Job redundancy is a terrifying experience; whether in the face of right-sizing or downsizing. When your employers choose to cut-down on the workforce based on economic factors and challenges and you are directly affected, it can bruise your ego, confidence and career Before we proceed, let’s take a quick look at what job redundancy is and what it is not.

What is Job Redundancy: Job redundancy or redundancy is a situation where a company cuts down its workforce because the jobs attached to such employees are considered surplus to requirement.

What Job Redundancy is Not: Job redundancy does not cover cases where an employee is sacked and gets replaced by someone else to do the same job. Now, let’s proceed to look at the role technology plays in this as well as other interesting details.

We live in an age where technological advancements offer employers more ways and opportunities to deliver organisational goals at a more cost/service efficient pace. Below are tested and trusted ways to keep your head up while going through the murky waters of job redundancy.

Self Awareness

Going through job redundancy when it hits you really hard is a good time to become more self-aware. It is a perfect time to highlight your wins and your errors through introspection. Ask yourself life-changing questions. Becoming self-aware will help you go through the pain. It’s okay to weep but this phase is designed to help you focus your energy on the most important question anyone who wants to survive this period would ask – “What’s next for me?”

Check For Legality

Being shown the door is a good time to check what the law and your contract says about job-redundancy when and if such situation does arise. Understanding what the law says about job redundancy would help you decided if you want to seek legal help or not in order to get a fair treatment as you make your exit out of the organisation.

Your Mental Health

Carrying out a self-awareness exercise is great but you also need to assess your mental health whilst seeking to survive the depression that may come with job redundancy. You need to understand that being kicked out because of job redundancy is not the end of your career or you. You should never throw in the towel at this point. Don’t give up. Check yourself and get ready to re-strategize to carve a new path forward. You can deal with the aftermath by channelling the anxiety and anger into something productive. If it keeps being overwhelming, speak to a mental health professional, mentor or someone who has survived a similar journey.

Cut Your Expenses

Facing job redundancy would mean that for the time being, until you get a new consistent stream of income to check your expenses and basically cut your coat according to your cloth, you need to be prudent with your spending culture and your lifestyle. If you are an unrepentant spendthrift, surviving this trying period would be even more difficult.

Define What You Want

Facing job redundancy is time to decide what you want next as well as the strategy that would help you achieve it. For many, after job redundancy comes the decision to become entrepreneurs. Others simply change careers or find a new job. Whatever it may be for you, the path to attain it would be clear-cut different. The most important thing is that you get started as soon as possible but not without the required skills. You should also carry out a career audit before taking the dive.

A business would require an adequate business plan and research. A new career would require some level of training, skills upgrade, finding a job or simply putting yourself out there with a better profile. Define it and get started immediately.

Your Relationships

Reach out to a mentor, an accountability partner or your network. Share your current predicament but reach out to them with a clear picture of an option you are considering for your next line of action. This is important because someone you reached out to have the answers and experience you need to help you reach your next level. Meaningful relationships are important in your career and business. Make sure you invest in them today if you aren’t already doing this.

Final Thoughts on Job Redundancy

No doubt surviving job redundancy is not a mean feat but it is achievable. If you are going through it, several situation and experiences have clearly shown that you can always conquer it and go on to do better. Give it time and commit to your process.

Many have expressed their fears of job redundancy and how it could throw their careers into chaos but now that you know what it is about, which of the highlighted tips do you consider most helpful to you?

The post Job Redundancy: Key Secrets For Surviving It appeared first on Career Tips, Scholarships, Opportunites - Jobberman's Blog.

You got the job and you are greeted with cheers and congratulatory messages but upon resuming, you discover that new job perfectly encapsulates the ‘new job nightmare’ syndrome that a growing number of career professionals find themselves dealing with. Let us put this in perspective with an incident that was recently shared.

