Oct

Managing Rookie Managers

Eli Lopian Category

Rookie managers have a incomplete perception of management and hold on to the idea that they are still reviewed by their personal performance and that there job is to keep things running.

Quite the opposite, it is a mangers job to make change, it is their job to search for problems and opportunities and manage the change in the best way. They will start with 90% keeping things running and 10% initiating change and as they are promoted the percentages will swap.

One way to get rookie to think in this way is to ask them strategic questions.

For example:

What technology will the team need to know next year?
How are we going to cut our waste by 25% next quarter?
How can we measure and improve our quality?

If they just split out the answer, you might want to ask them how they know, but you could then just ask them what they are going to do about it?
If they don’t know that answer, ask them what they are going to do about that?

In either case you can now turn the strategic view to a personal integrity, and coach the rookie.