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How Should Employees Adjust to New Managers?
A new manager in your department might mean significant changes in the direction of your team’s work, your own role, or the team’s workflow, turning a job you love into one of agony and frustration.
“Getting a new boss can shake up your world,” Mary Abbajay, president of Careerstone Group and author of “Managing Up: How to Move Up, Win at Work, and Succeed with Any Type of Boss,” told Harvard Business Review (HBR). “You have to adjust to a new management style and personality, which is hard if this person is a micromanager, not as friendly as your old boss, or has different priorities. You’re starting from scratch.”
On retail selling floors, the turnover rate of managers is high. A Korn Ferry survey found the turnover rate in 2022 for store managers and assistant store managers was 17.7% and 29.2%, respectively.
The HBR article offered a number of tips for adjusting to a new boss, including keeping a positive mindset, having empathy for the pressures facing a new boss during the transition, working on understanding your new boss’s priorities and preferences, and focusing on constructive criticism rather than being defensive about changes.
“Don’t sabotage the boss’s efforts,” said Abbajay. “Bosses can feel it when the team isn’t with them.”
Communications expert Sara McCord suggests coming up with fresh ideas and “being your most impressive self” in the initial transition period for the new boss. She wrote in The Muse, “While it can be confusing because you know your job inside and out at this point, you need to remember that you’re back at square one in the impression game with your new boss.”
In a column for Fast Company, Amii Barnard-Bahn, a partner at Kaplan & Walker and the CEO of Barnard-Bahn Coaching & Consulting, suggests trying to understand the reason behind the change in leadership and take the lead in making recommendations to the new boss. She wrote, “Change can be a rough journey. It’s an easier destination if you invest time to envision the future, identify the shifts, and design a concrete plan to lead yourself and your team through the new landscape.”
Lindo Gharib, district president of staffing firm Robert Half, suggests recognizing it will take time to get to know your new boss and keeping an open mind. He told Fox Business, “A new manager will help you push yourself to tackle challenging goals, gain a fresh perspective and help you learn how to work effectively with different types of people.”
Discussion Questions
What advice would you give employees about adjusting and thriving under a new boss?
Do you have any advice to ease a manager’s transition in a retail selling floor setting?
Poll
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Paula Rosenblum
Co-founder, RSR Research
Georges Mirza
VP Product Management & Advisory, ComTask
While I can’t say I disagree with anything said here, I find the perspective rather curious: I would think it would be the manager who would adjust to the company. Sometimes, of course, that’s quite simply not the case: a new manager is hired precisly for the purpose of “shaking things up”; but I wouldn’t call that the default situation. And rather than advising an employee how to adjust to a micro manager, I’d much rather give advice to management on the matter,,,namely “Don’t!”
Associates: Be helpful, but careful, in your initial comments. You may think sharing everything you believe needs to be fixed, or going off on your old manager’s lack of skills is a good idea, but it’s just the opposite. And what you share can be misconstrued. Instead, be positive, observant and helpful. Let the new boss settle in before making a snap judgement about their ability to do the job.
On the other side, too many new managers fail to observe before jumping in and changing everything. You just got there. Hang your super hero cape on a hook and trust your people and the process.
There are two sides to this. Employees need to be open and welcoming to a new manager, and should also help to ease them into their new role. A new manager must be sensitive to the needs of the team and spend a lot of time listening and learning – both things that are hallmarks of good managers. Attitude plays a big role in this: any manger who comes in with the view that they are there to support and develop the team – rather than control them – is off to a good start!
These are all good points but the overall perspective is imbalanced. This is a good summation for managers who are actually good at their jobs AND good at managing teams. But, there is little or no perspective shared for unfit or incompetent managers, in which case I’d say most of what’s written here does not apply.
Bottom line is it’s best to start out with goodwill but it won’t take long to determine if your new manager is up to snuff. If not, then the team can end up shouldering the manager’s shortfalls and not everyone will respond to that favorable.
While managers lead with setting expectations, I believe it’s fair for you to also have clear and stated expectations of your manager. If things began to move in the wrong direction, you can and should hold each other accountable for agreed upon expectations.
It has been said that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. It’s impossible to overstate the impact (good or bad) managers can have on employees and their work experience.
It’s extremely hard on teams when some are given manager titles without manager competence. Most organizations do a poor job at managing this and, instead, accept the collateral damage of inept managerial decisions under the guise of “performance management” where employees take the brunt of the headwinds instead of managers.
If we are to discuss adjust to managers, at least let’s be honest about the range of managers employees have to adjust to everyday. Then let’s be candid that both employees AND managers need to adapt.
Adjusting to a new boss in retail involves efforts from both the employee and the manager. Employees should maintain a positive attitude, understand the manager’s priorities, and offer support while providing constructive feedback. Meanwhile, the new manager should strive to communicate effectively, understand the team’s dynamics, and appreciate existing workflows before implementing changes. Through mutual respect, adaptability, and collaboration, both sides can navigate the transition successfully.
To ease a manager’s transition in a retail setting, listen to existing staff, learn about store operations, and communicate clearly. Respect existing processes and gradually introduce changes. Build trust with the team by being approachable and supportive.
Change can create stress as well as opportunity. Keep an open mind, focus on factors you can control and have compassion for new managers. (Even Fred Flintstone felt sympathy for Mr. Slate after learning the pressures his boss faced.)
You know, the first rule is to see the new person as a human who is in the role of your boss, not just “a new boss.” That’s the empathy part, I guess. Towards that end, I totally recommend scheduling a meeting, ideally over some food, to discuss who this person is, the direction he/she is taking and why, and how you think you can fit into that.
For the manager, get to know who the people are that are working for you. Understand if they’re going to be leaders, followers, or simply indifferent.
Now, having said that, if it doesn’t feel good and the employee has given it a reasonable period of time, start looking for a new job. At the moment, jobs seem somewhat plentiful.
The title suggests a one-way view (employee to boss) when in reality, it’s omni-directional when a new boss is hired. Impacts of the boss’s actions reverberate in a multitude of directions and are noticed by customers, other associates, senior leaders, vendors, other 3rd party stakeholders and, yes, the employee. Open, frequent and transparent communication, for all involved, is vital to success and lends itself to building trust and demonstrating credibility. Once this lane is established, sparks can fly, new ideas can flow, cool things can happen.
Did the former boss get promoted for great performance? Did they get fired for dismal performance? What was the staff’s role in either circumstance? What was the individual’s role? It’s a lot easier when the new boss is stepping into a positive momentum environment. It can get pretty crazy when negative momentum must be turned around. But in both cases everybody needs to be in “listening & learning” mode. The underlying “why” of both success and failure needs to be understood. And if everybody is in listening & learning mode, then problems, solutions and opportunities will come to the surface.
All good points… but it’s important to focus on the type of new manager you’re getting and their ability to prioritize the team’s success. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and awareness is essential to success.