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What I’ve learned so Far:
- If you are new to a company Priority One should be: Observe and Listen
- Make notes. Get to know the strengths and weaknesses on your team.
- Don’t fix what isn’t broken. Remain open and humble at all times.
- Make team meetings a priority.
- Make the time to have one on one’s with your staff
- Get a feel for where your team stands in the company when you start out (i.e survey the company to assess how the company feels about the work your team is doing)
- Earn Respect by doing. Let your staff know that you are not afraid to get down in the trenches with them. Let them know that you know what you are doing.
- Use team meetings to get input and ideas on how to improve and take their ideas seriously. Humility is vital. You do not have all the answers. Accept it.
- NEVER blame a staff member for something your team has done wrong. You are the manager. You take responsibility for your teams failures.
- A good manager keeps a professional distance at all times. You must overcome your desire to be “One of the Gang” Your staff needs time away from you.
- Use one on one time to get a feel for what each person feels is going well or not well. It also gives you a chance to address any problems or issues that they need to improve on.
- No one should be surprised by an annual review. You should be meeting with each staff person quarterly at least to discuss any issues that arise. They should be given ample time to improve any areas they are struggling with.
- Have a mission statement. The team should know their mission and purpose. In tech support; the mission is to make sure the end users can do their jobs as efficiently and effectively as possible.
- Make it a high priority to share information with their teammates. If someone finds a fix to a known issue, they must let the rest of the team know. No one should be hoarding information to feel invaluable.
- If a staff member cannot resolve an issue in 15-20 minutes, you need to escalate it to your manager or get another teammate to help out.
- Never go into a team meeting without an agenda. Be prepared. Always ask your teammates for input on ways to improve.
- Let your team know that if an end user becomes abusive; you will handle the call for them. You should be the one they can escalate problems too that they cannot resolve or cannot handle.
- By taking calls from abusive end users or handling technical issues your teammate escalate to you, you let them know you have their backs. Once they realize this, they will gladly have your back when necessary
- Celebrate team wins. After a big project has been completed successfully, let your team know how much you appreciate their effort and the extra time they put into it. A simple pizza party is enough to signify appreciation.
- Find out what areas your team mates are most interested in. People do better when doing what they enjoy. If a person likes customer interaction or application support, let them do that. If a person prefers to work with hardware, let them. Let the people on your staff do the things they are best at.
- Encourage upward movement. If a person is interested in learning more about programming apps, let them shadow someone on the app team once a week or whenever you can spare them.
- Assign responsibility where needed. If someone is particularly good at a certain aspect of IT, encourage them to learn from the group that handles that. Encourage your team to learn and know where they want to go.
- You cannot be selfish when you manage people. People learning new things may mean they leave your team for greener pastures. Allow it and encourage it.
- When you put your teammates needs ahead of your own, you will inspire loyalty that is lasting and true.
- Loyalty cannot be forced. It must be earned. and it is why I have never in my 25 years as manager had an employee quit. Some moved on to greener pastures upon my recommendation but no one left me for any other reason.
