The aspiration to make it to Manager / People Leader is possibly the epitome of success for people starting careers in the corporate sectors, more so in India. Success at times is defines by geographies managed, spans of control, team sizes et all. Yet very seldom do new managers realize they have become rookies again in their careers. Its now not about doing, its about getting it done, and done well. As new skills and demands surface, it gets critical to step back and breathe in the reality for a New Manager. Its important to create an acceptance of your readiness levels and define blind spots. It’s almost critical to understand expectations and define the support structures needed to stand up. Net, net, defining what you don’t know, making that known and charting a path to learning is key.

Gut and reaction can hardly be defined as strategies for success. The ability to ask more questions, listen carefully, and most importantly value others’ inputs are possibly the best places to start. The biggest challenges will be to hold back thoughts, hold back the need to exhibit superiority or hierarchy. Inclusiveness in thinking and acceptance of your “New Manager” status alone will start building trust with your teams as decision making will be seen as collective. The word of caution; be ready for collective failures too but own it as your final decision. The biggest risks have to be handled first in your mind, the fear of failing, the fear of looking bad in front of leadership. Uncertainty creates discomfort and the strength to handle that comes with opening your mind to accepting you are a rookie.

It is critical to define a set of reality checks to yourself and the teams. In my view there are Seven Approaches to success as a New Manager :

• Create a List : What I Don’t Know : Honesty to yourself is easy. And you don’t need to advertise this.
• Confer: Seek inputs to success and your SWOT with inputs from Managers, Peers, refer to the role and be brutal
• Confess: Share your SWOT with your teams.
• Create: A pool of mentors to help you succeed. Choose multiple mentors for leadership capability and specific skills and experiences, even a task.
• Cross the line: The hesitation in becoming a learner again must go almost the moment you walk into that role. The moment you cross that line, you’ll hit a home run soon
• Challenge: Leverage your newness to ask questions. Talk less, ask and listen. React less and respond more. Use newness to innovate and change approaches that don’t work. This will build credibility.
• Communicate: There is no alternative to success. Communicate what you don’t know, communicate what you need help on, communicate what can be changed, communicate what you learnt, communicate to recognize. Communicate when things are breaking so they can be fixed. This alone will build your credibility as an authentic leader.

The key to all success for a new manager is the comfort of being able to say”I don’t know”. If managers and leaders can build environments where it’s OK to not know but be able to say it and thrive on innovation led by curiosity, they will succeed, building teams that create and disrupt to the customers advantage repeatedly.

Sandeep Bidani is a Senior HR Professional and a Leadership Coach and Change Management Expert having worked with KPMG in management consulting and held CHRO roles with Amex and IBM. He has lived and worked in and managed multiple geographies across the world. He is a partner with Positive Momentum Limited in India and can be reached at

Sandeep.Bidani@positivemomentum.com

Twitter @Sbidani