If you're a new manager��

You may be struggling to fit comfortably into your new role. Here are five tips to get you started off on the right foot.

Congratulations on your promotion! You may not have expected to be a manager so soon, but in today's leaner, more efficient publishing environment, many people are doing jobs they might not previously have imagined themselves doing. You may be finding the responsibility of managing other people unexpectedly difficult--for good reason: It is. Unfortunately, there is no simple text to teach all the skills necessary to be a successful manager. And there is so much to learn, so many skills to master, that perhaps the fastest way to success is just to be yourself--and not make too many mistakes at the beginning. With that in mind, this article will take a look at the five most common mistakes that new managers make. If you can avoid them, and substitute highly successful behavior patterns for less successful ones, you'll be off to a great start.

Don't let others control your time. Time is your most precious possession, so you need to control its allocation. How? By not permitting unspecified appointment lengths, unspecified appointment agendas or unspecified meetings of any nature. If you call a meeting, allocate a specific length of time for it. If someone else calls a meeting, ask for the agenda and schedule in advance. If someone wants to make an appointment with you, ask what the topic will be and how much time will be needed to discuss it.

Don't let others waste your time. If a visit goes beyond its allocated time, if a person goes on and on in casual conversation, or if a telephone caller just keeps talking, you need a way to buy time--to end any further conversation without offending the other person. Here's the tried-and-true, four-step formula:

1. Say the person's name. People love to hear their name. And they generally stop talking when they hear it--which allows you to implement step 2:

2. say something nice, like, "John, I really enjoy hearing about your trip." People need to be validated. They need to know that you've accepted what they've said so far. Then they'll be psychologically ready for step 3:

3. State your circumstances. Let the person know that you've got another meeting, a phone call you've got to make, etc. It sounds like, "John, I really enjoy hearing about your trip, but I've got a meeting scheduled for 3 o'clock and I need to get ready for it." But nobody likes a stark ending without hope, so step 4 caters to that need.

4. Make a future arrangement. In total, it sounds like, "John, I really enjoy hearing about your trip, but I've got a meeting scheduled for 3 o'clock and I need to get ready for it. So let's pick this up tomorrow, okay?"

As a successful manager, you will know how to guard your time, and if you get caught unawares, how to regain control by buying time.

Don't try to listen and do something else at the same time. Yes, you can hear, but you can't really listen and be writing or reading simultaneously. Your staff members need and deserve your full attention, need to feel listened to. That is a basic human need, and if it is not met by you, the manager, your staff will resent you. And they'll complain.

Successful managers use the skill of active listening. They know that when someone talks to them, they must devote themselves 100 percent to the speaker. So the successful manager looks at the speaker, and leans forward to convey a "connection." The successful manager utters sounds of acknowledgment (such as, yes, I see, I understand, I follow) and shows appropriate facial expressions--such as smiles or frowns.

Whether you agree or disagree with that person is secondary; if you use all four components of active listening, your staff member will feel listened to, and as a result will be willing to work with you.

Don't assume you understand your staff. Be aware that when your staff members talk to you, their words may not accurately reflect what they mean to say. It's also quite possible that when you listen, you are listening with your own bias and consequently not picking up on the speaker's true intent. The solution is to use the skill of paraphrasing--that is, repeating back to the speaker, in your own words, what you understand the speaker to be saying.

This accomplishes two things. First, you will know that there has been clear communication (because if the first paraphrase didn't match the speaker's intended message, you got another chance to clarify). And second, the employee will know that not only have you been listening, but you have also been understanding.

Don't assume your staff understands you. Speaking to your staff doesn't mean that your staff has understood. If you ask them, "Do you understand?" they will invariably answer "yes," because they don't want you, their boss, to think they are stupid. Or, they might respond "yes" because they really do think they have understood--but actually haven't. The secret to success here is to get the employee to paraphrase you, but this must be done without offending the employee. You don't want to create the impression that you think he or she is stupid.

The way to handle this is to use the skills of "I" and "you," using "I" to take responsibility and "you" to give credit. After you have explained something to an employee, you might say, "Bill, I've been talking for a while and I'm not really sure I've explained things as well as I could, Tell me, Bill, what is your understanding of what I'm saying?"

The point is to focus on yourself, on the fact that maybe your message wasn't complete or clear, and to ask for the employee's help. Under these circumstances, the employee won't feel threatened or pressured, and is more likely to cooperate.

If indeed your message was correctly understood, take the opportunity to build a relationship with the employee by saying something like, "Thanks, Bill, you sure are a great listener." The employee's ego shoots sky-high and his opinion of you follows right along. What a wonderful way to build rapport and to get the employee striving to do the right things right.

On the other hand, there will be times when the employee's paraphrase won't match your intended transmission. This is another opportunity for team building, which you do, again, by not focusing blame on the employee, but on yourself. You might say something like, "Thanks Bill, but I guess I just didn't make myself clear." Notice that when the paraphrase was a match, the employee gets the credit; when there was no match, you take the responsibility. Successful managers have established clear lines of communication because they have mastered and practiced these skills. Master them yourself, avoid these common mistakes, and you will have taken a giant step toward the success of your own career.

Jacob Weisberg, head of Trabuco Canyon, California-based Creative Communications, is a consultant specializing in communications skills.

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