Young and in charge....advice?

getmore4less

littlemiss.k wrote: »

Being only 24 and with the age range in my team being from 26 - 59...I am worried about how they will take to this and how I will get the respect that I need from them given that some of them are aggrieved having gone for the post themselves.

You have to earn respect.

The biggest mistake many new managers make is passing the s**t down because they don't know how to manage it.

Understand what is really important to the business.

You don't stop being part of a team you just have a different set of duties to the others and this requires a different emphasis.

Think about all the things that p**ed you off when your were not in charge, manage them out of the process if you can.

This means influencing up as well as down the hierachy.

RuthnJasper

I think the advice given above is excellent and I would just add to it by saying that if you show them (your colleagues) respect then they are more likely to respect you in return.

Hope your new role goes really well. x

bll78

I understand your problem.
I became the practice manager of a GP practice when I was a year older than you. The GP anted me to act like the 'Manager' and not associate with the staff. It wasn't my style, and to be honest if I had I would have made a rod for my own back because there was no one else at my level so I would have been isolated.
Yes I was the manager but that didn't mean I had to be a d!ck. I approached it by remainly friendly with the staff, but not bosom buddies. I went for drinks with them, and listened to their issues and helped when I could. For me it worked as although I often went out of my way to help them, they did the same back for me. After I left my replacement was definitely stand offish with the staff. She wouldn't help them, so they refused to be helpful for her i.e not flexing shift start times to cover last minute sickness, taking on extra responsibilities as a favour. My ex boss thought she was great for being so detached but I'm not sure she got got the best out of the team, and it cost him a fortune in covering shifts where I'd got the staff flexing and in effect doing it for nothing/minimal overtime.
The one thing I always found difficult was disciplining staff, sohave a think about how you'll approach this.