New Manager: Build a Team, Coach and Guide, Make an Impact

In this section introduction, we look at two potential team design options for a market development group at a company like Nauto. We ask the question, "Which one is better?"

In this video, we look at how to enrich the jobs of our staff members by adding skill variety, task integrity, task significance, responsibility, and visible results. The goal is to design jobs that motivate our staff, with meaning, purpose, and empowerment.

In this lecture, we go back to our example at a company like Nauto, and compare two different team design options. We score these two team structures on job enrichment, across five different factors. A job enrichment management tool is attached.

In this practice activity, we use a management tool to score a job, and then consider ways to make the job richer (more meaningful, motivating, productive, and satisfying)

In this lecture, we look at three important job (and team) design principles. 1) Design for parallel roles, 2) design for scalability, and 3) design for durability.

We can - and should - personalize our staff's jobs to match their talents, interests, and energy. In this lecture, we talk about how to do this. Attached is a Job Personalization management tool.

Hiring, promotions, and job transitions are not just about filling gaps, they are an opportunity to build our future organization. We want to plan for this. This lecture discusses how to create a one-year-out organization plan, and shares an example at a company like Nauto. A "One-Year-Out Organization Plan" management tool is attached to the lecture.

When we have open positions, we want to hire the right person, we want all candidates to have a positive experience, and we want to be organized, efficient, and productive throughout the process. In this lecture, we focus on planning the hiring process with a Human Resource team and working with them as a valued partner. We discuss job descriptions, plus potentially using one of our new AI tools to help create these. We then look at sources of people to recruit for our jobs.

We want an interview process that is fast, focused, and fair, leading us to an excellent hire. In the interview, we'll ask different types of questions - verification questions in the early screening interviews, and behavioral and situational questions in our main interviews. We may also do skill assessments, depending on the job. We ask a team of senior staff to help us interview to get an insightful view of our job candidates, with each interviewer focused on one topic area. We then decide and make an offer. The human resources team is an excellent partner throughout this process, and we also have some great new AI-powered hiring tools to help us.

Once we hire a new staff member, we want them to quickly feel energized, motivated, confident, and productive. And we want them to be seen as someone adding value to the organization. To do all this, we need to onboard them well. We start with an onboarding plan, with tasks broken out by day, week, month - and we track completion. We might do this in Workday or another similar application. We also work to set up our new hire to score an early win - building confidence and momentum. And we co-opt our team, finding a buddy, mentor, cultural ambassador. Since starting a new job is a highly stressful time, we, as managers, show a lot of empathy and care during this whole onboarding period. A management tool for onboarding new team members is attached to the lecture.

We all prefer to build teams, but we also know that a staff member may quit, or that we may have to fire someone for performance reasons, or maybe we need to lay off someone for economic or strategic reasons. None of this is much fun. When someone quits for a new opportunity, we might feel that this is a betrayal, but we should remember we care about their long-term career success, and should celebrate their move, and thank them for all their great work. We'll need a transition plan for their work, and a layered communication plan with our team and the rest of the organization. When we have to let someone go for performance reasons, we ideally have gone through a thorough process with coaching, guidance, and maybe a performance improvement plan, so the firing is less of a surprise. We work to show empathy and generosity throughout the process. Layoffs for economic/strategic reasons are difficult for those asked to leave, and also for those who remain. To the extent that we can, we need to demonstrate certainty and stability.

Designing meaningful and productive jobs, planning staffing, and hiring well - this is how we build teams, get our work done, and serve our customers well. If we do all this well, our teams get better and more capable over time.

Coaching and guiding our staff is one of our fundamental responsibilities as a manager, and also one of our fundamental joys. However, providing clear expectations and giving helpful feedback takes learning, skill, structure, and lots of practice. Included here is a nice Ted Lasso quote which captures the spirit of what we are trying to do.

We need to set crystal clear expectations when we start new projects with our staff. In this lecture, we use a company like the Netherlands-based i-team as our example. We need to be clear about three things: 1) What do we want to do and why, 2) What excellent looks like, and 3) What's the timing. We then have a good discussion with our team member around how can we do this. While this process might feel like micro-managing, it's actually the opposite - empowering our staff to figure out the "how" and giving us, as managers, some breathing space so that we don't feel the need to hover. A management tool on setting clear expectations is attached to the lecture.

With a project related to your job, or a project you are familiar with, practice setting clear expectations. Do this with a friend or do this for real with a staff member. Then do a quick self-evaluation. A "Set Clear Expectations" template is attached to the lecture.

Providing feedback is our fundamental responsibility as managers, and our team members want this. We can use formal feedback and coaching (like a 6-month performance review), and this can be very helpful. We should lean, however, toward lightweight, daily, weekly, in-the-moment feedback. To give great feedback, we start with clear expectations, give feedback early and often, accentuate the positive, and strive to be clear and data-driven. Good feedback takes the form of 1) describe the situation, 2) describe the impact, 3) listen and clarify, and 4) recommend a future direction.

We want to provide clear and data-driven feedback to our staff when things go well and also when they don't go so well. In this lecture, we look at an example of both types of feedback. We start with describing the situation, describing the impact, listening and clarifying, and recommending a future direction. A management tool on giving helpful feedback is attached.

With a friend, colleague, or team member, practice giving helpful feedback on a project related to your work. Attached to this lecture is a practice activity worksheet.

