WANT TO SUCCEED AS A YOUNG MANAGER ?

Respect Your Roles And Theirs !!

The idea of being a young manager can be an absolutely amazing thing. Yet in reality being a manager is not all about telling everyone what to do and always getting our way. First off, no matter how many people we have working under us, we always have a boss too. Even when you are CEO you have a boss i.e. The Board of Directors. 

Regardless of the hassles, managing others can be a rewarding experience.  Moreover, as a young professional it can be a very valuable experience that will reap endless benefits as our career develops. According to me,  your ultimate success in business is not what you do but what you can get others to do, so managing people early in your career will put you leaps and bounds ahead of others as your climb the corporate ladder. " Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young." Henry Ford.

To succeed as a young manager, we should keep the following in our mind:

Learning is for Life: If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.

Keep it Simple: Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler. Out of intense complexities intense simplicity emerges. To arrive at the simplest truth requires years of contemplation.

Learning is Exploring: Learning is something which stretches us, to explore and seek new experiences. Life is not only about achievement, it's about learning and growth, and developing qualities like compassion, patience, perseverance, love, and joy, and so forth. And so if that is the case, then I think our goals should include something which stretches us.

Seek to Understand: Crucial to effective learning is the need to first understand. Just like for teachers to be effective, they first need to understand those they would wish to teach, same goes for young professionals who want to succeed as a young manager. Instruction begins when you put yourself in your subordinates place.

Keep Questioning: It’s the question that drives us. According to Albert Einstein, "If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes."

Don’t mention your age: It is not a good idea to go around broadcasting that you are young and inexperienced, especially when you are managing people. Once someone knows your age, it tends to create resentment.  Employees older than you will think you don’t deserve to be a manager and those the same age will think that they can be your friend, eventually taking advantage of you to get special treatment. In fact, once you have proven yourself and have a track record of doing amazing work, telling your age can be a good thing. Once you are accomplished people are impressed and admire you for getting so far at a young age.

Don’t talk about college all the time: Avoid talking about your college all the time. This is great to do when you are amongst other recent grads but it can lead co-workers older than you to look down on you or focus on your lack of experience.

Help your people, don’t command them: As a young manager the most important thing to keep in mind is that being boss does not mean your first job is to tell people what to do an expert. The basic thing is to support your people and help them do their job better. If you view your role from the point of view of a servant then you will motivate your people to listen to you and support your vision.

It can be great to be the boss, especially when you are young because it forces you to teach others how to be successful in their jobs (and the old saying says that you retain the highest % of something when you are teaching someone else how to do it), i.e. teaching makes you learn.  But remember to “teach” in the right way without committing any of the blunders above that will create a wall between you and your employees.