On Well-being and Your New People Managers
Sunrise is your big-picture guide to employee well-being. Designed for HR, internal communications, and corporate wellness leaders, we will share actionable steps to positively impact your organization.
Topline
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• New managers often struggle with managing competing priorities and increased responsibilities.
• Without clear mentorship and training, new managers will likely burn out or experience a decline in their well-being.
• New managers need tools to feel empowered to give well-being its due importance to empower their teams similarly.
• Chasing the Sun offers a new well-being program to help new managers kick-start their new roles and confidently lead. Contact us to learn more!
Well-being checklist: are your new people managers...
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Confused with their roles?
Are they asking unexpected questions about their roles and responsibilities?
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Working very long hours?
Are you surprised your managers are working nights and weekends?
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Begging for training?
Are new leaders asking for proper support to be set up for success?
An often overlooked factor of taking on new management roles:
How do we empower people managers to prioritize their well-being?
The Challenge
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• This transition requires an entirely different set of skills. In many respects, new managers are now responsible for the outcome, not just the output.
• People leave not just their companies but also their managers. According to Gallup, one in two employees has quit their job to leave their manager at some point in their career.
• This is a significant mindset shift in many up-and-coming managers. New managers might question their overall value if they are not responsible for the output and often don’t know how to let go. On top of this, their team is looking to them for direction and leadership.
• Because the majority of team engagement is determined solely by the frontline manager, new managers must have the tools needed to succeed.
• So why do new managers struggle? There is a significant perception gap.
• According to Microsoft, 74% of managers say they don’t have the influence or resources to make a change, and 54% say leadership is out of touch with employees.
To avoid burning out an entire generation of managerial talent, companies have an opportunity to deliver relatable, practical, and actionable training and support.
The Opportunity
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Gallup states, “Employees supervised by highly engaged managers are 59% more likely to be engaged than those supervised by actively disengaged managers.”
In addition, according to Harvard Business Review, “When companies declined their number of meetings by 80%, employees’ perception of being micromanaged lessened by 74%.”
The key to a successful manager/employee relationship is taking care of their well-being, so they have the energy to ensure their direct reports feel supported and confident to do their job.
Install Your 60-Day New Manager Plan
Here are six things new managers should do to build trust and set personal boundaries:
What’s your role?
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Having clarity about your new role and responsibilities will go a long way to ensuring your path is successful. Before you start managing people, speak with your direct manager, secure agreement on your priorities going forward, and what should be delegated.
A great manager will guide you on how to make this evolution, which includes feeling comfortable with letting some tasks go to someone else.
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Schedule time with your direct manager to establish clear understanding of your role and agree on success factors.
Define your leadership values
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These values are what you believe as most important to achieving your goals.
My personal leadership values are: respect for time, transparency, and professionalism.
These values have evolved over time, and are at the heart of Chasing the Sun.
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Define, live, and communicate your values.
People will follow your lead
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Your new direct reports will look at every move you make, including:
• If you’re sending emails late at night and over the weekend
• If you’re joining conference calls while on vacation
• If you’re taking (or not) vacation / PTO
• If you’re scheduling meetings just for the sake of scheduling meetings
Your behavior will align with that value if you prioritize your well-being. That’s how you model the behavior you want your team to emulate.
Show your team the right path forward, and you will ultimately help retain your team members who otherwise might burn out and want to leave the company.
The bottom line: View your new role as an opportunity to establish a best practice to protect your and your team’s well-being.
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Help set ground rules on how you will work together by developing a team charter.
Ask questions and listen
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“If you’re comfortable sharing, describe some work scenarios that impacted your well-being.”
“How would you like to be supported if stressed and anxious?”
“What would help you maintain your well-being while working?”
“How can I best support your well-being?”
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Have individual discussions with your team members, using these questions to guide your conversation.
Ask, "Why is it done this way?"
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Asking, "why are things done this way?" is one of the most important habits to establish.
People should also feel empowered not to wait until they become managers to ask this question!
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Have quarterly or semi-annual sessions with your team, review every meeting type and standard operating procedure, and ask, "Why are we doing it this way? What do we need to change?"
The most important point is this:
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Their accomplishments will be rewarded, and you will be rewarded as well!
