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We all had to be a beginner at leadership, and I would argue we should never stop being a beginner.

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I think, you know, leadership changes. Leadership changes so often. If you even think just Covid

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change the workplace in unimaginable ways, like ways that, yeah, we couldn't even conjure up before

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Covid. And that's all happened in the last 5 or 6 years. And so if you're still leading in the same

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way you were even 5 or 6 years ago, your leadership is outdated and therefore you're a

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beginner again. This is the reason why I called my blog in the making. If you're not subscribed in

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the Making Leadership comm, I called it in the making because we are always in the making as

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leaders like we should never, ever, ever be the finished article. And I think there is kind of

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this like beauty in always wanting to be coached, always wanting to feel like we

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have to improve and test out new things, improve our leadership. And so this episode is going to be

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the beginner's guide to management, but wherever the hell you are in your leadership role, I think

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you can learn lots from today's episode. And hey, by the way, welcome to The Boardroom, the podcast

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where we open up all the conversations that normally happen behind those closed boardroom

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doors at work. I the place that I wrote the notes for this episode from. And as I said, we never use

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scripts, but I always have little bullet points written out so that I can refer to them and make

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sure that I'm not just going off on an absolute tangent all episode. But the place that I wrote

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these notes from is if I could go back to 21 year old Heather, even like 19 year old Heather, because

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I talk about my job a lot. But what I don't talk about is I had a job before that. I was a

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supervisor on the Holland and Boro of all places, Holland and Barrett shop floor in Big Market in

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Newcastle. Big up. If anyone's ever been there then you'll know that's not really a big flex. But it

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was a great place and I yeah, I was a supervisor on the Holland Barrett shop floor and I just wish

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if I could go back to me at that, like 19, 20 year old Heather, and hand me like a piece of paper

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with just the scribbles on to say, just so you know, here's the things I wish you could know

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right now that you're probably only going to learn with experience, but I just wish I could

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hand it to you. These would be it. And so this is going to try and encompass like the full

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beginning. If we wanted to begin as a manager and be great in a management role, then this is the

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episode for you and this will be a great episode. If you are going into a new management role,

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you're starting a new business. You're about to step into your first management role. You're going

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into a new management role of a new team. You've been promoted, I don't know, or you just want a

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refresher and you want to make sure that you are being the best you possibly can be in 2026. This

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episode is for you. So the very first place to start is this concept of being an accidental

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manager. And I think this plays into imposter syndrome a lot. So people tend to say, you know, we

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promote people into management positions, whether it's the first time or the third time. And we're

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usually like, they were really good at that one job, that one thing. So we promoted them. But it is

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now like a whole new set of skills. You go from managing yourself to having to manage other

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people. You go from being an individual contributor where your value is measured by what

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you do in a day to your value. Now be measured by the people around you and most new managers mess

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it up. We do. I messed it up. I avoided the conversations. I didn't delegate like I messed it

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up and I messed it up because no one, I hadn't done the learning yet and no one was really there

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to support me. I think the stats are like still only 151 5% of new managers ever get any

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training, and we rarely get the support, whether it's psychological support or like actual sort of

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coaching courses support. And so if you feel like you've been like thrown into this role and you

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feel new, I just want you to know that that's normal, it's okay. And if you feel a sense of

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imposter syndrome around, you're about to manage friends, you're about to manage peers, you're about

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to manage people who are older than you. All of that is completely normal. No one feels a sense of

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calm and complete safety going into that. So that's the first thing just I want you to relax

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your shoulders a little bit because you're going to be great. You've been picked for this role

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because someone already saw something brilliant in you. You don't have to magically become a new

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person overnight. You don't have to, you know, change how you show up, how you speak. You don't

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have to all of a sudden become strict or change your tone. You are already enough. It's now just

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about as fine tuning some skills. I think when I was in those early years of management roles, I

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did always in the back of my mind think I have to be a different person, like I have to be a

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stricter version of me, or I have to be a tougher version of me. I have to be someone who never

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cries and never gets upset. And when I was working at Harrods, we had, um, one of our shops, so

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obviously Harrods is in Knightsbridge, but we had another like shop thing that we used to have to

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work in occasionally up in Malabon. And I remember working in the Malabon shop in the first week, and

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at lunchtime I was just so it was like my first week I'd fresh new, moved to London. I was feeling

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really overwhelmed. I was feeling quite lonely and at lunchtime I just walked off to one of the

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parks nearby and I sat at lunch and I just cried into my sandwich because I felt so

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exhausted. I felt so lonely at trying to put on this facade of being a completely different

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person to who I actually was, and I really wish at that point someone had turned around to me and

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just said, Heather, you don't need to prove anything. Of course we need to keep fine tuning

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these skills. We need to keep growing ourselves to be brilliant for other people. But we don't have

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to be magically someone else overnight. Who you are right now is enough. Something else I really

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wish someone had have said to me was leadership is just a set of skills. It is not

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charisma. It is not like confidence. You are not born with it. I am a firm believer of you are made.