Abdul was a high-flying mid-level professional who was really enthusiastic about his job. The excerpts from his mail read: “I currently just got hired by a company but contrary to its promises, I discovered that this company does not honour its contractual agreements with employees. I am expected to slave away my productive life and even go as far as putting in extra hours without getting paid. I found out that everything from the selection stage to the employment, career growth (promotion) promises and agreed remuneration was a lie. I ended up in a rigid and aggressive environment where everything toxic has become the norm Please, I need your advice and help.”

Are you like Abdul? Are you facing a similar situation/challenge? Are you still shocked at how you ended up getting trapped in your new job nightmare? Below are a few things you can do.

Assess the Source of Your New Job Nightmare

Assess yourself to find out why your job falls under the purview of a nightmare. Seek to understand the root cause. Are these challenges from you or your environment? You should be able to state the problem clearly. For example, is this a case where the HR manager made too many promises that he/she is struggling to keep up with? Is this a scenario where your role advertised and the job description handed to you don’t match?

Assessing the situation would help you seek to learn how you can focus on a possible short and long-term solutions to your new job nightmare and find out what the pain points are.

Seek Resolution

In Abdul’s case, he was asked to seek redress with management. If you ever find yourself in this kind of situation, speak to the HR manager and write an official letter about what you were promised, what your contract reads and what is happening. Many professionals might suggest that at this point, the best line of action is to jump ship but the truth is that even in a new job nightmare situation, it’s important that you seek a solution.

While the personal solution you are likely to come up with might be different based on whatever nightmare situation you are facing, seek a professional brand of solution that can help improve you and/or the situation you find yourself. With a team or manager, a solution might be documenting tasks and communicating better via officials channels.

Check For Progress

You have faced your fears by looking inwards, constructively analysing the situation to seek a reasonable solution to improve things. It’s time to check for progress and your next decision would be derived from this. You can also communicate the challenges to a few team members. The purpose of this is not just to tell them just for the sake of it. Rather, the goal is to learn if they faced a similar situation at any point in time and how they progressed from it (if they actually did).

After checking for the progress of your new job nightmare, ask yourself some honest questions to know if things have improved or worsened. Would you want to stay for a longer time?  At this point, most professionals are torn between two broad schools of thought. Some professionals maintain they would still wish to leave to save their self-motivation on the while others are mostly afraid of leaving as they believe they might be missing out on a great opportunity.

What To Do Next

What would you do next? After taking Abdul through this process, he decided it was in the best interest of his career to leave. Considering he was in his fourth month in the organisation when he emailed us about the challenges he was facing, Abdul set a 6-month period to allow him to upgrade his skills with a particular emphasis on training and certification. His new goal was to improve his personal brand, network more and start applying for new jobs.

He set his next line of action and followed through. Abdul eventually got hired by another company and left his employers after 11 months. Some situations might not need you to stay this long but a lesson from Abdul’s new job nightmare was that he used the opportunity to motivate himself to upskill and become more efficient.

Anyone can be faced with a new job nightmare but you have to make sure you that get stuck by doing nothing, just because you are afraid of how things might pan out. This would be a terrible choice for your career. Prepare yourself for fresh challenges by arming yourself with relevant skills.

The post New Job Nightmare: Effective Ways to Handle It appeared first on Career Tips, Scholarships, Opportunites - Jobberman's Blog.

Surviving your first week on a new job feels just like your first day in a new school. The rush of energy to get started comes with feelings of uncertainty, fear as well as a momentary loss of confidence. Regardless of what your story turns out to be, whether thrive on your new job and environment will be determined by making a good first impression, understanding the people, their culture, the processes and being driven to flourish and succeed there. Here are a few tips to help you survive your first week on a new job.

1. Arrive Early

This might seem like common sense but in the spirit of reiteration, please ensure you will arrive early to help you survive your first week on a new job. Ensure you are well prepared to get your week started. Take care of all the little details; from your clothing to prepping everything that would help you wake up early, leave early from home and show up at your new job early. This will help your enthusiasm and show your team that you are a serious-minded and goal-driven person.

