From Employee to Manager

It’s great to think about leadership philosophically. However, in the day-to-day we also need practical leadership skills that we can use and development in both informal and formal leadership roles. Within a workplace setting, becoming a new manager is a common way that people become formal leaders. Generally becoming a new manager is a prerequisite for filling higher levels of organizational management and leadership, so it makes sense to start a discussion on business English related to leadership here.

Organizations sometimes like to promote from within rather go through a hiring process to fill leadership roles that have opened. When they promote, it makes sense that they would promote a key performer from within a team. A key performer who consistently meets or exceeds expectations may excel within production roles, but management requires a completely new set of skills. To keep key performers performing in management roles, training and development is necessary. This training and development is a piece that organizations sometimes miss. That is, people get promotions for being good at their jobs and then are not taught how to be managers.

Not developing people into managers has profound impact on team performance. Within a U.S. context, it is often said that:

People don’t quit jobs - they quit managers.

This page collects tips that can help new managers develop their people and leadership skills, so they can avoid becoming a manager that people want to quit.

Active Learning for Up-and-Coming Managers

This page covers the shift from employee to manager, one-on-one’s and formal performance management documentation. These are three practical areas that new managers will need to navigate almost if not immediately. The page highlights 12 articles related to making the transition from employee to manager. Pick one, read the article, and then share your takeaways about the article with the class.

You can do so in a discussion forum post or by volunteering information during our class discussion. Your comments could address any of these areas:

  • Points within the article that you agree or disagree with, and why
  • Recommendations that you would implement as a new manager
  • The skills you believe new managers should develop first
  • Synthesis of ideas from multiple articles
  • Gaps within the materials presented

Please also feel encouraged to do your own research on this topic and to share any resources you find to be particularly compelling with the class.

The Transition to Management

As stated above, even if you are very good at your job, you may not have the skills to be an excellent manager right from the start. Management ability comes from experience and training and development. Key recommendations for new managers from the articles featured in this section are to:

  • Listen and learn before making big changes
  • Focus more on the big picture
  • Make changes incrementally
  • Learn to delegate
  • Find ways to help your direct reports grow

Required Readings

Employee-Manager One-on-One’s

This statement may seem obvious, but as a manager it’s your job to manage your employees. Frequently planned opportunities for deeper conversation will help you to keep issues surfaced in a timely manner, thereby making sure that issues will be more addressable. Problems that are left festering too long can become uncontrollable and require greater infrastructure and resources to address than many small issues that are attended to on an ongoing basis.

A one-on-one, also known as a 1:1, is a a meeting that managers typically have once a week with each of their employees. One-on-one’s are not just an opportunity to surface issues. One-on-one’s also allow managers to get to know their employees’ career goals, which helps managers to effectively develop their team’s skills.

The articles featured in this section cover topics related to fostering the communication that happens within one-on-one meetings. One key tip from these readings: Try your best not to cancel or reschedule your one-on-one’s.

Required Readings

Formal Performance Management Procedures

Not only do managers hold regular conversations with their direct reports as an ongoing part of their performance management work, they also do formal performance review activities that are often tied to promotions and salary/wages. Given how the outcomes of the performance review impact a person’s role and income, explicit metrics should be established in advance, and performance should be measured against those metrics. That is, an employee should know what is expected of them. Objectives established for employees should be achievable, and the yearly performance review is where reflection takes place on whether or not those objectives were accomplished. The idea is to uncover why or why not, what went well, and how to keep getting better.

Any employee benefits that are tied to performance reviews, such as promotions, raises, bonuses, grants, etc. should take into account employee goals. Underperforming employees may need a performance improvement plan, and offboarding employees must be carried out in compliance with local labor laws.

The articles included in this section address performance management from different angles, such as by stressing adaption to employees and identifying types of performance review documentation, and also covering both positive and negative employee communications.

Required Readings

Self Reflection

As you work through these materials for new managers, ask yourself these questions:

  1. As we learned in these resources, being a good manager requires tailoring one’s approach to each of their employees. That said, what type of employee am I? How do I prefer that my managers communicate with me? How can I share my preferences with them?
  2. Do I want to be a people manager? In what ways would I be a good people manager? What skills and competencies do I need to develop to be a good people manager?
  3. What are professional development goals that I have? How could I tailor formal employee performance management documents to my professional goals? How can I use my understanding of performance management principles to help my peers achieve their professional development goals?

📥 Download this Content

Find this file on our repo and download it.

🤖 GAI Study Prompts

Copy the downloaded content and try it with these prompts:

  • “What is a performance improvement plan, and when might I encounter one?”
  • “Write a summary of [one of the articles on this page]. In three sentences, what are three key takeaways that I should have?”
  • “I’ve just become a new manager. Help me with a plan to navigate my first week, my first month, my first 90 days, and my first year.”
  • “I have identified [these skills] as ones I need to development to become a manager. Help me write a plan for developing these skills.”
  • “Would I make a good manager? Help me to develop evaluation materials that would help me to tell whether someone would be a good manager or not.”
  • “Please gather together resources written by diverse authors that reflect different voices on [this management principle].”
  • “Please review this page on transitioning from an employee to a manager. What biases are reflected in these contents?”
  • “Help me to find resources on [this topic] related to employee management.”

Next Activity: Professional Development Training Example

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