Moving into a management role will present new challenge and you will have increased responsibilities connected to your job role. Preparation, adaptability, willingness to learn new skills and self-reflection are key to making this move a success and for you to make a positive difference to your company.
There are some key factors to consider when looking to move into a management role:
CPD
You will need to develop into your new role with a different set of responsibilities and demands on your time. You will also need to ask your company for support with coaching, mentoring and training so that you can develop into an effective manager. Some companies have set management programmes however others are more designed around your individual requirements. Everyone needs support to grow into a new role so don’t feel a failure and ask for support from the very start.
Don’t underestimate your soft skills
People skills will be essential for you to succeed in your new role. Listening and your ability to communicate messages and directions in a positive way will become an essential trait. Practice your problem solving skills and thinking in a creative way will also help you.
Manage expectations
You must thoroughly understand your company’s short and long term work priorities and be able to communicate your new team’s specific and measurable goals.
Let it go
Delegation is key in your new role, you cannot do everything yourself or expect your team members to do a job exactly as you would have done. Your role is to now empower and inspire your team to achieve your collective goals. Use your experience to guide others, you can dictate the outcome (the what) and purpose (the why) but allow your team to choose the method (the how) for themselves.
Take the lead
You will need to become a leader, a coach, a mentor and able to inspire and enable your team to achieve their individual potential. To be effective at this you will need to blend leadership skills in with your own management style. Growing and developing your team will become a priority to keep happy and motivated staff.
Practically perfect
If there is nowhere for you to progress in your current company why not consider your own start up or a move to another employer. If you want to stay at your current employer find out if there are any extra groups, projects or areas of development within the business that you can join.
Top tips from John Clark Motor Group about application forms
- Employers use their own application forms so they can ask specific questions relevant to the actual vacancy and to ascertain why the applicant actually wants to work for the company.
- There is normally space for applicants to add additional information and applicants should use this to tell the company why they should be interviewing them.
- If there is only an application why not send an email with additional information this will make you stand out and say to the company you are very keen.
We look at our person specification and match, then we look at grammar and spelling as attention to detail is very important as we have had applications with other company names on them. - On a CV we look for work / life experience and qualifications. In a letter we are looking for the applicant to tell us why they want to work for the business and what they could bring to the role.
- A bad example is when we receive a CV with no covering letter and we are supposed to work out which role within the business they are applying for or have an interest in.
- Good questions at interviews are about career development and training opportunities.
- Do not ask about money or holidays at the interview.
Example management interview questions
As you can see by the questions below in a management role the interview will be a lot more in-depth with some probing real life questions. The below questions have a main theme followed by a series of questions around the answers given, really drilling down into the situation, task, actions and results. This will also highlighting your decision making processes and self-reflection abilities.
Describe how you have gone about ensuring that high standards of service are delivered consistently
- Why did you feel that action was necessary?
- How did you define service levels?
- How did you decide on particular levels of service?
- How did you ensure delivery against those standards?
- What results did you achieve?
- What worked and what didn’t?
Describe a time when you’ve has to make a decision that was likely to be unpopular with your team
- What was the situation?
- Why was the unpopular decision necessary?
- How did you communicate the decision?
- How did you overcome resistance?
- What happened in the end and what did you learn from the experience?
Tell me about a situation where your own team or department has had a problem working with an adjacent team
- What was the problem and how did it arise?
- Why was it important to resolve the issue?
- What action did you take?
- How did you decide on these actions?
- How successful were you?
Tell me about a situation where it was important that you established credibility with someone
- How did you go about it?
- What was the situation?
- Who did you have to impress and why?
- What steps did you take?
- How successful were you and how do you know that?
- What did you learn?
How have you improved the capabilities of people in a team you have managed?
- How did you start the process?
- How did you develop different types of people?
- What specific types of development approaches did you use?
- How did you measure success?
Over the past year, how have you kept on top of the multiple activities going on within your area of responsibility?
- What are the main areas of activity you have had to keep track of?
- How did you track progress?
- Who do you involve in this process?
- What major issues have arisen?
- How have you decided what level of detail to go into?
How would you answer some of these questions?