2. Learn

Strive to learn more about your environment, the work culture, its people and everything that would be important to your success both on, off the job and surviving your first week. It is always tempting to go a workaholic mode because you want to impress but you should save that for later because first and foremost, you need to understand why things function the way they currently do and how the routine of your colleagues impact your work.

3. Make Connections

To survive your first week on your new job build as well as making valuable connections, it’s important that you get to know your colleagues, what they do, their boundaries as well as daily routines. Observing people and creating the right work relationships in your new workplace will help you learn how high performers in the organisations are getting their results. These individuals will help you build on your own goals in the near future.

4. Ask Questions

Your first week at a new job is a perfect time to take advantage of an opportunity to understand the organisation as well as those you will be working within the days ahead. A great way to do this is to ask questions. Don’t stop asking questions because the answers you get will help you get to know your team better.

Being a newbie gives you time to learn more and a lot of people will be open and willing to show and teach you how things work; use it wisely and don’t shy away from asking questions.

In asking questions, be specific to listening as well and keep track of the answers you get to avoid being repetitive. When your questions are not specific and a bit more universal, use Google wisely. If you still find a need to ask after that, at least you would have taken some initiative and will be able to put things in better perspective.

5. Set Expectations

Define your personal expectations and cultivate new habits to help you attain the standards you sold to your employer during the interview, which convinced them to them to hire you. Come up with routines, tasks and personal goals that would help you begin and end each day going forward on a positive note.

Final Thoughts on Surviving Your First Week

If your office runs an open space design, find your favourite spots and every other necessary place in the workplace that would ease your time and job during working hours. Ensure you are not the first to leave the office and don’t be the last to close from work. You should be realistic in trying to impress your new boss, team and colleagues. It is likely that there will be errors as you gradually work your way into the different teams and daily routines. When this happens, consider them a learning curve and pick your learnings from them. Maintain a positive and enthusiastic outlook; especially as it relates to surviving your first week at work.

What is your first week at work survival ritual? Let us know in the comment section below…

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When your university degree has not prepared you for obsolete jobs what should do?

The traits of obsolete jobs are always staring in your face but the common challenge with obsolete jobs is that you might not recognise them. It is important to recognise these jobs especially when you want to make the decision that will have an impact on your career; both in the short run and in the long run. Do you think you currently have an obsolete job? Let us take a closer look at some key traits you need to look out for.

Industry Leaders Have Been There Too Long

Do you work in an industry where those at the forefront have not changed over a long period of time due to a lack of initiatives and growth? If this description fits your job, then it is highly likely that such a job isn’t far from going obsolete.

The traditional media industry (print and broadcast) is one of the biggest culprits of having obsolete jobs. There are several job roles in this industry, which have either become obsolete or are on the verge of becoming outdated. This also means that opportunities in such industries will remain slim, hence, the probability for leaders to have less competition.

Job Change Improves Nothing

Have you ever heard professionals say they refused to leave because it is same everywhere? If moving out from an organisation to another won’t improve your situation, it is high time to carry out an x-ray of your job to find out if it has gone obsolete.

The reason for job hopping is to garner experience, career growth opportunities, training and better pay benefits but if you keep changing jobs within a certain industry without any significant career growth or progression, then this is something to worry about.

Job Relevance

If you become a newbie in the same job today, would you be willing to take the same job in the long term? A very great way to gauge obsolete jobs is that if you had graduated today, would there still be need and demand for such a job?

Final Thoughts on Obsolete Jobs

Recognising obsolete jobs is important to avoid investing your career path in them and in a case where you are already in such a job, it is time to take a step back to strategize. Decide on what your next career move should be, find relevant training, mentorship, internship and opportunities to begin to plot your path away from obsolete jobs into something better.

What jobs do you currently consider obsolete?

The post Obsolete Jobs: How To Recognise Them appeared first on Career Tips, Scholarships, Opportunites - Jobberman's Blog.

Embracing workplace technology can be a daunting task; especially with the fear of automation and robots taking over existing jobs. Recruitment experts have, pointed out that rather than forcing your employees out of their jobs, workplace technology will automate tasks, help employees work more efficiently and generally increase productivity.