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You're not born with the skills or not the skills. I think. Of course some people have like a leg up.

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Maybe they're naturally a bit more confident and out there and therefore they can communicate

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their ideas better. But I don't believe from all of my experience and from being the person who

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wasn't that wasn't confident, wasn't charismatic, I don't believe leadership is something you're born

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with. I think it's a set of skills you have to have the courage to put into place. But it's a

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skill set. It's a toolkit. You can learn those things, start practising them, have the courage to

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practice them and then become great at it. And so right now, if you're someone who is like looking

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at all these leaders around you and you're like, God, I can never be like them, you know, they're so

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loud and quick witted and they seem to have an answer for everything. Like I remember, one of my

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biggest insecurities was I was worried that I would, you know, if you, like, give someone difficult

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feedback and then they come back to you with something like maybe they make an excuse or they

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get defensive. I would always think, oh shit. Like, I'm not going to look like a good leader if I

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don't have a very quick witted comeback and I can't like back myself. It's almost going to show

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that there's holes in my story and I'm not going to know what to do. And it was that that's that's

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the type of imposter syndrome. But it was that that was holding me back because I was thinking,

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I'm not made for this because I'm not quick and I'm blah, blah, blah, all bollocks. You can

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absolutely learn it, practice it, and it does just take the reps. You've got to put the reps in.

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You've got to have the courage to implement the skill. And once you've done that, you can be a

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great leader, I promise. The first principle of management I want to talk about in this episode

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is the principle of moving away from being the doer to the thinker, the director, the

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strategic person. I think a trap that a lot of us stay stuck in for so long is we continue because

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we were so good at the job. We stay being good at the job. You know, it's like the safe, easy thing to

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do. And we also never really hand it over because we're like, we don't want to delegate because

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we're like, oh, what if they don't do it as well as me, as fast as me? Whatever. The standards aren't as

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high, so we keep on to it. We hold on to it tight. When we first go into a management role, one of

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the key principles you have to get your head around is it is no longer about the value you

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bring to the table. No longer does it matter, like how many quick tick tasks you get done in a day.

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That's not your job anymore. Your job is to multiply the impact of the I don't know, two, three,

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ten, 20 people that are in your team. It's to make sure that you, as their leader, create the

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conditions that are motivating, that are engaging, that they feel safe in. They feel safe to

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experiment. They feel clear, like they have clarity around what they're doing that you know, they can

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keep pushing. They can move the team forward with their actions, with their ticking and doing. And I

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think the reason a lot of us stay stuck is mainly because of that. Yeah. We've moved from being the

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really high achieving individual contributor into this role, usually quite quickly, and you never

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take a step back when you're new into that leadership position to go, okay, how do I now

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delegate the doing? So I've got time for the leading and time for the strategic stuff. And I

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think just to give you some like practical tips of how I've done this is just being so ruthless

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with delegating, like making sure that you never just fall back on the idea of I'll just do it

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myself, like always, even when it feels like so painful because you think, I literally could do

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this in 20s and it'd be done making sure you take time to delegate. And when you do delegate, take

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time to explain the context and the purpose behind that task so that your team can start to

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connect the dots and really understand why it's important. And they can like, add their own spin on

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it. That's one of the best ways that you're going to free up your own time. And also moving into

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coaching and not just fixing so you never want to become the type of manager who is just the fixer.

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You you know, you never want to be the type of manager where your team just come to you with. Hi.

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I need this question answering quick question. Can you tell me this? Will you just become again like

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an information shifter? And your team never learn to think for themselves? Of course we want to

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support our team. Like, of course, you know, we want to help get them the information that they need.

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But when we get asked a question, if they truly, because our team have come to us for support, try

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and coach them instead of just fix it. So instead of just giving them the answer straight away, try

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asking them questions. What do you think we could have done here? How could you know? Where could we

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find this information? What do you think the best outcome is? And if they truly don't know, then take

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the time to explain your thinking behind it instead of just telling them what to do. Like, look,

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this is where my thinking would go. This is where I'd start to look. This is the YouTube videos I

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would watch. This is the podcast I would listen to. I don't know, this is how I would find the answer

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and just make sure you're not just giving doing the lazy thing, which is to answer and fix

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immediately. That's how we're going to move into that. Like more strategic non-dual mode. Something

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else I wish that maybe me crying into my sandwich in the Malabon park. I wish that someone had

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actually slapped me around the face and said this to me. Stop trying to win the

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approval. Start trying to win the respect. I wish someone had said that to me. Stop trying to win

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the approval. Start trying to earn the respect. Because in leadership, truthfully, guys like

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not everyone is going to like what you've got to say. You've got to make decisions that not

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everyone's going to like. You've got to relay information that not everyone is going to like.

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You have got to be quick. You've got to hold the standard. You've got to hold people accountable.

