by Elyse | Sep 1 | Leadership
Want to know the 3 must-read books for newly hired managers? Well then, keep on reading.
One of the hardest things a newly hired manager has to grapple with is learning a whole bunch of new skills in a short amount of time. One of the fastest and cheapest ways to learn new skills is by reading applicable books on the topic.
There is no shortage of books on management, leadership, and work. But, it can be daunting to know which ones will be the most helpful or the most applicable.
While there are many books written for people who have been leaders at their company for a long time, this post will specifically focus on the must-read books for newly hired managers.
Must-Read Books for Newly Hired Managers #1: The Success Principles by Jack Canfield
The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Jack Canfield is an all-purpose, all-encompassing personal development book.
This book is a great place to start if you have never read self-help or personal development book.
It covers almost every topic of personal development.
It covers so many topics that the book is incredibly in-depth. There are six main sections of the book and each section has small, bite-sized chapters that go into specific topics.
The Success Principles covers topics such as:
- deciding what you want
- persistence
- exceeding expectations
- transforming yourself
- developing habits
- staying motivated
- redefining time
- having difficult conversations
- develop a positive money consciousness
The Success Principles is the most comprehensive personal development book I have ever read and is a great choice if you don’t want to buy a ton of generic personal development books.
Must-Read Books for Newly Hired Managers #2: The First Time Manager by Jim McCormick
The First Time Manager is like having an on-hand guidebook to becoming a manager. The book has short chapters on almost every situation a newly hired manager will face in the role.
The book is broken down into different sections with each section having short chapters that go in-depth into specific topics, much like the way The Success Principles is organized.
The First Time Manager is written in a very logical format for someone who is preparing for being a manager for the first time.
The book is easy to navigate and will come in handy for the beginning phases of being a new manager.
It is a great book to have on hand to reference how to handle different, tricky situations when they come up.
The First Time Manager covers topics such as:
- hiring
- firing
- creating a team dynamic
- communication
- active listening
- class and style
The First Time Manager is a great book for any newly hired manager in any industry and is widely applicable and helpful.
Must-Read Books for Newly Hired Managers #3: The First 90 Days by Michael D. Watkins
The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter by Michael D. Watkins is a book about leadership transitions. The book is backed up by a lot of research and is more specific than the other two books in this post.
Since you are a newly hired manager, you are in a period of career transition. And as Watkins talks about in the book, you are probably simultaneously going through multiple transitions just by taking your new role.
A new role is a transition.
A new company is a transition.
A new industry.
A new city.
And with each transition, there is a higher likelihood of falling into what Watkins calls one of the “transition traps. This book is much more focused on new leaders or just leaders who are in a new role of some sort and less about brand new managers.
The First 90 Days also has much more managerial and corporate jargon than The Success Principles or The First Time Manager.
Resources:
It presents a research-backed way of thinking about your new position and offers case studies to help you either emulate successful leaders or avoid the pitfalls of some failed leaders.
The book is based on the idea that first impressions matter. And that the impression you make at the beginning of your role sets the tone for the rest of your career trajectory in that role.
The book is filled with questions to ask yourself, charts, and worksheets to fill out for you to evaluate yourself and make adjustments if needed.
The First 90 Days covers topics such as:
- creating a learning plan
- negotiating your success
- securing early wins
- matching strategy to the situation
- creating alliances
- building a team
- balance at work and home
The First 90 Days is denser than the other books and each concept builds on itself since the book is meant to be read and implemented chronologically. It is a great read if you are a newly hired manager in a leadership position.
While there are a lot of books for managers and leaders, these are the 3 must-read books for newly hired managers.
If you want something shorter to read but just as impactful, make sure you get my free guide to overcoming impostor syndrome.
by Elyse | Aug 23 | Leadership
Have you ever wondered what leadership development activities you can start today? Have you wondered what would help you become a better and more effective leader at work? Have you ever asked yourself if there is more you could be doing?
If you have, you are not alone. Many new leaders wonder what they could be doing to start stepping into their new leadership roles. And the great news is that there are many effective things you can start doing today.
5 Leadership Development Activities You Can Start Today
1. Self-Awareness
The first leadership development activity you can start today is bring self-awareness to your behaviors, your feelings, the words you are speaking and the thoughts you are thinking. Start asking yourself questions like:
- What am I thinking right now?
- How am I feeling?
- Why am I choosing to do my less important tasks first?
- What was I thinking when I said that?
- Why do I feel this way?
- Why is this my priority?
- Are my priorities aligned with my goals? If not, why not?
- Is the way I am choosing to spend my time aligned with my goals and priorities?
Once you develop some self-awareness, you will start to have more insight and understanding into why other people around you are making the choices they are while also developing more compassion for the choices other people are making.
2. Read Books on Leadership, Communication and Personal Development
The next leadership development activity you can start today is to begin reading books on leadership, communication or personal development. Reading books is a great way to learn new tools and concepts to improve skills that are important for new leaders.
Most leadership books are broken in to small chapters that have practices for you to apply as you are reading so even if you only read a couple of pages a day, you will still get a great benefit.
3. Send An Appreciation Note
Send someone a note of appreciation. Part of being a leader is delivering negative AND positive feedback and starting to practice the skill of giving appreciation now will pay dividends in the future.
Being able to express gratitude is an important skill of an effective leader. But, if expressing gratitude is new to you or something that you haven’t done very much in the past, it may feel vulnerable and uncomfortable.
By starting today and sending a note of appreciation to someone today, you will get better at it and feel more comfortable in the future expressing appreciation.