Managing this change is more important than dreading or avoiding it from happening. The following are a few ways to help your employees in embracing workplace technology and the advancements that come with it.

Address The Fears

If your organisation plans on embracing workplace technology, it is highly important to learn and address all the fears that your employees might have. In cases where technology would be taking over redundant tasks, it is important to speak to your employees to find out what these fears are and address them by communicating effectively. Does the introduction of new technology mean your employees would be sacked or do they have to be re-trained to handle tasks that cannot be automated?

During the stage of addressing fears of your employees, you should strive to pay a lot of attention to the positives because this will lead to a more committed workforce and ensure that human errors are also cut down.

Provide Training

Training would be required for understanding the process of embracing workplace technology because there will always be technological advancements. It’s important to carry your employees along in how to make technology work for them. The more they include it in their workflow and daily process, the more productive and efficient they will become.

Also, proper training would ensure employees understand the limits of the new technology and how it improves general team performance. Training might be needed in other cases where your employees might need to be on-boarded to new teams or tasks.

Share Wins and Improvements

A way to motivate your workforce on embracing workplace technology is to share positive wins and new improvements based on their adoption of the said technology. This would help them understand it is here to help them achieve better and optimise reaching their goals, which will impact positively on KPIs.

Beta-Testing

Find positive-minded beta-testers from all teams who can first use the new technology and help share its possible impact on the team. This would be a good way to announce the new technology to everyone in the organisation.

Beta-testing offers you an avenue to get feedback before an almost error-proof final introduction to all your employees.

Final Thoughts on Embracing Workplace Technology

Business Owners, HR Managers, other managers and team leads need to understand that while the benefits of a new technology can be great, implementing new workplace technology needs to come with strategic planning. This ensures that you continue to have a motivated workforce loaded with employees who are motivated. This will improve your employee churn rate with the goal to increase workplace productivity instead of leading to a chaotic situation were human errors hamper the successful onboarding of a new technology that could lead to greater success and wins for you, your employees and your organisation.

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One way to become your own boss is through entrepreneurship, which refers to the act of setting up your own business with a new idea or concept. Another way to become your own boss is through intrapreneurship, which captures the act of an employee being innovative in process, service or product for an organisation.

Whether in the place of intrapreneurship or entrepreneurship, when you become your own boss, it leads to a more fulfilling career. The following are tested and trusted ways you can strive to become your own boss.

Become A Game Changer

The beauty in becoming your own boss through intrapreneurship or entrepreneurship is that you make the decision to become a game changer. There’s a significant shift in how you get things done or the process, which will be mainly backed by data, experience, your leadership style and/or gut.

When you to attain a boss status, it makes you a become a game changer and spurs you to invest yourself in many more game-changing undertakings. Hence, the results from these as well as your ability to take up such tasks, projects or ventures set you apart.

Have An Actionable Plan

You need a detailed plan or guide to become an intrapreneur or entrepreneur. An actionable plan guides your decisions as you proceed. By taking stock of your progress, you have a firmer grasp on specifics of what has been achieved s well as other things you are left to do. Both intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs need a plan.

Know Your Financials

Regardless of the way you seek to become your own boss, it is important to be aware of your finances. If you lack a good knowledge of personal finance, perhaps a training on it is highly recommended.

Knowing your financials would also help you understand how your undertakings or ventures add to the overall bottom because the more you achieve, the more financial details you will have to deal with.

There are different reasons people seek to be intrapreneurs or entrepreneurs; whether it is to work from home in your pyjamas, have more time or to take on more with minimal risk to yourself and your organisation, being aware of your financial situation (both personally and as it affects the organisation) is key to succeeding at it.

Take Calculated Risks

Taking risk is a great part of what leaders do. Your aspiration to become your own boss will involve risks; a whole lot of them. It is however important in both intrapreneurship or entrepreneurship ventures to take calculated risks as non-calculated risks can be detrimental to your personal goals as well as the organisation as a whole.

