The shift from individual contributor to manager is one of the most challenging transitions that most professionals need to make during their careers. It isn’t just about learning people management skills. Often, it requires a deeper shift in your mindset and approach to the workplace, along with navigating potentially difficult situations like managing former peers. The habits you develop during this leadership transition, especially during your first 90 days as a manager, are often critical to your long-term success as a leader.
This article outlines a big-picture new manager checklist, not of tasks you need to complete but of the more intangible team leadership fundamentals that will set you up for long-term success as a manager. While it’s focused on first-time managers, the same basic principles apply for anyone who is taking on a new leadership role.
Understand the role (before attempting changes)
New managers are often eager to make an impact and prove to themselves and their colleagues that they can handle the position. This impulse is understandable, and even commendable, but it often leads new managers to make a common mistake. In the rush to show their value, they can end up breaking systems that were already functional and focusing on the wrong problems or priorities. When this happens, it damages your credibility, triggering defensiveness in your reports and ultimately undermining the morale and confidence of your team.
In a new manager’s first 90 days, observation should take precedence over action. The best first step is to clarify the expectations for your role with your direct superior. Get their advice on what success looks like at the 30, 60, and 90 day marks. Also ask for their insight on the key areas that should be your new manager priorities and which problems you’re not expected to solve, at least not immediately.
Once you have that context, the next step should be to learn your team’s reality. Take some time to understand the processes they currently have in place (and why), as well as the informal norms that have been established and the primary pain points from the team’s perspective. Have one-on-one conversations with your reports and listen more than you speak during them. This helps to establish your professional relationship and gives you the time to observe patterns, rather than one-off issues, so you can direct your early efforts into making changes that result in meaningful improvements.
Putting in this work to fully understand your role and team clarifies your decision-making authority and the limits on it, which can prevent you from overstepping or duplicating work. It also reveals the team’s strengths and gaps, giving you insight into informal roles or influence that isn’t fully conveyed by reading each individual’s official job description. Approaching your new role with this kind of thoughtfulness builds trust as a manager with both your team and other stakeholders, making it more likely your eventual changes will feel relevant to their needs and will get the buy-in required to succeed.
As far as when it’s appropriate to start making changes, that should be based on your understanding of the team. You can start to act once you fully understand the root causes of issues, and can confirm that your proposed solutions will align with team goals and have an impact that outweighs any potential disruption. The best approach is typically to start with small, visible changes, actively involving the team in your solutions and explaining the “why” behind the change clearly.
Build trust and credibility
A title alone doesn’t make someone a leader. Authority grows out of the relationships you develop, which is exactly why building trust needs to come early for new managers. Trust enables honest communication, which is the best way to fully understand your team and its needs. It also earns follow-through when you build credibility, making it more likely that your team will buy in to whatever changes you do make.
Remember that first impressions are often hard to break, and trust gaps widen over time. If you start off trying to assert authority without building trust first, that can set a precedent that’s very difficult to recover from. Conversely, if you consistently do what you say, admit the gaps in your own knowledge, and make fair decisions that you can clearly explain, you will earn respect and trust from your team far more quickly.
Following the first time manager tips in the last section is a good way to start establishing these trust bonds. It’s also important to establish psychological safety by inviting everyone’s input and responding calmly to mistakes, without immediately seeking out someone to blame. Ignoring feedback, criticizing reports publicly, or enforcing rules inconsistently will erode the team’s psychological safety, and are things you absolutely need to avoid during your first 90 days in management.
One particular challenge many new managers face is how to adjust their relationship with former peers. While this can be awkward at first, you don’t need to overcompensate by distancing yourself from colleagues you’re friendly with. Acknowledge the role shift and the new standards on your relationship, then apply your standards evenly across your team, avoiding signals of favoritism. This will reinforce your efforts to build trust with both former peers and new reports.
Set clear expectations for your team (and yourself)
Clarity prevents conflict, and that’s particularly true for new managers. Setting clear expectations is a critical component of a first 90 plan for managers because it builds confidence, focus, and accountability from the start. This prevents confusion in your team, reduces mistakes and rework, and takes a lot of the friction out of a leadership transition. It’s important to do this in your first 90 days because norms can solidify quickly into habits. If you don’t explain your expectations, your lack of guidance can be taken as tacit approval of whatever team members are already doing and make it more difficult to adjust course later on.
