PHASE 4 - Building yourself as a manager
The human and psychological dimension · Managing difficult profiles · Your relationship with your N+1 · Delegation
The human and psychological dimension
We talk a lot about strategy and tools. Rarely about what is happening inside the manager themselves. Yet that is where everything starts.
Impostor syndrome affects the majority of new managers, even the most brilliant ones. Feeling illegitimate, fearing being found out, constantly comparing yourself to others : these feelings are normal and must not drive your decisions.
- Recognise the syndrome without letting it guide your actions
- Understand that your doubts are a sign of professional self-awareness
- Build your confidence through action, not through perfection
- Find a mentor or a peer you can talk to honestly and without a mask
The identity shift is the deepest and most underestimated change. You were recognised for your technical skills. From now on, your value is measured through others. Before, you were evaluated on what you produced. Now, you are evaluated on what your team produces. That is a total paradigm shift and it takes time to fully absorb.
- Accept the grief of the expert: you will no longer be the best technician in the room
- Find your satisfaction in your team's success
- Resist the temptation to do things yourself when it feels faster
- Develop a new perspective: that of the strategist, not the specialist
Managing pressure without burning out requires accepting that the first 90 days are intense by nature. The temptation to want to master everything quickly leads to exhaustion and poor decisions:
- Accept not knowing everything: it is expected at the start of a new role
- Identify two to three priorities per week, not fifteen
- Step back regularly: a work journal, dedicated reflection time
- Protect your energy: it is your most precious resource
- Ask for help: it is a sign of strength, not weakness
There is something important to understand here: the manager who feels under constant pressure often has a team that feels the same way without anyone saying so. This shared, silent pressure is one of the most destructive forces in a team going through a transition. A tool that lets everyone express how they are doing daily, anonymously and effortlessly, creates a collective pressure valve. Tensions surface before they accumulate. And you, as the manager, do not have to guess: you can see.
Managing difficult inherited profiles
Every inherited team has its complex personalities. Knowing how to identify them and adapt your approach is a core management skill.
The colleague who wanted your job exists in almost every team. They can be passive-aggressive, test your legitimacy, or simply shut down.
- Acknowledge their disappointment without validating it
- Give them a reference role within their area of expertise
- Build mutual respect before expecting anything from them
- Set clear expectations and be consistent in your follow-through
The immovable senior who tests your legitimacy has more seniority than you. They have watched multiple managers come and go. They are waiting to see if you are like the others.
- Listen to their experience without submitting to their informal authority
- Value their expertise while establishing your own framework
- Never try to dominate them: aim for mutual respect
- Show consistency in your actions: words alone will not be enough
The high potential who is bored and at risk of leaving is brilliant, ambitious, and understimulated. If you do not engage them quickly, they will be gone—physically or mentally—within three months.
- Identify their deeper aspirations: where do they want to go?
- Assign them high-stakes projects from the first few months
- Talk to them about growth: a concrete career plan keeps them in
- Make them an ally in driving change
What makes these profiles particularly difficult to manage at the start of a new role is that their signals are often invisible on the surface. The frustrated colleague smiles in meetings. The bored high potential shows up for everything you ask. You will only see the problems when it is too late to fix them cleanly. When someone begins to drift, their daily mood shows it before their behaviour changes. You will not know who it is—anonymity is guaranteed—but you will know there is a problem to address, and you can act before it becomes irreversible.
Your relationship with your N+1
Your relationship with your own manager is often the neglected side of a new role. Yet it determines a large part of your success.
Ask your N+1 these questions in your first few weeks:
- What results do you expect from me at 30, 60, and 90 days?
- What are your current priorities? How can I make your life easier?
- What is your preferred communication style: frequency, format, channel?
- What did you feel was missing from previous managers in this role?
- Which decisions should I escalate to you, and which can I make independently?
Once a month, take fifteen minutes with your N+1 to share: your three major advances, one challenge where you need their support, and your priorities for the coming month. This simple format positions you as someone reliable and proactive.
- Be honest about what you do not yet know: that is valued, not penalised
- Do not over-promise under the pressure of the early weeks
- Communicate regularly—especially when the news is mixed
- Celebrate wins together: your success is their success too
Having concrete data on your team's wellbeing also transforms the quality of these exchanges with leadership. Rather than saying "I think the team is doing better", you can show a trend, a graph, a measurable evolution. That shifts the way your N+1 sees you: you are not a manager who gives impressions, you are a manager who leads with data.
Delegation: the real challenge
Delegation is the skill that separates the good manager from the excellent one. And it is often the one that comes least naturally.
"If I delegate, I lose control": false—you gain clarity
"I get it done faster myself": true in the short term, false over three months
"What if it goes wrong?": mistakes are part of development
"The team will think I am not working": no—they will trust you more
Before delegating, assess each team member on two axes: their competence in the relevant task, and their motivation to carry it out.
- High competence + High motivation: your best ally—delegate high-stakes, strategic projects to them.
- High competence + Low motivation: flight risk—give them more stimulating responsibilities quickly.
- Low competence + High motivation: strong potential—support them and scale up gradually.
- Low competence + Low motivation: a priority issue to address—clarify expectations and manage closely.
Delegation also has an emotional dimension that is often overlooked: the person you delegate to needs to feel confident, not overwhelmed. Tracking your team's mood during a period of rising responsibilities lets you detect if someone is struggling under the weight of what you have given them—before it affects the quality of their work or their willingness to stay.