Fill a Need

When you become your own boss, your goal should be to satisfy a specific need and not just to become a boss just for the sake of becoming one. Filling a need in your organisation or with your entrepreneurship venture will ensure success over a period of time.

Final Thoughts to Become Your Own Boss

It is important for professionals to understand that you can be a boss within an organisation by either chasing innovation and building an amazing career path or via an entrepreneurship venture.

What you want to attain is to be unconventional and do things differently with the success you have defined for yourself as a standard. Thriving as your own boss through intrapreneurship or entrepreneurship is absolutely possible and you should research what suits your drive and need, then go for it.

The post Become Your Own Boss Via Intrapreneurship or Entrepreneurship appeared first on Career Tips, Scholarships, Opportunites - Jobberman's Blog.

Human beings are by nature social creatures – we thrive in a positive environment and crave for positive interactions at home and away. So it, therefore, follows that the better the workplace relationships we have, the more productive and happier we are likely to be. However, it becomes all too easy to find ourselves in a rut at the workplace, finding no joy when with colleagues or with the job. This could be caused by our own actions or how we react to the actions of others.

In this article, we look at 6 proven ways you can become the best person you want to be at work.

1. Improve Both Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication

A major cause of workplace misunderstandings is assuming things. Be very explicit in what you are saying or asking. Communication that is clear and unambiguous helps in building trust among your colleagues as they know what to expect from you and vice versa. Always have an open and inquisitive mind when communicating with fellow workers or your seniors. Don’t try to guess what your boss meant; instead, seek clarification whenever in doubt. Also, know what is being communicated nonverbally as that can clarify a lot of things.

If you feel your communication skills need a boost, seek help. Always remember that all good relationships; whether at home or at the office depend on honest, open communication.

2. Help Others

Every worker has his or her own skills, talents, and unique experiences. Wherever you are in a position, help your workmates to become the best they could ever be. Help fellow workers to harness and tap into their unique gifts. When every employee is growing and happy with their contribution, the whole organization stands to benefit.

3. Develop Mutual Respect

Your job can become less stressful and more rewarding with better workplace relationships with your colleagues.  It’s important to give others their space both in expressing their feelings and thoughts. When you respect your workmates, you place more value on their ideas and input. In turn, they also value yours. People will trust and respect you more when you give genuine support and positive feedback. When you work together on the basis of mutual respect, it becomes easier to develop better work-related solutions jointly.

4. Honour Your Commitments

Everything done by each employee in an organization is interconnected. Whenever one fails to keep their side of the bargain in terms of commitments or deadlines, the entire organization gets affected negatively. Therefore, always endeavour to keep your commitments, and when unable to meet a deadline, always let your bosses or colleagues know in advance. This builds trust and enhances smooth working.

5. Be Proactive

Relationships can be improved greatly if you are willing to take the initiative. Many a time, relations take a turn for the better when we are willing to go out of our way to improve an environment. Politely asking questions is an excellent way of listening and letting your workmates share what could be bothering them. The proactive approach makes colleagues feel closer to you and appreciated.  If, for example, you are the guilty party, try meeting the affected individual for a private conversation and apologize. Saying you are sorry is a sign of strength. Have you tried a smile? Smiles are truly contagious and contribute to a less stressful environment.

6. Rest and Recharge

In the modern work environment where too much focus is being put on output quantity, it’s very important to ensure that you don’t get bottled up because of work pressure. When you are under stress because of long working hours or tight deadlines, it’s very easy to snap at people or lose your cool easily. One great way of improving your workplace relationships is by ensuring that you take breaks and even get to know your colleagues at a personal level over a cup of tea or during the lunch break. Corporate events are great places to not only interact with colleagues informally but to build better relationships.

Final Thoughts on Workplace Relationships

We all want a working environment that is positive, one that gives us job satisfaction. Good workplace relationships are only possible if you work on them. Such relationships are not only healthy but necessary if you hope to grow your career. However, being the best person to work with also calls for concerted effort on your part.

