15H - Rookie Manager: Leading People for the First Time

Monday, March 20

2:00–3:00 p.m.

Designed for early careerists and first-time managers/supervisors to help make the jump beyond the latest leadership textbook, attendees to this interactive session will collaboratively evaluate real examples of novel situations faced by the instructors in the workplace. In a small group format, attendees will discuss potential steps they might take and pitfalls to avoid if they themselves were in a similar situation. Instructors will then lead all attendees through how the situation played out and what lessons were learned. The instructors, with experience leading departments of up to 100 staff members, will also share mistakes made and key themes from these experiences to provide attendees with a framework for navigating their own managerial careers and beyond.

If there truly is no substitute for experience, then making the jump as a first-time manager is a tall order. The primary short-term outcome for learners is to have a toolbox of strategies they can use and rely on when they are encountering first-time challenges with the employees they are responsible for leading. The primary long-term outcome for learners is to know the key themes of leading people and how to utilize them to increase their effectiveness as leaders over time.

Too often, first-time managers are unexposed to situations they are likely to encounter and end up facing them with little context for success. The session’s objectives help bridge that gap.

Learning Objectives

• Create a toolbox of strategies, practical tips and best practices for navigating novel managerial situations.
• Identify key themes of leading people for the first time and develop a framework for assessing one’s own leadership effectiveness.