Define your team’s priorities as early as possible, and clarify who has ownership of decisions and how success will be measured. The goal is to find the right balance. Don’t assume everyone is aligned or quietly change expectations, but also avoid explaining things so much that it feels nitpicky. Write expectations down and clearly document who owns what and the responsibilities tied to each role. Along with expectations for roles, clarify communication expectations like response time standards and which channels should be used for which types of messages. At the same time, clarify what your team should expect from you, including your leadership style, how and how often you’ll provide feedback, and any boundaries you want to set around focus time.
One common challenge when you take over a team is how to adjust expectations without criticizing past leaders, especially ones who were well-liked and had earned the team’s loyalty. There are some management best practices you can follow that will help. Keep the focus on future outcomes rather than past actions, explain the rationale behind the change, and avoid making direct comparisons to past managers.
The key shift: from doing the work to leading the work
One of the biggest mistakes new managers make is trying to be too hands-on with the work assigned to their team. The people who get promoted into leadership are often top performers who are accustomed to tackling tasks themselves, and it can take some time to break free of that mindset. The thing is, as a manager, letting go of control is part of your job assignment. Smart delegation is one of the best tools in a manager’s toolbox, protecting your time to focus on the tasks only you can handle while also promoting more leadership development of team members who get to take full ownership of the tasks in their domain.
The guidance above on setting clear expectations also makes delegation much easier. Focus on assigning outcomes and clarifying decision authority instead of handing off tasks with no context. Just as important, avoid clinging to work you see as critical. Many of these tasks are repeatable and make great opportunities for team members to build new skills.
Effective delegation isn’t just about how you start the work. It also means allowing the people who own tasks to complete them without worrying the manager will step in the second they hit a snag. Make yourself available to help, and set check-in milestones to verify the team member is on the right track, but don’t jump in to take the work back before this. When a team member does need help, aim to coach them through the problem-solving process rather than doing the work for them. Ask guiding questions instead of providing answers and give them time to find their own solution before you step in. Letting your team members work in their own way is part of how to succeed as a new manager.
Build productive relationships beyond your team
Many new managers have a laser focus on the specific team they’re leading. In the process, they neglect and underestimate the value of building cross-functional influence. Having productive relationships with other managers and teams in your organization is another way to build credibility as a manager because you’re seen as part of the broader leadership structure with influence beyond your immediate scope. Other leaders can also be an invaluable source of knowledge and support as you’re developing your leadership skills and style.
The first step is to identify your key cross-functional partners. These will usually be leaders of departments or teams that work in adjacent areas that work toward the same projects or objectives. Be proactive in introducing yourself to these individuals and having conversations about how you can support each other. Learn their goals and challenges before sharing yours, and look for small problems you can help them solve early to show you’re genuinely interested in mutual support. Offering value before you ask for help makes it more likely others will come to your aid willingly when you need it.
When you do reach out for guidance or help solving a problem, aim to frame those requests around a shared outcome. Consistent follow through and meeting your own commitments will establish you as a true workplace partner. It’s also important to share credit when someone steps in to contribute to your projects. This shows a collaborative, team-oriented mindset that your new peers in the leadership team will appreciate.
The first 90 days: build a foundation, don’t chase perfection
Learning how to lead a team for the first time is one of the greatest challenges many professionals face, but it’s one that can be overcome with the right approach. Having the right mindset is key. Don’t worry about proving your competency in your first 90 days. Your leaders already think you’re capable or they wouldn’t have put you into the role. Internalize that belief in your ability, and spend your first few months positioning yourself for long-term success instead of worrying about how others perceive you.
While some people do have a natural inclination toward leadership, that doesn’t mean anyone is perfect in the role right away. Becoming an effective manager takes practice, and missteps are inevitable along the way. You don’t have to get everything right immediately. Slow down, learn your role, get to know your team, and focus on building trust before trying to fix every issue. Strong fundamentals now will pay off well beyond your first 90 days.