The post 6 Ways You Can Improve Your Workplace Relationships appeared first on Career Tips, Scholarships, Opportunites - Jobberman's Blog.

The population of females in leadership positions in the workplace is no longer what it used to be but there are still growing concerns. In recent years, there has been a lot of enlightenment on the gender gap and workplace discrimination towards women. This phenomenon is catching on, as most organisations gravitate to address these gender gap and inequality challenges will lead to female professionals breaking the proverbial glass ceilings of the past decades.

According to a recent report, the proportion of females hired over a decade across different industries witnessed a significant growth between 2007 and 2017. While this trend and awareness continue, it is important to see why the future of leadership in the workplace will be female-driven.

More Female Getting Hired

The 2018 edition of the Jobberman Best 100 Companies to Work For in Nigeria report highlights more females in entry-level positions. The same report, however, also goes to show that currently, more men with a slightly greater percentage, occupy mid-level and senior-level positions. What this means is that if there are more women in entry-level positions who will go on to grow through the ranks in a more gender-equality-conscious work environment, they have more opportunities to become leaders than their predecessors.

Increasing Trend of Gender Parity

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, gender equality does not mean and women have to become the same. Rather, what it means is that their rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they were born male or female.

Equity means fairness and treatment according to their respective needs. This treatment may be equal or different but considered equivalent according to terms of rights, benefits, obligations and opportunities.

Gender parity is an important step towards closing the gender inequality trend in the workplace and outside it. In more recent times, women have been promoted to positions previously deemed to be exclusive to men across many organisations.

One may wonder, were there no women who could hold these positions previously? The answer would not entirely be in the negative. The increasing trend in our society by women organisations and other civil society groups has shown that these unfair treatments of women in the workplace played a huge role in denying them the opportunity to optimise their career and professional potentials. As companies begin to adopt this practice of granting qualified men and women equal opportunities in the workplace, there will be a major shift in leadership in the workplace; especially where women are involved.

Final Thoughts on Female Leaders Workplace

In conclusion, the future of leadership being female does not translate into the extermination of male leaders in the workplace. It simply tells us that, according to data, workplace and societal trends, there will be more moves towards striking a gender-based balance in the workplace. Equal opportunities and fair treatment in the workplace will create a more collaborative workforce that is devoid of gender bias and willing to chase organisation goals with the highest form of professionalism and unbiased views.

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Have you ever become extremely frustrated by not knowing how to find a job. To be honest, the job search process can be tough, mentally tasking and confusing for many but with the right skills and knowledge of how you should go about it, you can go on to find the job you truly desire. The more jobs you apply for usually translates into an opportunity to getting invited to more job interviews.

Some of the few things you need to take into consideration in your job search as highlighted by Marketing professional Princewill Akuma, in a recent Facebook Live event are the importance of your network to your job search, how you are applying for the jobs and where you are searching for jobs. Other things that really matter in your job search include the types of jobs you are applying for, your skill-set and how much passion you put into your job search.

What Skills Do You Possess?

As a job seeker, you need to highlight your qualifications, skills, possible career/job interests across several companies and sectors you are interested in. Identifying these will help you figure out if you need to acquire more skills or go for internships; especially if you are a newbie in the industry to prepare yourself for the specific knowledge and experience required.

Softwares like the Applicant Tracking System empowers HR managers to filter through candidates’ application if they qualify for the position advertised or not. Remember here, your ability to seat before the HR manager for an interview and impress him/her is highly based on skills, training, qualifications, experience and your ability to communicate this through your CV and cover letters.

Where Are You Searching For Jobs

Restricting yourself to a single means of jobs search and application does not help you find a job. Use all resources available to you; update your profile on Jobberman to make it easier for employers to find you even when they don’t advertise, use company websites, newspapers, social and professional networks.