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Celebrate great work from your team, share kudos with your leadership, and give your directs opportunities to succeed and shine.
A Fresh Perspective: Beehive Strategic Communication
We spoke with Rebecca Martin, SVP of Culture and Talent at Beehive Strategic Communication. Beehive is a purpose-driven strategic communication firm that uses the power of communication to build better businesses for a better world. Beehive is a certified B Corporation and meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.
How Does Beehive Help People Thrive?
"Having strong people managers in today’s people-centered workplace environments is vital to the success of employees and companies. The people manager role is transforming as employees’ needs, the world and the workplace continue to change.
Success requires a high level of social-emotional intelligence and a strong ability to coach and mentor. Every employee need a psychologically safe work environment and a trusted relationship with their supervisor where they can be their authentic self.
Our people leaders do skill-building to deepen their EQ, demonstrate empathy and practice active listening. This supports leaders to better understand and flex to others’ strengths and styles. They are supported by a conscious culture grounded in well-being to model and encourage employee well-being. We work closely with our people managers to prioritize their own mental health, like taking their earned PTO (and really disconnecting), participating in wellness initiatives, and using flexible schedules."
What Advice Do You Have For First-Time People Managers?
"The best advice I can offer new people managers is to first invest in their own mental, physical and emotional health and well-being. Then, take time to better understand their own strengths, styles and biases. A high level of self-awareness and social-emotional intelligence allows managers to be stronger listeners, more empathetic and more authentic. This is the foundation for creating stronger connections, trust and safety with employees.
From a place of trusted connection, managers can be stronger, more effective coaches. If these skills aren’t natural or someone has had limited opportunities to develop and practice these skills, they can be learned. Look into courses, webinars and ebooks offered by Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), Gallup, Gartner, Mercer, LinkedIn Learning and more. Or find your own coach to help you learn about, practice and develop these skills."
Next Steps:
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Understand the challenges of your new managers.
Some people are natural leaders and want to be managers. Some are not natural leaders but do want to be managers. Some want to manage projects and not people. Some don't want to be project or people managers, period.
Are you speaking to employees about where they fit on the spectrum?
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Set up new managers to succeed from Day One
They say, "promoted people are already doing the work; they now just have the title." Are you setting them up for success that way?
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Reach out, and let's get to work
Chasing the Sun works with companies to design and execute new manager well-being programs. Let's discuss how we can work together!
Introducing from Chasing the Sun: New Manager Well-being Kickstart™️
Through this six-part virtual or in-person interactive workshop series, new managers will learn critical skills for starting their journey, including:
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Setting boundaries and shifting well-being mindset
Through first- and third-party insights, we share practical health, wellness, and fitness tips, and apply traditional business planning techniques for new managers to create customized well-being goals.
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Wearing other's shoes
Through a series of leadership examples, new managers will learn how to use empathy to effectively manage up, down, and across in their organization, and embrace the positive impact of bringing outside and unique perspectives into your organization. New managers will design a strategy to inspire employees to believe in an idea.
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Recognizing the “Not Always” bright side of life
It can be easy to focus too much on a positive mindset. While with good intentions, phrases like “Can do,” “Get on with it,” and “Positive vibes only” can harm our mental health.
This session will focus on overcoming Toxic Positivity, defined as “the belief that people should maintain a positive mindset no matter how dire or difficult a situation.”
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Being ok with not working
The U.S Travel Association says that Americans leave nearly 800 million days of paid time off, rightfully theirs, every year. This gap has serious health issues for employees and financial and reputation problems for businesses. We discuss a proactive approach to taking time off guilt-free that will empower new managers and their teams.
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Documenting your team's unwritten rules
We help new managers establish agreed-upon expectations across their teams. This process demonstrates clear leadership and empowers employees to care about their well-being, reducing employee burnout and turnover.
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Understanding we're amazing
Imposter Syndrome is a psychological feeling of self-doubt and “not being enough.” This session discusses common symptoms, the different types and warning signs, and how to overcome Imposter Syndrome.
Work With Chasing the Sun.
We look forward to learning more about you and how we can play a role. Please fill out the form below, and we will respond to your request within 48 business hours.