First Time Manager Tips: How to Ask for Help

Special thanks to our guest author, Marla Rosner, Principal, Marla Rosner & Associates, for today's article.

Welcome to management. One hopes you received a nice boost in pay, even in this dreadful economy, since your responsibilities have been ratcheted up several degrees if you've been promoted.

If you're like most people you've started out wildly enthusiastic about the new role, given your increased status and pay. Brace yourself...you won't be alone if after the initial euphoria you become humbled and/or frustrated. In fact, there are those management gurus who say that passage through this difficult stage is inevitable in your forward movement over the learning curve for any new job activities.

Tip #1: Be patient with yourself and don't confuse these temporary challenges with signs of failure.

If you're lucky, your boss is one of those models of management that has anticipated your learning curve, arranged for your training and will be meeting with you weekly to provide direction and support. This is, by the way, the boss you want to become. Alternatively he or she may be the well-intentioned but overworked, overwrought or asleep-at-the-wheel type, in which case, these tips should be even more helpful to you. If you've drawn the short straw and your boss is in the latter category, you have been handed your first challenge.

Tip #2: Swallow your pride and ask for help.

"Manage up" by letting your boss know what you need to be successful. Be specific. It could sound like any one (or all) of the following:

• "Janet and Mike aren't working well together and I'm not sure what to do. I need help."
• "Mary isn't sanitizing the equipment correctly but I know she'll bite my head off I talk to her about it. What should I do?"
• "I need instructions on how to analyze the ZYX report."
• "How should I go about estimating the department budget?"
• "How do I take inventory?"

This is by no means an all inclusive list. Your questions could be radically different. Whatever they are, don't avoid asking them.

Why do new managers avoid approaching the boss when they need help? We all want to appear competent and avoid disappointing our superiors, especially when they've just entrusted us with greater responsibilities.

Tip #3: The sooner you ask questions, the faster you'll make it over the learning curve.

There are significant risks to hiding the fact that you don't know how to handle something. For example if you wait six months before you get direction on scheduling for example, you'll likely have made many mistakes in that time frame e.g. short staffing can cause rotten service, lost customers or clients, angry staff and an annoyed boss. Or, if you've been promoted because you were great technically as a programmer, nurse, machine operator, teacher or scientist to name just a few jobs, but are in the dark about giving employees feedback on their performance, get help fast! Your job as a manager is to get results through other people. You can damage a great many relationships with employees in a short time with either an overly aggressive or overly passive management style.

So avoidance has its costs to your effectiveness and reputation. There are ways however to offset the nagging fear that you might appear inept when going to your boss with neophyte questions.

Tip #4: When you do go to the boss for guidance, demonstrate that you've taken some initiative to figure out the situation on your own.

For instance, if you ask for advice about how to handle an employee conflict, start out by providing approaches you've considered. Better to have a less than perfect idea to put forth than no idea at all.

Even while you're garnering as much guidance as you can from your boss, plan on grabbing information, tips and training from outside your work environment. Read about management in articles, get DVD's, subscribe to newsletters and podcasts and talk to friends and other associates about management challenges. While it's ideal to have a boss who has laid a path for your training and development, don't wait to take initiative for your own professional development. It is, after all, your career so be pro-active about getting what you need to become effective in your new role.

Too busy? Tips to give a busy trainer or manager a little sanity

One armed paper hanger…
Chicken with its head cut off…
Spinning out of control…
Don’t know up from down…
Can’t see the light of day…
Up to my neck in alligators…

Do any of these phrases describe how you feel about your days lately? Personally, I’ve used at least three of them to describe my own current workload. Not that it’s all making money, and we’re on the “whoo-whoo” gravy train to success, but, wow, my life is busy!!

Sometimes we’re busy-busy trying to find the solutions to problems that keep us up at night.

Sometimes we’re busy trying to be on top of too many areas of responsibility for one person to manage.

Sometimes we might be (not me – not you) poor managers of our time.

Here’s a quick look at some ideas that might be useful if any of this describes you:

It’s OK to say NO. Even to your boss. There are times to say, “I can’t really do that task justice right now – can we talk about it again in a few weeds?” There are other times to simply say, “I’d love to help, but I just can’t do it right now.” And then stand firm.

Be clear on your priorities. Take two minutes at the start of the day to prioritize your tasks. There is an unending list of busy-jobs we all need to do, but what will wake you up in the night if you don’t accomplish? What addresses the most important things in your life or your job? Do those things, and let some less important things slip by the wayside.

Make a list. I often find myself bouncing from one task to another, answering an email or two, making a phone call, and feeling like I’m not really accomplishing anything real during the day. For me, organizing my day means making lists. I make lists on Friday before I go home for the week of what I haven’t gotten done and want to pick up Monday morning. Monday, I make my list for the week. I add to that list during the week, and get great personal satisfaction from crossing tasks off – as quickly as I can. Some days, like today, I have to stop in the middle of the day and make a list of all the things I’ve promised people I’d deliver as I walked through the office. Cross them off; move on; get things done!

Take baby steps. I have a very clear picture in my mind of what I want to achieve in my work. Each day on my way to work I have learned to fight the rising sense of anxiety of all I need to accomplish to achieve my goals, by telling myself, “Today, you only need to take one step. Just one small step toward the goal.” I feel a sense of relief – but I also know that I need to continue to map out my steps; to break down big goals into small, achievable steps, and then cross them off, one at a time.