Performance improvement plans (PIPs) are a good tool for us managers - forcing us to be very clear about our feedback and empowering our staff to work toward improvement. If we do PIPs well, we demonstrate respect, caring, and dignity. In this lecture, we discuss the process of effective PIPs, with an example.

For many of our team members, personal learning, growth, and career advancement rank high on their priorities. And we want to help. Individual development plans are a great tool for us, and a great tool for our staff. In this lecture, we look at four steps to create and use these. An individual development plan template is attached to the lecture.

Projects, quality issues, competitors, daily fires...they all come and go, but good coaching can have meaning for decades. We conclude our coach and guide section in this lecture, with section slides attached.

We want to go big as a new manager, we want to make an impact. Creating and acting on a strategy is one of our best ways to do this - helping us focus, motivate, and align our teams. It's better to risk boldness than triviality.

A team vision states how the world will be a better place if we succeed, and team objectives are specific, measurable goals which track our progress to meet our vision. In this lecture, we give an example of a team vision and objectives for a customer success group at a company like Simply Benefits. A management tool for team vision and objectives is attached to the lecture.

A team strategy is our plan - our specific steps - to meet our vision and objectives. We can create a strategy in four steps: 1) Start with our team vision and objectives, 2) from our full knowledge of our customers and environment, we identify opportunities (or problems), 3) we then identify potential solutions, and 4) decide on which potential solutions to pursue, weighing value vs. effort. In this lecture, we look at an example from a company like Simply Benefits. A management tool on team strategy is attached.

Objectives and key results (OKRs) convert a longer-term strategic direction into this quarter's goals, and are a great way to communicate and instill priorities. OKRs help make a strategy stick. In this lecture we look at an example OKR from a customer success team at a company like Simply Benefits. A management tool on OKRs is attached to this lecture.

Let's practice writing at OKR (objective and key results). We'll use the Scientist and Researcher Success Group at an app like eBird as our example. A practice activity is attached to the lecture, with a simple template and the instructor's answer.

To manage down well, we need to manage up well. We want a relationship with our boss that is supportive, productive, and enjoyable. To do this, we need to 1) own the relationship, 2) get the data, 3) commit to our boss' success, and 4) be fully open to feedback. A management tool on "Managing Up" is attached to this lecture.

As new managers, we want to work successfully with our peers - all the managers of other teams that surround us. In this lecture, we look at four ways to do this: 1) purpose, 2) data, 3) help, and 4) empathy. We often talk about "politics" but this is a lazy way to think about how we can influence others inside our organization. A better way is to consider motivations and situational pressures behind any disagreements with other managers, and then respond with creativity and empathy (looking for a win-win). We use an example of a customer success team manager making a request to the director of product.

We run a lot of meetings as managers - let's get good at this. The first rule is to be frugal with meetings. We need to look at what is most appropriate to be done in a team versus what is better for an individual to do (and report out to the rest of us). Many meetings need to happen, but many meetings don't need to happen. We should invite all necessary people to meetings, but no one extra (with some exceptions). We should give people a chance to prepare, with an agenda and presentation materials sent in advance. In the meetings, we should focus - striving for shorter meetings with no multitasking. And we should encourage people to contribute, and value any team disrupters forcing us to reconsider our assumptions.

There is magic in teamwork, producing far more value than the sum of individual work. Great teamwork depends on the relationship among team members, which is not something we can fully control. However, we can set up our teams in a way that greatly increases the probability of teamwork. In this lecture, we look at four ways to do this: 1) strive for a stable team that knows each other well, 2) provide a compelling direction, 3) enable the team with well-designed processes, and 4) guide and coach our team. A management tool on finding teamwork is attached to this lecture.

As managers, we often struggle with time. We get pulled in one hundred directions and somehow miss the big picture, limiting our impact. In this video, we look at four time management approaches that can help: 1) limiting our work in progress with kanban, 2) time blocks for our most valuable work, 3) periodic calendar reviews (to know empirically where we are spending our time and then making adjustments going forward), and 4) setting work boundaries (choosing a stopping time and sticking with it). A management tool on time management is attached to this lecture.

Time management is great in theory, but let's get real and apply four time management techniques to your calendar: 1) kanban, 2) time blocks, 3) calendar reviews, and 4) work boundaries. A practice activity is attached to this lecture.

In our first 90 days, we want to get started, generate confidence, spark optimism, secure early wins for our team and ourselves, and create a sense that good things are happening. We have a lot to do and it is easy to get overwhelmed. It helps to have a systematic plan for our own onboarding. In this lecture, we look at specific steps during our first week, first month, second month, and third month. A management tool on our first 90 days is attached to this lecture.

As new managers, we have ambitions, we want to go big. In this set of lectures, we've focused on five areas to do this, and we wrap-up our "Make an Impact" section in this lecture. Slides for the section are attached.

We discuss seven key takeaways from the course in this lecture: 1) Job design matters, 2) Hiring, promotions, and job transitions are a chance to build our future organization, 3) The best managers give great feedback, 4) Creating and running a strategy is our best chance to innovate, be bold, and go big, 5) To find traction, we need to work successfully with our manager and peers, 6) Our first 90 days...we want early wins!, and 7) There is magic in teamwork, and we can help find it.

We wrap-up the course in this lecture. Congrats!