How Well Are You Fostering New Manager Wellbeing?

Did you know that the average person will spend over 90,000 hours at work in their lifetime? That’s more time spent with their coworkers than their children, friends, family, or significant other. Let that sink in. Ninety. Thousand. Hours. 

During their first few months (and even year) in a new role, some newly hired or promoted managers often feel like imposters. Some may even try the “fake it ‘til you make it” approach and impersonate their idea of what a manager is, attempting to wear various masks to fit in.

Given we spend the majority of our hours at work, that’s a lot of time for a new hire to spend impersonating and not showing up as who they are. Sounds like a quick way to drain their emotional tank (leading to unhappiness or burnout) and their productivity tank (leading to pain points in efficiency and leadership). If they are so focused on who/how to be then they can’t focus on what to be doing. 

One of the best things for a new manager’s wellbeing (and the organization's bottom line) is if they can be authentic with what they know and what they don’t know. How can you foster this? Two ways:

1. Set the tone by building a psychologically safe relationship with them through open and honest communication, transparent leadership, encouraging feedback, and creating a space for dialogue where their voice is valued and respected. When they feel psychologically safe to be themselves, they will nurture and activate a psychologically safe team. This not only promotes employee wellbeing, but also engagement and loyalty leading to increased team performance.

2. Give them the support to hone the type of manager they are (not the type of manager they think they should be) and to grow from new manager to successful leader. Putting them in the driver’s seat of their own onboarding and assimilation will give them the confidence to be themselves.  Engaging them early on as an active participant will get them up to speed and unlock their team’s potential.

By setting the right tone and providing the right tools at the beginning of your newly hired leaders journey, you not only support their wellbeing and their long term leadership strategy but you’ll launch their greater team, the department, and the organization at large into doing well.