Young Manager in Charge: How Can You Lead an Experienced Team Successfully?

How a Young Manager Can Prove Leadership in an Experienced Team

If a young new manager joins an organization and works with a team of experienced employees, how does he prove to be a good leader? People tend to revolt against new changes.

Regards

Manager is a position that need not necessarily be determined by age. The key qualities essential for a manager include the ability to comfortably delegate tasks and effectively communicate with colleagues to address work methods and challenges, ensuring they do not feel uncertain.

Experienced team members appreciate a manager who communicates effectively, enabling them to understand processes and feel supported. A young manager who promptly listens and offers solutions that enhance workflow is highly valued. Young individuals tend to embrace change enthusiastically, both within and outside the team, contributing to the overall well-being of the organization.

Thank you.
Regards

Sharmila has provided advice from an individual (the manager) perspective and effort. On the other hand, the organization must also have in place solid policies, procedures, and programs to aid this new manager to succeed in his new role.

Regards,
Autumn Jane

You have found wonderful suggestions from Sharmila and Autumn. Please take this chance to learn all that you can from these experienced team members.

As a manager, you have to deliver on their growth expectations. You will soon identify what best you can bring to whom. Respect everyone fully and offer them the highest level of opportunity to perform.

You will have pressure situations where they might cross the line for their age and experience. Choose to see the merit in their words and then set the process right. They will respect you and look up to you for this maturity in you. Remain supportive but firm in their deliverables.

You already have a promise of potential more than them. This is only how you have been promoted to the level. Now take yourself higher by managing people ahead of you, yet reporting to you. Wish you all the best!

Others have given you sound advice; hence, let me ask a few questions. Is this a hypothetical question? If not, could you kindly provide more information about the scenario? For example, what is the nature of the industry? What qualifications and experience does the young manager have, and how many experienced employees does he or she have to manage?

The more information you can provide, the more precise the responses will be.

It purely depends upon the young manager's People Management Skills that include excellent leadership skills, supervisor skills, emotional intelligence, delegation skills, decision-making skills, problem-solving/conflict management skills, communication skills, interpersonal skills, body language, presentation skills, and listening skills, but not just limited to managing skills. Also, you may consider these as competencies.

There are tons of examples wherein managers did not have technical knowledge but still succeeded by utilizing their functional skills and daring attitude (risk-taking tendency) to excel in their careers. It is a human tendency that people tend to revolt against new changes; it's because of their ego and non-flexible nature/attitude. A competent manager must know how to deal with such revolting employees; otherwise, he/she may have to taste defeat.

It's not an easy task to explain everything in writing as every human is unique, and for sure, his modus operandi will also be unique.

With profound regards

Every situational problem should be divided into its parts and solved individually. Let's say a stack of cards you created is about to fall—you find the spot where it's weak and strengthen that. In this situation, you find the person who is the most vocal and engage with them. You do that by showing respect and trying to understand his or her concerns. Stick like glue with this person and never lose an opportunity to be nice to them.

Regards,
Sid

The language in any workplace should emphasize "superiority" and "competence" rather than merely "seniority."

When a young person is tasked with leading a team of older individuals, the organization must ensure that the competence of the young leader justifies their role as a Team Leader. It is crucial that the young leader possesses the skills to manage team members older than themselves. They should neither be overly lenient nor excessively harsh without valid reasons. Their demeanor will significantly impact their success or failure with such a group. In essence, a young leader would benefit from developing expertise in areas such as:

1. Thinking ahead of emotions, while also recognizing when emotions require consideration, is vital for effectively managing diverse teams.

2. Displaying patience by listening to all viewpoints before reacting or responding.

3. Being open to new ideas and willing to adapt. A leader is not always right but should be humble enough to acknowledge when credit is due.

4. Demonstrating that organizational goals take precedence and deserve careful consideration, even if it means challenging one's own perspective.

5. Cultivating strong interpersonal skills, effective communication, and an inclusive, supportive approach to foster team cohesion.

While more tips could be provided, the current suggestions should suffice. It is common for a misconception to exist where "seniority" is perceived as more important than "superiority." It is essential to avoid such beliefs and implement strategies as discussed above.

Regards,
Samvedan

January 26, 2013

To become a good leader as a young manager, you ought to be a good listener and a willing learner. An attempt to learn from the experience of your subordinates will earn their respect. How much respect you exhibit towards your own boss will be another factor that will increase your acceptability as a leader.

The Essence of Leadership

A 'Leader' is essentially an individual whom all others like to willingly follow. This requires a lot of sacrifice, more so of one's ego, sometimes to the extent that you even forget (while working with your team) that you are a manager. Let others feel that you are a shade superior to them in your behavior and mannerism, and never do things to singularly benefit yourself. A leader is always firm yet polite, always approachable, always helpful, always smiling, and never tells his team members, "I have no time." A true leader is professionally knowledgeable, intellectually sharp, socially amenable, and one who searches for only good in others. You can't criticize others yet dream of leading them successfully.

Personal Experience on Leadership

Savvio, true leadership is very little of what you read in the books. My own experience makes me quote:

"Heights by great men reached and kept,
were not attained by sudden flight;
They, while their companions slept,
were toiling upwards in the night."

Many people have already provided adequate responses to your query. In essence, a manager should not be solely judged by their age, but rather by their ability to lead, manage tasks effectively, and deliver results. While age and experience can provide advantages in terms of interpersonal and soft skills to handle various situations, experience alone should not be the sole criterion for holding a managerial position. Qualifications, leadership capabilities, a results-oriented mindset, the ability to manage people, execution skills, and empathy towards subordinates, among other factors, should also be taken into consideration when selecting a manager, instead of solely focusing on age and experience.

Regards

It's entirely possible—and at times logical and practical—to be supervised by someone who is younger than you. It may be the qualities of competence, creativity, confidence, concern, care, and effective communication with a sense of extreme commitment that may lead one to a senior managerial/leadership role. Collectively, these would add up to charisma—a skill, a trait—that charms the environment and gets the work done effectively.

What Counts for Growth

What counts for you to grow is tenacity with tenderness, dexterity with daunting, authenticity with accountability, mindfulness with meaningfulness. With such a well-defined tightrope-walking strategy in place, with you being a teammate today, there is no reason why you can't be the team leader tomorrow.