3 things managers forget about being an entry-level employee

When you reach the role of manager in an organization (particularly for the first time), you have often been there a while. Chances are, you’re managing people who had roles like the one you had before you started to supervise others. The rhythms and routines of work are familiar.

Despite your feelings of closeness to team members on the front lines, you’re likely to forget three key issues that can hamper your ability to succeed. These factors can be a particular problem when working with people who are new to the organization.

Now you’re one of ‘them’

When you become a manager, you don’t feel much different than you did before your promotion. In fact, when you first step into that managerial role, you may feel less confident about going to work and doing your job than you did when you were a successful individual contributor.

When you head to work, you’re probably going to see most of the same people you used to work with closely. Only, something is different. You have suddenly gone from being one of “us” to being one of “them.” That’s right—now you’re on the management side of things.

You may very well want to be friends with all of your supervisees—particularly because you may have been close to many of them before getting your new role. But, your responsibilities will make it difficult to have the same relationship with the front-line team as you did before, because you also have to give them assignments and evaluate their performance. It’s easy to forget the way you used to view management before you entered into that role.

There are big information asymmetries

Once you move into a leadership role, you are privy to a lot of information about what is happening across the organization including discussions of strategy and new initiatives. Much of this information isn’t spread to the front lines of the organization, and is often not relevant to the daily work of individual contributors.

That means you need to become more effective at talking with people who do not share some of the knowledge you have. You may have to explain more of your references and remind yourself of the likely state of information of the people who report to you.

In addition, while I’m not a huge fan of organizational secrets, there are times when you become aware of information that is not supposed to be shared more widely. There are often good strategic reasons for a company to withhold some information from all employees until it can be communicated broadly and with a consistent message. It can be difficult to avoid spilling the beans, but you have to practice having knowledge other people might want to know, but can’t hear yet.

New people are still learning

A common problem for many people who have developed some expertise is returning to the beginner’s mind. It can be difficult to remember how little you knew before you were steeped in the processes, jargon, and lore of the organization.

As a manager, a significant part of your role is coaching new people. That means reminding yourself what it is like not to know anything about how the organization works.

Early on, you may find that what’s wrong with new employees is that they do not have basic knowledge of how to do their jobs or how the organization functions. Remember that you probably had no clue how to do your job when you first started. What makes people so smart is not that we come preloaded with lots of understanding of how to do tasks, but rather that we are so effective at learning from others effectively.

So, give your newest employees some grace. Give them a chance to adapt to their new environment. Teach a lot. Create a team where people want to let you know all the things they don’t yet understand. It’s much easier to teach someone who owns the gaps in their knowledge than to have to ferret out the holes in your employees’ knowledge that they are reluctant to reveal.

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