Let me take a brief commercial break and offer you another time-saving tip: try online training. It can save you lots of time in organizing and delivering the training you need to simply stay in compliance, but even more, it can give you a way to track completed training of all your employees, with just a click of the mouse. Even better is our newest feature – exception reports. Assign training classes to your staff once a year, and pull up reports to tell you exactly who is missing what. What could be easier? What could be more time-efficient?!

I guess what I’m really saying is that if you’re feeling like a one-armed paper hanger these days, let us help. We’ll supply a few other hands and help you get the job done right!

Training employees in just 2 minutes

You’ve only got two minutes today to contribute to your employee’s training – help!

We did title this the Two Minute Trainer for a reason: you can be effective – today – in just two minutes.

What outcome would help your team step it up a notch, in terms of performance and outcome?

Consistently better customer service?

More sensitivity to the cultural differences of their co-workers?

What would improve your team’s performance? Write down one thing, and then focus on that for a full week, just a couple of minutes each day.

Let’s say “customer service” is your focus. What can you do, in just a couple of minutes each day? Here are some ideas:

1) When the phone rings today, listen to how it is answered, every time it rings. Make notes of how that process could be improved. Gather the people responsible for answering the phone and start by saying what they’re doing well. If you can recognize people by name it will help you set the stage for their learning: “Sara always has a smile in her voice when she answers the phone;” “Naomi switched to Spanish for a caller – that was awesome!” Sara and Naomi will be ready to learn the one or two new things you teach them today, because they will want more of the public praise.

2) Walk through your building once in the morning and once in the afternoon, looking at it with the eyes of a first-time visitor. What looks crowded or out-of-place? What feels less home-like and more institutional than you’d like to be perceived? What do you see your team members doing? Each time you walk through, note one thing and change it. Explain to your team, in a quick, stand-up gathering, what you’re doing (walking through with the eyes of a visitor) and why (how visitors see us is how they’ll think about the service we provide). Ask them to do the same thing as they go through their day, and be open to their observations, suggestions and ideas. Verbally praise people who stop to straighten a chair or cushion, pick up a towel that has fallen to the floor, or smiled at a visitor.

Two quick, easy steps you can take. The time investment is minimal; the pay-off may be immeasurable!

Stress reduction tips for the busy senior care manager

If you’re like me, days when your time is short – but your task list is still long – are days that add to your stress.

I’m sure you don’t get snappy and irritable, like I do. I imagine that you balance your personal stress much better – or maybe not.

The things that stresses me the worst are those that are out of my control; something that stress experts find is pretty universal. We tend to feel more and more stress the less control we have over events. The best solution to these stressors is to find a way to gain control over them, or at least more control than you currently have.

Let’s consider training (I bet that surprises you)! You have a minimum required number of training hours that you need to ensure that your employees complete each year. Some training must be completed before the person can work independently; other training, like first aid, is simply one of those things that you need to get checked off as quickly as possible after hire.

Stressor #1: Requirements. You have no control over them – you can’t modify them for this person or that. They are always there, hanging over your head.

Stressor #2: Your employees. Sign them up for a first aid class. Bring in a trainer. Take precious time out of your busy week to present an inservice. And definitely make attendance mandatory. Your employees, over whom you have only a perception of control, will not all show up. Some may be sick; others won’t be able to find childcare; still others will simply say, “Oh, I forgot.”

Stressor #3: Surveyors from licensing and internal QA monitors. Yet another element you can’t control. They’ll ask you for detailed records of your training compliance, and they won’t give you a lot of time to hunt for those records. You’re either compliant – and can quickly demonstrate that – or you’re not…and you’d better think about career decisions.

You can gain control over these stressors. They don’t need to add to your stress by being things that, in your mind, you have absolutely no control over.

Here’s how:

Stressor #1: OK, you’re not going to get rid of regulations, or change them to suit your situation. But you can look at regulations, especially in the area of training, as your outline for planning the entire year’s worth of training opportunities. You can schedule them, topic by topic, onto a calendar and get a sense of mastery over the requirements.

Stressor #2: Keep holding monthly meetings, but change them from mandatory inservices to team-building, informational sessions. Bring a cake and celebrate the monthly birthday; read thank-you notes from clients or families, share what you’ve seen that month that makes you proud of your team. Then assign your team their required training topics to be completed online at a time that works for them during the month. Just make sure that they all know what topic is assigned, and when it is due. Recognize those that completed their training at your monthly team-building meetings, or those that went beyond the minimum and learned even more. But take the compliance monkey off your back, as it were, and give that responsibility to your employees. Your job, as a leader, is to assign, ensure completion and then look for ways to give personal feedback and guidance.

Stressor #3: This is an easy one if you’ve chosen an online training system with easy-to-use reports. Here’s what one of our clients emailed us the other day, “It was our first survey in 4 years and I was very nervous. The surveyor asked to see training records for specific employees. With just a couple of clicks I could show her exactly what she wanted. Whew! We sailed through survey; I consider the cost of this online training program worth every cent.”

The stresses in this line of work are many. Smart choices and good use of your resources can help you gain control and reduce at least a few areas of stress!