1. You can’t be friends with the employees who work with you.
This is probably the toughest lesson to learn. Teach the new manager that he has to be friendly but he can’t be friends anymore. Explain that he has to be objective and once fellow employees see that someone is promoted they will treat him differently. New managers, if they are working for the same company, often have to develop a whole new group of friends. And, it is very lonely at first.
2. Bad news doesn’t go away.
Many times people don’t like to deal with the difficult things. They think by ignoring it, the problem will go away. A new manager must learn that he has to deal with the problems immediately. If he ignores them they usually get worse. So, he has to deal with the tough issues first. When you give a person the responsibility, authority, and accountability, the accountability is the tough part…many times there are negative things to deal with in accountability. He has to learn to confront the issues quickly and resolve them!
- You don’t have to be nice. You just have to be fair.
A manager has to do things that are fair for everyone. Some people will like the actions. Some won’t. However, your decisions must be good for the group as a whole. A manager can’t make a decision that will favor one person over another. For example, if a good employee demands a raise and says that he will quit if he doesn’t get one, many times it is better to let that person quit. If he gets a raise, everyone will know that they can threaten to quit if they want a raise. This is not the environment you want.
- You have to return telephone calls.
If you have an unhappy customer, you have to deal with it. Letting messages sit only makes an unhappy customer even more unhappy. Make sure that the customers are taken care of and solve their problems. Try to return telephone calls immediately and resolve problems within 24 hours. After all, customers write your paychecks.
- You have to make the hard decisions…which are sometimes unpopular.
Managers and owners get the privilege of seeing the whole picture. If things aren’t going well, then they get the privilege of dealing with them. So, it is important that managers and owners see the total picture so they can make informed decisions. If this means no overtime for a while, shorter hours, layoffs, etc. then they make and implement those choices. If it means firing someone who isn’t doing their job, then they have to do it.
- Behaviors don’t change by wishing they would change.
If you need to change someone’s behavior (or a group’s behavior), then you have to clearly communicate the desired end result and the rewards for changing (or consequences if they don’t change). Often this is a slow, long term process. However, with patience and continuous follow up, changes in behavior can be made. If someone absolutely refuses to make the desired changes, maybe that person doesn’t need to be working for your company. This is one of those unpopular decisions that you have to make at times.
These are the behaviors of great field managers who have employees that love working for them. They are respected by their team.
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Ruth King is well known as “The Profitability Master.” She is passionate about helping small business owners become profitable and stay profitable. For over 40 years she has coached, trained, and helped contractors and others achieve the business growth and goals they wanted to achieve.
Contact Ruth by emailing ruthking@hvacchannel.tv.
