How To Avoid Making Rash Promises When You Are Promoted To A Management Role

Many new managers admit, when attending management training

, that it is easy to be tempted to make rash promises when you are promoted to a management position. Making such promises early on has proven to be the undoing of many new managers.

A successful area sales manager is promoted to sales chief. Along with many of his former co-workers he considered the distribution of sales areas in his company was comparatively "meaningless". As a result, on his first day as sales chief he held a meeting with his sales team and announced that he was soon going to start reorganising the sales areas.

What he is unaware of is that his company is going to be merging with one of its competitors in six months' time and that because of this imminent merger company management has consciously been delaying this badly needed restructuring.

The formal announcement therefore becomes an improbability and the sales team's disappointment is great: "It's always the same: once someone becomes the boss they don't care about their former colleagues and their problems."

Jurgen Gerhardus, Managing Director of the VA Academy of Management and Sales shows how to avoid false starts in a new position, irrespective of whether it be in your old company or a new one:

Always ensure that you have a clear picture of the potential and restrictions of your new position before you get carried away and make any announcements. If you want to restructure sales areas you must make sure that you have the authority to do so. Do not promise or announce anything unless you are absolutely sure that you have received the green light from above.

Resist the temptation of committing yourself to a particular style of management. If you have been annoyed by the totalitarian management style of your antecedent then this temptation is particularly great. It is dangerous to make rash promises such as:

"If you ever have a problem my door is always open."

"You know that I have come from your ranks and that I don't think much of unilateral decisions."

If you are overly accommodating with your former colleagues you will soon find that you are probably overwhelmed with work that they should in fact be doing. If your style of management is overly democratic this could also lead to you having to tolerate wrong decisions if these were made on a majority basis.

Do not let yourself be dictated to too much by individual sales people. This is a issue that many newly appointed managers admit to on management training courses. Sales people who were constantly sent away with a "flea in their ear" from your precursor will see your promotion as a good opportunity to transform things. The sales person who always complained that other sales people had better areas than him is one such example. Find out as much information about your predecessor's decisions before promising them a new area!

In case you were appointed because there are plans for radical and unpleasant changes such as scaling down the sales team, avoid any masquerade. During the first few days it is easier to act as if you don't know anything about the plans. But this type of behaviour only leads to you losing the trust and loyalty of your salespeople when the truth comes out! Do not gloss over things in order to survive the first few days without injury.

Tell your salespeople that there are going to be changes and that you will be discussing these with each of them individually at a given time.

Always keep in mind the following three tips when you make an inaugural speech to your sales team:

The first thing to do is to sell yourself and your qualifications to your sales team. Tell them what you have done in the past, the areas you have specialised in and the specialist knowledge that you have acquired. In short: let them know how you can contribute to the success of the company, the sales department and therefore their own success. You should be careful however, not to lay it on too thick! Most people do not like people to blow their own trumpet.

Establish things you have in common: industry contacts, similar branch peaks and troughs, etc.

By acknowledging their past performances you make the sales people warm to you: "You have managed to consistently extend your market share over the past few years."

You will also make your salespeople warm to you if you let them know that you could use their help: "Can you please help me to get the hang of things, particularly in the first few days.As taught on good management training courses it is important to many sales people to be given a sense of value.

by: Richard Stone

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