Final Thoughts on How to Find a Job

Understanding how to find your next job does not end with the tips above. You can watch the Facebook Live session below for practical tips to help you find a job as well as trends that you need to be aware of. The more empowered and knowledgeable you are, the sooner you can experience a breakthrough in your job search. Don’t forget to share this with someone you know who needs a job. Get a pen and paper… Happy viewing…

How to Find to Job

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New manager mistakes are avoidable if you dedicate sufficient time to understand your new role regardless of whether you have just been promoted to a new position or just arrived an organisation as a new manager.

Being a new manager makes you the new kid on the block and you need to be aware of several new manager mistakes in order to become successful and grow your career in management. So, whether you already occupy a managerial position or new to the role, here are some common new manager mistakes you should avoid.

Being Bossy and Showing Off

Nothing makes a new manager lose his/her team’s respect faster than wanting to show off your position and authority at your new rule. Leadership is about developing people’s capabilities beyond what they can see and constantly inspiring them to do better.

A great leader does not thrive on showing off his/her power for showing off sake. They are respected but not out of fear of sanctions or possible sack. Respect others and you will also be respected. Do not demand it or try to prove you are the boss because in all honesty, you already are and there is no need to prove this or be condescending to people you lead.

Micromanaging Your Team Out of Fear

A team is a collaborative enterprise and micromanagement kills collaboration, initiative and innovative spirit. Everything you fear that can go wrong will go wrong while micromanaging people. Whether out of fear or not, micromanagement is a bad strategy for your team.

A micromanaging work environment hampers employee growth, personal development and increases churn rate. When your team members don’t grow in terms of skills, capacity and productivity over a period of time, it means you need to optimise your team’s performance to achieve better results.

You do not want to be stuck in little detail of every task or job your team needs to get done. This is a non-productive process. Avoid being a micromanaging new manger because, according to John Rosemond, “invariably, micromanaging results in four problems: deceit, disloyalty, conflict, and communication problems.”

Changing Everything

Most new managers tend to change everything to suit themselves rather than optimising strategies that have been tested and proven to yield positive results. Changing everything seems like a smart move; especially when you just arrive at a new organisation but in most cases, this can lead to your downfall as the people and the work culture might be different from yours.

Get to understand your new team members and communicate with them to have a better view of the true situation of things. You should be willing to run tests to optimise things that work and discard strategies that don’t yield good results.

Sacrificing Your Team Members

By default, a good shepherd is expected to be protective of his/her flock always because any harm that comes to them leaves a sour stain on the shepherd’s credibility. In a bid to protect their credibility and reputation, most new managers tilt towards putting their team members in the line of fire in a bid to avoid taking the fall for mistakes made. This is a bad move and will always come back to haunt you. Nothing takes away your credibility as a new manager as allowing your team members to be on the fry. This would make them lose trust in the workplace and will also jeopardise your ability to get them to commit fully to what you are building.

You Pick A Favourite

One epic mistake made by most new managers is to pick a favourite employee or team member at face-value. Some new managers use this as a divide-and-rule strategy but it could further dig your pit of not succeeding at your new role.

You want all hands on deck and being able to inspire everyone. Compliment top performers without making them favourites. You should recognise and appreciate their efforts but don’t just listen, you also need to watch them and offer constructive criticism. Your ability to observe the team without them noticing will help you identify their true level of productivity.

Fear To Change Everything

New managers fear the unknown in most cases. Changing everything or being the bad guy in the room can be tough but don’t expect everyone to like you. Rather, they will grow to respect you if your decisions are always backed up by data and not just personal views. Where there is a conflict, put everything to a test before fully adopting it. There will be decisions made out of gut feeling; when such decisions fail, show leadership by taking responsibility and when they succeed, don’t take all the credit. As a new manager do not be afraid to make changes because not doing the necessary things will inevitably lead to failure.

Final Thoughts on New Manager Mistakes

While you don’t have to know everything as a new manager, you must be able to provide the kind of leadership to inspire optimal and better results from your team and organisation. This is a total win for you and everyone. Have you made new manager mistakes or suddenly realised some mistakes you made in the past? Drop a comment below to let us know.

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