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People Management for First-Time Managers: 7 Key Lessons
Published on:
April 25, 2025
Updated on:
May 5, 2025
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Becoming a manager for the first time is exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. You’re no longer just responsible for your own performance; now, you're expected to support, guide, and grow a team.
The shift from individual contributor to people leader isn’t always smooth, and many new managers are left to figure out this “people management” thing on their own.
And the numbers truly back this sense of isolation up to:
According to Gartner Research, 85% of new people managers receive no formal training when they assume their roles.
While no amount of research can replace the new manager training that apparently 85% of first-time managers aren’t receiving, we put together some of the most important people management tips we could find.
These tips are based and our conversations with some of the top voices from the world of leadership, including people such as:
As well as some industry best practices, free resources we provide, and modern performance management and leadership technology available to leaders today.
Before we start, you can also, listen to these conversations in full right here: The Team Check-In
People management is one of the most critical and misunderstood skills a new manager needs to master. It’s often confused with administrative HR tasks, but it’s something far more nuanced and human-centered.
Unlike human resource management, which often deals with compliance, benefits, and compensation, people management is about daily relationships, how you listen, coach, problem-solve, and build trust.
It’s how you turn a group of individuals into a cohesive, motivated team.
Good people managers don’t just delegate tasks. Instead, they:
And when done right, effective people management directly impacts retention, productivity, and morale.
The shift into management is rarely seamless, and for first-time managers, the learning curve is steep. Without strong people management skills, it’s easy to fall into patterns that hinder team performance and morale.
Here are some of the most common challenges first-time managers face:
Role confusion:
Many new managers are unsure of how to balance their own workload with supporting their team. They often continue working as high-performing individual contributors rather than stepping into the mindset of a leader.
Communication gaps:
Leading a team requires clear, consistent communication, something most first-time managers haven’t been trained to deliver. From vague expectations to unstructured meetings, poor communication can quickly erode trust.
Lack of a feedback structure:
Without a plan for giving and receiving feedback, performance conversations are often delayed or avoided. This leaves employees feeling uncertain about how they're doing and disconnected from growth opportunities.
Inflexible leadership styles:
A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work in management. Good people managers know how to adapt their leadership style to suit different team members, but that takes awareness and practice.
Unclear expectations around people management:
Many first-time managers aren’t told what “people management” actually involves. They may focus on task execution and miss out on opportunities to build trust, coach individuals, or foster long-term engagement.
Why does this matter?
Because without a strong people management skillset, even talented new managers can struggle.
Developing key people management competency framework early on helps first-time managers avoid these pitfalls and lead with clarity, empathy, and confidence.
Inspired by Aakash Gupta, product leader and creator
First-time leaders often worry they need to “step back” now that they’re in charge. But Aakash Gupta believes the opposite: great leaders roll up their sleeves.
During his time at Epic Games, he worked side-by-side with engineers and designers for hours, playtesting and problem-solving in real time.
That presence built trust, drove motivation, and showed the team he cared as much as they did. As a new manager, being hands-on doesn’t mean micromanaging. All it has to mean is showing up, staying involved, and being available when it counts.
Inspired by Mitch Warner, Managing Partner at The Arbinger Institute
New managers are often taught to evaluate performance through individual metrics.
But Mitch Warner argues that true leadership starts with shifting your focus outward. Instead of asking, “How am I doing?” ask, “How is my work helping others?”
Whether it’s a direct report or a cross-functional partner, your job is to make their work easier. This mindset shift prevents toxic high-performance cultures and builds stronger relationships. The result?
A team that values impact, not ego, and a leader who earns trust through empathy and service.
Inspired by Steve Cadigan, LinkedIn’s first CHRO
As a new manager, it can feel reassuring when your team agrees with you, but Steve Cadigan says that might be a red flag.
When there’s too much harmony, it could mean your team is holding back. Innovation doesn’t come from consensus; it comes from respectful disagreement.
Make it clear that you want honest feedback, especially when it challenges your thinking.
Create psychological safety by inviting pushback and modeling how to handle it well. Great teams don’t always agree, but they do speak up.
Inspired by Anna Wildman, creator of the CEDAR feedback model
Most new managers fall into the trap of treating feedback as a one-way performance broadcast. But Anna Wildman urges leaders to stop “giving feedback” and start inviting a conversation.
“It’s not you vs. me. It’s us vs. the mountain.”
One of Anna’s most powerful metaphors reframes feedback entirely: Stop making it personal, and make it about the task.
Rather than framing feedback as “I didn’t like what you did,” approach it as “Let’s look at what this task needs and how we can meet that need together.” This small shift makes a huge difference. It fosters a sense of shared responsibility, reduces defensiveness, and makes feedback feel like a team effort, not a critique.
Inspired by Daria Rudnik, Team Architect
Great leaders often fall into the trap of building strong 1-on-1 relationships with each team member while unintentionally weakening the team as a whole.
Daria explains that when everyone goes straight to the manager for support, the leader becomes a bottleneck.
Instead, build peer-to-peer trust. Encourage your team to go to each other first when solving problems. This not only builds resilience, it fosters a stronger team identity and lightens the pressure on leadership.
Inspired by Bonnie Dilber, Recruiting Leader at Zapier
Bonnie speaks directly to the backlash against DEI: “I’ve never once seen a less qualified person hired for diversity reasons.”
Bias doesn’t disappear on its own. Leaders have to actively confront it.
That means challenging assumptions, diversifying candidate pipelines, and refusing to conflate “diversity” with “less qualified.”
As a first-time manager, start normalizing these conversations early. Inclusion is your responsibility, not just HR’s.
Even the best leadership instincts fall flat without the right infrastructure to support them. As a first-time manager, one of the most important things you can do is set up repeatable systems for communication, feedback, and development. That means:
While implementing these systems, it is key to use tools that don’t complicate your workflow. That is why whichever software solution you choose for these processes, you need to make sure they are integrated into your main communication and collaboration platforms.
If your organization uses Microsoft Teams on a regular basis, then the highest-rated talent management software in the Microsoft Teams App Store is Teamflect!
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