Your New Job – Managing the Visible and Invisible Processes

Your New Job – Managing the Visible and Invisible Processes Michael Card W.O. Farber Center

Organizational and Individual Stages

Reflected Best-Self Assessment • Identify at least 20 people who know you well.(family members, friends, colleagues at work, neighbors, customers, or bosses) • Contact and ask that they provide you with three stories or incidents: When I have seen you at your very best, here are the unique strengths you have displayed. • Group responses into similar categories and stories of when you were at your best.

General Forms of Interview Questions

Initial Stages of Individual Level Transitions in Public & Nonprofit Organizations

Problems faced by New Managers • Expectations about the position • Excessive time pressures • Need to please too many people • Relationships • with Subordinates • Resentment by non-promoted competitors • Difficulty in disciplining subordinates • Difficulty in giving instructions • with Superiors • Lack of assistance from superiors in adjusting to new job • Suggestions not given serious consideration by superior

Role Clarity • Speak with supervisors • Identify people in places where you can get information • HR • Other managers • Mensch (people who can give you wise counsel about how things work) • Developmental opportunities • Project management • Delegation • Cross-training with another manager

Selection and Negotiation • Negotiate for salary, benefits, & other terms and conditions of work. Some are not negotiable (you and the employer) • Salary – put your knowledge of budgeting to work – loans, pent-up consumer demand, housing • Women tend to not negotiate • Get ready for first day of work – it starts before you arrive physically

General Advice • Present yourself • Meet with each staff person to establish goals and tell them of your charge. • Read the policy manual • Acknowledge your predecessor and those with commitments to them • Wait! Observe how the agency operates • Solve problems using staff member’s suggestions • Learn the politics of place (channels, mentor, and unofficial leaders)

Foundation for Trust and Respect

It's not the critic who counts. It's not the man who points out where the grown man stumbles, or how the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who actually is in the arena, who strives violently, who errs and comes up short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who if he wins knows the triumph of high achievement, but who if he fails, fails while daring greatly, so his place will never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

Two Big Questions Remaining • What differs between executive, middle management and entry-levels with respect to job entry? • We see that there are unique public sector constraints – are there similar differences between government and not-for-profits and voluntary organizations?

Your New Job – Managing the Visible and Invisible Processes