On Saturday, 23rd September 2023, Kejar Kerjaya hosted our first ever panel & networking session. The topic was on Transitioning into your first managerial role, where our panelists shared their own leadership journeys and imparted their advice to new and aspiring managers and leaders.
We picked out our top 5 favorite insights to share with you to help you become a better manager.
#1 Know your limits and acknowledge your gaps.
It’s easy to think that as a manager, you need to know all the answers. You do not need to know everything or even be able to do everything. Instead, recognize the gaps in your skills and hire smart people who can fill in the gaps and do the work well. As a manager, you need to be able to rally the people in your team and utilize their strengths to achieve a common goal.
#2 Learn to balance between the day-to-day operations and high-level strategizing.
As an individual contributor, your job is to do XYZ on a daily basis. You have probably gotten really well at your job and want to do it often. However, as a manager, you need to balance your time between doing the actual work, and looking at things from a higher level. This involves strategizing for future projects, building relationships with other stakeholders, working on budgets or reports, and anticipating future challenges.
#3 Take your time to build trust with the team.
As a new manager, you may be eager to implement new things and take on new projects. However, take your time to build the trust and relationship with your team. This is especially true if you are hired as a manger for a new team (and not being promoted upwards within your previous team). Trust is not something that is easily obtained or given. Therefore, you need to spend time to get to know your team members and earn their trust. Allocate some time for individual 1-on-1 chats so you can better understand each and every single one. This can help you to know who you will be working with, their individual strengths, and how you can best support them in their career.
#4 Fail fast, but move on fast.
We are often our worst critics. While we can be kind to other people and tolerate other’s mistakes, we can be very harsh to ourselves when we make similar mistakes. As a manager, you cannot run away from making mistakes or doing the wrong decisions. However, you need to learn to move on fast from any mistakes. Do not spend too much time dwelling or kicking yourself for them. Instead, learn to put it behind you and move on forward.
#5 Set time aside for you to learn and grow.
As you help your team members to grow and develop, don’t forget to continuously invest in your own professional development. Adopt a growth mindset and continuously seek out opportunities to learn new things. As a leader, you need to be flexible and embrace changes. The world changes so much so fast that you need to be able to keep up with the new technology and advancement.
There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity and courage
Fuchan Yuan
We hope that these insights are useful for you as you embark on your journey to become a great manager. If you would like to join us for future panel sessions or networking events, subscribe to our weekly newsletter or follow us on Twitter to stay in the loop!