4. Get Organized
Spending time getting organized is time well spent because if you do it right, it will save you time in the future and will make you much more efficient at completing your tasks as well as give your brain more willpower and energy by not needing to make decisions in the future.
Start by writing down everything that you need to get done. Get it out of your head and onto paper. Then make a loose schedule of when you are going to do all the things that are on your to-do list. The first step of this process is to clear your head so that you don’t have to expend mental energy always thinking about all the things you need to get done. The second step is to organize things in a cohesive order that makes sense and give your brain some direction on when these things will get done.
5. Think About Your Vision For the Future
The most successful people are the ones who know where they want to go. Knowing where you want to go keeps you laser-focused on your goals and moving in the right direction. The best way to think about the vision for your future is to ask yourself insightful questions.
Answer the question for yourself: where do you want to be in one year from now? 5 years? 10 years?
Are the things you are doing today helping you get to where you want to be? If you were to remake all the decisions in your life, would you still make the same decision?
Conclusion
While there are many things that go into developing leadership skills, these are five leadership development activities that you can start today to help you become the leader the you want to be.
by Elyse | Jul 27 | Leadership
Do you know the eight leadership skills for new managers? Being a new manager is more than just managing people; you also want to be a leader.
You will want to learn specific skills as a new manager so that you can be a great leader of your new team.
The 8 Leadership Skills For New Managers
- Decisiveness
- Compassion
- Communicative
- Responsibility
- Courage
- Loyalty
- Willingness
- Faith
All these skills are essential for the new manager to learn and develop to be a great leader. These are the skills that great leaders possess.
Leadership Skills For New Managers #1: Decisiveness
As a new leader, you must make a lot of decisions. Those you lead will look to you for decisions on many different things. You want to ensure that you are skilled at making good decisions quickly and with certainty.
Leadership Skills For New Managers #2: Compassion
Being a leader means the scope of your tasks and responsibilities will increase. With this, you will also become responsible for having hard conversations. An important skill to cultivate is compassion for all other people you work with as well as yourself. Whenever you have a challenging conversation with someone, you want to make sure you do it with compassion for that other person’s humanity.
Leadership Skills For New Managers #3: Communicative
Communicating company directives to your team will become one of your responsibilities as a new manager. You want to ensure that you are a clear, concise, and direct communicator. Communication is also crucial when you are expressing expectations to people on your team and to others, as well as being able to communicate praise and what is going right to those on your team.
Leadership Skills For New Managers #4: Responsibility
Everyone who is on your team is now your responsibility. You want to ensure that you handle others with care but know that their incompetency or failures will also fall on your shoulders. Taking responsibility for what goes wrong is a skill that every leader needs.
Leadership Skills For New Managers #5: Courage
Stepping into a new role and being responsible for others can bring up fear and doubt. It takes courage to step into the role, say hard things, and take responsibility for doing a good job.
Leadership Skills For New Managers #6: Loyalty
It is important to show loyalty to those who work under you. Never gossip or talk badly about someone who works for you. It makes you seem disloyal and erodes trust in your leadership. Make sure that if you are delivering negative feedback, it is done privately and with as much compassion as possible.
Leadership Skills For New Managers #7: Willingness
Willingness is the distinction between those that are just managers and people who are true leaders. True leaders are willing to do anything they ask others to do. This willingness to do what you ask of others and to do it, if necessary, builds trust in you as a leader.
Leadership Skills For New Managers #8: Faith
Leaders have faith that they are capable, that their team is capable, and in their projects and goals. It can be easy to give into fear or doubt about yourself or others but having faith makes everyone pull together and achieve common goals.
Conclusion
These are the eight leadership skills that you should master as a new manager to build respect, trust, and loyalty with your team. What skills do you already possess, and which ones do you want to develop more?
by Elyse | Mar 24 | Leadership
A lot of times, when you start doing something new, it can feel like you are struggling with problems that you think no one else has had to face before you.
It can feel like the other people that came before you were just innately better at dealing with your current problems, and it can lead to self-doubt and insecurity when you believe this.
Quotes are such powerful reminders that we share the same experiences with people that have come before us.
22 Leadership Quotes to Inspire and Make You Think
Let these 22 leadership quotes inspire you and make you think about how similar your journey is to those that have come before you.
- “There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity, and courage.” -Fuchan Yuan
- “Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.” -J.K. Rowling
- “What we don’t need in the midst of struggle is shame for being human.” -Brene Brown
- “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets credit.” -Henry S. Truman
- “The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example.” -John Wooden
- “Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching.” -George Van Valkenburg
- “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” -John Quincy Adams
- “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” -Kenneth Blanchard
- “To lead people, walk behind them.” -Lao Tzu
- “Leadership is not being in charge. Leadership is taking care of those in your charge.” -Simon Sinek
- “Integrity is the most valuable and respected quality of leadership. Always keep your word.” -Brian Tracy
- “You manage things; you lead people.” -Grace Murray Hopper
- “People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.” -John C. Maxwell
- “Leadership’s not a title. It’s a behavior. Live it.” -Robin Sharma
- “If serving is below you, leadership is beyond you.” -Anonymous
- “A boss has the title. A leader has the people.” -Simon Sinek
- “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” -Warren Bennis
- “A leader is a dealer in hope.” -Napoleon Bonaparte
- “People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.” -John C. Maxwell
- “The true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own.” -Simon Sinek
- “As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.” -John C. Maxwell
Which one of these leadership quotes inspires you the most?
