Your first time leading a team can be both exciting and scary. There will certainly be some unexpected challenges that come your way – some easier than others to handle. And you won’t always be successful right off the bat in every situation; that’s certainly normal.

But, as leading executive headhunters in Florin, California, Pacific Staffing knows if you take the right approach, are patient, and develop the skills and abilities imperative to great leadership, you can shorten the learning curve and get ahead faster. To start, consider these strategies:

Change Your Mindset

As an employee, it’s all about you – your responsibilities, accomplishments and goals. Now, however, as a manager, you need to change your mindset because your role has changed. Your job now is to focus on your team and working with them to help them achieve departmental goals.

As a result, it’s critical that you:

• Get to know each person on your new team on an individual level so you can determine how to best manage them.
• Set goals and define expectations for each employee.
• Ensure that you have the right people in the right positions; that there aren’t any skills gaps and your staff has the skills and knowledge to meet your expectations.

Embrace Transparency

Communicating with your team openly and honestly is essential to succeeding as a manager. But between all your new responsibilities, doing so can sometimes be complicated. Keep in mind, though, most employees leave their bosses, not their companies. And many times the reason stems from frustration over a lack of communication and transparency – for instance, undisclosed expectations.

Don’t put off communicating with your staff, even when it’s bad news or negative feedback. You can’t expect your team to meet your goals or improve performance if you keep them in the dark.

Don’t Blame

Unexpected – and sometimes unpleasant – events will happen when you’re leading a team. When they do, don’t try to save face in front of your own boss and point fingers of blame at others.

At the end of the day, the success of your staff is your responsibility. If you gain a reputation for throwing your staff under the bus, you’ll undermine any sense of loyalty and trust.

Hire the Best

Now that you’re in charge, part of your job is to hire for your team. For new managers, oftentimes they’ll hire those who have similar backgrounds as their own or those who are sub-par in order to outperform them. But doing so weakens the whole team. When hiring, look for those with strengths and skills you don’t have.

Are you looking to get promoted to an executive or management level position? Pacific Staffing has been helping people achieve professional success for more than 25 years. As experts in the field of executive headhunting in Florin, California, we can help you uncover opportunities no one else knows about and guide you toward achieving your career goals. To learn more about how we can help your career, please contact us today.