constant Change and Uncertainty seems particularly relevant. What advice do you have for managers who feel they can’t keep up?
I’ve learned what I call the three pillars of leading people through change:
- Remind people constantly of whatever is constant. What is never going to change around here?
- Engage in regular contingency planning with your people. What is likely to change? Exactly what will we do if that happens? Coach your people through practice runs of regularly recurring scenarios. What if “that” happens again? Exactly what will we do if “that” happens again?
- When the unforeseen occurs, adapt and improvise. What else can you do?
How can managers balance offering employees the understanding and flexibility they need to take care of their lives while ensuring they’re doing the work needed to meet the business’ needs?
In short, there is no shortcut. The only way to really give employees flexibility (in schedule and location, especially) is to make sure flexibility goes hand in hand with accountability. That means managers need to be highly engaged in an ongoing one-on-one dialogue with every single direct report to make sure expectations are clear every step of the way and to keep track of every individual’s performance in relation to those expectations.
So long as an employee is consistently accomplishing her tasks, responsibilities and projects very well very fast with a great attitude, it’s a whole lot easier to give that employee lots of flexibility. That means managers have to get much better at keeping track of goals and deadlines; concrete actions; results and outcomes, so they don’t have to worry as much about exactly when and where their employees are working.
What advice do you have for managers who are struggling with an employee who’s smarter or more talented?
My advice to managers in that situation is to treat that employee like an “expert” (as if you are a patient and he’s the doctor; or you are the client and he’s the lawyer or accountant or “computer guy”).
In your regular ongoing one-on-one dialogue with your expert employees: Keep doing your own research and self-education. And make it clear you’re on a learning path. Focus on desired outcomes. Ask good probing questions every step of the way.
If you don’t understand the answers, say so. Ask more questions. Don’t allow yourself to be brushed off. Get a second opinion — and a third. Ask for details: “Exactly what are you going to do? Why? How are you going to do that? Why? What are the steps? What is involved in each step? How long will each step take? Why? What are the guidelines and specifications?”
As you monitor and measure performance, stay focused on the desired outcomes in relation to the expectations the expert has helped spell out. Over time, you may never become an expert, but you will get to know the person’s work better, as well as his work habits and track record. Certainly, you will learn enough to hold him accountable to clear metrics and provide regular ongoing course-correcting feedback, keeping that person on a track of continuous improvement toward elite performance.
Want to learn more about how to handle your first management job? My new book Becoming the Boss: New Rules for the Next Generation of Leaders is full of advice and information. It will be released on Sept. 16, but you can preorder your copy now.
