New manager resources

The first 90 days, in three stages

The 30-60-90 structure works because it stops you from trying to fix everything at once.

• Days 1 to 30: listen. Meet the team, your peers and your manager. Understand the work, the history, and where things have gone wrong before. Resist the urge to change things immediately.
• Days 31 to 60: clarify. Agree priorities, roles and ways of working. Start addressing anything urgent that surfaced in month one, but keep bigger changes on a plan rather than acting on impulse.
• Days 61 to 90: build. Introduce your operating rhythm, set goals for the quarter ahead, and begin coaching individuals rather than just managing the team as a whole.

Managing people who used to be your peers

Being promoted above former colleagues changes the relationship whether you want it to or not. Pretending nothing has changed usually backfires.

Name it directly with each person: acknowledge the shift, ask how they feel about it, and be explicit that you will treat everyone fairly, including friends. Then prove it through consistent behaviour, not a speech.

• Avoid special treatment for former close colleagues, even informally.
• Stop sharing manager-only information in old social channels.
• Address resentment or testing behaviour early and privately, not by ignoring it.

Running a one-to-one that people actually value

A good one-to-one belongs to the team member, not to you. If you spend the whole meeting giving status updates, you have turned it into a task check-in.

• Open with a genuine question about how they are doing, not just what they are working on.
• Ask what is blocking them and what support they need from you specifically.
• Use part of the time for development: what do they want to learn or grow into next.
• Close every meeting with clear next actions, owned by name.

Delegating without losing control of the outcome

Most new managers either delegate too little, because it feels faster to do it themselves, or delegate too much, without giving people the context to succeed.

A useful test: delegate the outcome and the constraints, not the method. Tell people what good looks like and by when, and let them choose how to get there. Check in at agreed points rather than hovering.

• Match the task to the person's current skill and confidence level.
• Be explicit about decision rights: what they can decide alone, what needs your sign-off.
• Common mistake: delegating a task but still making every decision about it yourself.

Giving feedback people can actually act on

Vague feedback like "be more proactive" is unusable. Specific, timely and behavioural feedback is what changes performance.

• State the specific behaviour, the impact it had, and what you want to see instead.
• Give it close to the event, not saved up for a quarterly review.
• Prepare the opening line in advance for anything difficult. It is the hardest part of the conversation.
• Follow up. Feedback given once and never mentioned again rarely sticks.

Handling underperformance early and fairly

Underperformance rarely improves by itself. The longer it continues unaddressed, the more it affects team morale and the harder the eventual conversation becomes.

• Separate a skill gap from a will or effort problem; they need different responses.
• Document specific examples rather than relying on a general impression.
• Agree a clear improvement plan with dates, and check in against it consistently.
• Involve HR or your manager early if the situation may lead to a formal process.