3 ways to be a confident first-time manager 💪

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You've worked for your company for some time now. You know the company, the products, and the culture, and have worked under one or two different managers. An opportunity has just come up, you put yourself forward….and you got the promotion! Now what???

You may be nervous if it's your first time leading a team, but these 3 tips will help you learn how to be a confident first-time manager.

Knowing your leadership style can help guide you as a first-time manager. You'll use a mix of styles, but if you're like me, you'll lean towards one or two because they suit your personality.

The most common leadership styles are:

Coercive

• Highly demanding

• Requires compliance

• Makes the decisions for the team

• May get immediate results, but has a negative impact on teams long term

Authoritative

• Moves the team to one way of thinking by showing how the team fits into the larger company purpose

• Involves trust and shared vision

Pacesetting

• Sets the bar, expecting the team to meet it

• Focuses on the positive

• Has a tendency to create pressurized work spaces

Affiliative

• Creates a supportive, team-focused workplace

• Builds a community to share ideas and move towards a shared, common goal

Democratic

• Builds agreement

• Listens to concerns

• Responds to feedback to give a sense of ownership and responsibility

Coaching

• Grows the team by understanding each member's professional, long-term goals

• Encourages self-reflection on reaching goals

In my first role as a manager, I relied on a democratic approach with my team because it was a good way to create lots of ideas for a situation and it included the whole team. It also took the pressure off me to come up with all the ideas.

"Delegation is the process of distributing and entrusting work to another person."

No manager can do it all. Delegating isn't a weakness — it’s a smart way for first-time managers to work because it frees up time for you to work on managerial-level tasks.

Follow these key mindset shifts when you become a manager:

• Get comfortable not doing all the work yourself. Hold weekly meetings to divide out responsibilities.

• Realize that a big chunk of your time now is spent managing other people’s tasks. Keep organized and set reminders about projects and meetings.

• Let your team take on meaningful pieces of work. Listen actively and ask the team questions to find out about their skill sets.

Skills will empower you and ground you in keeping the team's best interest at the forefront.

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Develop your manager skills by trying to:

• Listen actively. Tune into your team's feedback, ideas, and concerns

• Be an example. You set the tone for the team.

• Empower your team. Give support to boost morale and productivity.

• Never stop learning. Be open to learning, adapting, and improving.

Titles don't make leaders, actions do, so if you work with your team every day and practice these skills, they will make you a more confident first-time manager.