After the excitement starts to settle, the stress begins. Your first managerial position is a great step for your career and will benefit your life in a variety of ways. It also comes with increased responsibilities and expectations that can get your heart pumping.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to. With the right preparation, you can make sure that your first 90 days are not just successful, but set the baseline for a productive and beneficial relationship with both the people above you and reporting to you. These essentials can help you get started in accomplishing that goal.

1. Know the Team

As a managerial hire, you succeed and fail based on the relationships developed with both those above and below you. That’s why your first step as a manager should always be to get to know the people you’ll report to, and those reporting to you.

Set up initial meetings with key staff. Show an interest in them beyond their names and job responsibilities. The more you know about your team, both formally and informally, the more effectively you can work with them to accomplish larger organizational goals.

2. Formalize Your Expectations

The job description in the course of the hiring process is one thing. What’s actually expected from you when you start your new job as a manager could be an entirely different story. As early as possible, meet with your own manager to discuss and formalize exactly what will be required from your position in the near and long-term future.

Here, it makes sense to split your expectations and goals into benchmarks. In addition to achieving larger, more intangible goals, are there measurable objectives for you and your team to achieve in the first 90 days or the first year? The more you know about them, the easier it will be to establish a plan that can get you there.

3.  Establish Channels of Communication

The most effective managers always have an open ear. Your team tends to be the boots on the ground, communicating with customers and other stakeholders on a daily basis. Their thoughts, ideas, and reports on their daily work can be invaluable in helping you understand the organization and its brand.

To get that information, set up regular, short staff meetings. Let your team know that your door is open, and suggestions are welcome. The more clearly you communicate that communication is welcome, the more likely your team will be to take you up on it.

4. Understand Current Practices

Another crucial part of your first 90 days as a manager should be to assess exactly what situation you’re inheriting. Analyze current business practices, as well as the daily routines of your team. You may even consider contacting your predecessor (if available) to talk about these topics.

Change is difficult but sometimes necessary. Effective change management, of course, requires an in-depth understanding of the current situation and its benefits. Don’t make adjustments for the sake of change; instead, find and keep what works, focus the next step on improving what doesn’t.

5. Start to Build a Plan for the Future

The most common mistakes new managerial hires make during their first 90 days is failing to establish strategic priorities. In other words, don’t assume that you will have a grace period during which you can simply assess the current situation. That grace period does tend to exist, but you’ll also be expected to build on it in order to start turning into a new direction.

Depending on your organization, that plan may not need to be formalized yet. It should, however, include a broader outline of what you hope to achieve, and how you might be able to get there. The earlier you start looking forward, the better.

Find More Tips for Your First Few Days as a Manager

While your first 90 days as a manager can be stressful, they’re far from impossible to manage. With the right plan in place, you can make sure to both meet and exceed expectations placed in your hire. The result will be a successful start to your managerial career that can improve your success for a long time to come. But of course, the first step is to find the right job where you can flex your managerial muscles!

Contact us to learn why working with a staffing agency is the right step to get there.