It is a scary thrill to be promoted to the position of manager.

New leaders should be proud – their combination of skill and savvy has paid off.  However, first time managers are usually a little nervous too, because they know obstacles are coming.

The good news is that identifying these challenges is half the battle.  Foreseeing roadblocks allows you to prepare for them.  Implementing the right solutions is the other half of the battle.

Here are three common impediments, along with their solutions.

Lack of Training

New managers usually receive their promotion because they were really good at doing something else.  For instance, let’s say Laurie is the top salesperson in her office.  She blows her sales goals away every month and is well liked by her coworkers.

Then a vacancy for Sales Manager opens up.  The powers that be notice that Laurie is incredible at sales and assume that she would be a fantastic manager of other sales people.  She gladly accepts the promotion to Sales Manager.

The problem here is that being a sales manager requires a different and broader skillset than sales alone.  Too often, companies assume that new leaders will “figure it out on their own”.

Some do, some don’t.  But even the ones who successfully figure it out on their own leave a trail of people-affecting mistakes behind them.  Without proper training, Jane has been set up to fail.

Solution:

Proactively ask your company for all the training that you can get.  Then supplement that training with learning on your own.  Books, online courses, podcasts, blog posts – there is a world of information out there if you are willing to go get it.

Lack of Prioritization and Time Management

Laurie has been Sales Manager for a while now, and she knows she’s supposed to be devoting time to managing her new staff.  But she still has her sales goals, and she feels like she can’t just hand her clients off to anyone.  So she keeps doing everything she was doing before and figures she will fit her management tasks between her sales calls.

But in the end, Laurie’s always so busy making sales she has little time for management.  Her staff starts to feel disengaged, and their morale and performance soon drop.

Solution:

Managers need to focus on managing.  It is not a “once in a while” process.  Managing people need not take all your time, but it will take some of it.

The tasks that go hand in hand with good management (performance related conversations, goal setting, clarification of roles) need to be on Laurie’s calendar.  And by “on her calendar”, I mean literally on her calendar (digital or paper).

To make time for this, Laurie needs to be willing to delegate some of her old tasks.  This is a painful step, but it is absolutely necessary.

Lack of Communication

Laurie makes time for management, but she’s unsure how to use it.  She spends time observing her employees’ actions and performance.  She notices that she has a few high performers and a couple of low performers.  She studiously makes notes in their files and waits for their annual performance review to let them know how they’re doing.

Meanwhile, the high performers are frustrated because it seems their good work is going unnoticed.  On the other end of the spectrum, the low performers see no need to improve, and even if they did, they haven’t been given the tools to do so.  The end result is a net drag on team performance.

Solution:

Laurie needs to use the majority of her “management time” on regular open communication with her team.  This should be in both one-on-one and team formats.  Team meetings ensure that everyone is getting the same message.  One-on-one discussion topics must include individual goals and guidance on how to meet them.

Great leaders aren’t born, they are formed.  Overcoming these three obstacles is the first step of that creation.