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You've got to inspire people. You've got to sometimes get people to do things that they don't

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want to do, and you've got to do those things as well yourself. And I think the longer we just try

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to be liked and play that game of how do I win friends? How do I, you know, you know, like just get

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as many like, tokens in my pocket as possible. The further down the line we push the opportunity to

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build respect because those tough calls, those hard decisions that we have to make are usually

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the ones that people need. And even though it might piss them off in the moment, they might need

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it in the long run. And it also, I just always am really wary of people who don't have a backbone.

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It used to be cute and fun and like, you know, people who would just say yes to everything and

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be really helpful all the time and keep everything moving really fast. Now I'm just wary

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of those people because I'm like, but what? What's what do you stand for? Because if you don't stand

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for anything, you will fall for anything. And, you know, are you? Then I guess if you're just saying

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yes to me, are you actually standing up for me in front of other groups, you know, are you going to

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your seniors and standing up for me there, or are you just saving face and kind of standing down

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when you get there too. So we have to move from people pleasing and even just having difficult

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conversations. Such an important skill. You're going to have to learn as a manager, and we'll

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talk about it properly in a second. But having difficult conversations will not win you the

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approval. You're not going to be liked if you have difficult conversations with people. It's not nice.

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It's it's not fun. People don't want to hear it, but it will win you the long term respect when

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people know where they stand with you. And this is bringing me into difficult conversations. So I

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wish, wish, I wish, I wish, I wish someone had whacked me around the head with this one. Let's

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say those difficult conversations that you're avoiding. Heather, 19 year old Heather, the small

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ones like people saying slightly unnecessary things, or people turning up just

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slightly late to their shift, or people's work just being slightly subpar. Those small mini

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conversations that you're avoiding are going to come back to haunt you in just a couple of months

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time when people leave because they see that you're not dealing with a toxic performer because

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nothing loses you great employees faster than them watching you tolerate a bad one, and you're

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currently tolerating the bad one. And this is going to cost you a lot in the future. Or, you know,

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like avoiding those small, difficult conversations about someone else's attitude or someone else's

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performance because we think they're going to get defensive, they're going to come back and argue

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with me. But it's still a conversation that needs to be had and I'm still going to hold my ground.

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So this is something we have to learn when we're new to leadership. The quicker you can

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stop avoiding that conflict in those difficult conversations, the better the better of a leader

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you're going to become. And I know the easiest thing for us all to do is avoid them. The easiest

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thing is, yeah, just to push them down the line. None of us like conflict, but we have to. It's so

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important. We just have to have to have them. And that will also build your respect too. Now let's

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talk about some of the more practical parts of management. So. Clarity. Now I say clarity because

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your team have to all be so clear on exactly what it is that makes them successful. Whether it's

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through roles and responsibilities docs, whether it's through a really clear set of KPIs. As a

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leader, it is your job to make sure that our team feel so clear on exactly what it is that makes

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them successful and what they should be working on day to day. Now, what I do with the team, um, in

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our we've only got a small team. So what I do with the team right now is make sure that everyone. So

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you know, when you have like, the job ads. So when I ever ask managers if they have roles and

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responsibilities in their team, they always say to me, oh, well, kind of. I've got like a job ad, um, you

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know, that we used and that's kind of exists maybe from last year. So the job ads a good place to

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start because that's the role that you hired for. That's the roles and responsibilities that you

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hired for. The problem is that will change. It will shift and change over the months and years that

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people are with you and that role will change their responsibilities. Their pay will change

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where they fit in. The team will change their skills, their confidence in certain things, etc.

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and so the best way to manage this, what I do now is we have the roles and responsibilities job ad

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for the first three months when they're being onboarded, we work towards training them up in

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everything that's within that job ad. So that kind of is like a reference point for their training

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when we when they finish their onboarding. So they get three months in. The idea is now they own

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their roles and responsibilities doc. So it's now theirs to own. And every three months when we do

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our 90 day one on one, we sit together and that we look at that roles and responsibilities, doc. And

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we go, okay, what's changed? What needs adding in, what needs removing? How has your role grown?

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What do we need to take away from you? Because it's getting too much. What should we upskill you

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in a little bit more. And this creates clarity. And at the top of those docs are the way that I lay

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out my roles and responsibilities. Docs is at the top. You want purpose? Purpose? I always start with

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purpose. Start with the why? We start with the context. The purpose is always, well, I guess just

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what is the purpose of this role. And it's it tends to be like a quite inspiring statement or

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paragraph to say this is the reason this role exists within the business. This is what you're

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driving. Then you want a list of success measures. So this person is successful in their role. If

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they do x, y and z and the success measures, they don't have to be like full blown KPIs, numbers,

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etc. they can just be like the standards of social media are kept high. The standard of our

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culture is kept high, like having these high standards in certain areas. Then you would

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probably have a list of KPIs, and then underneath that you would have a list of their roles and

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responsibilities. So the actual things that they do and then every three months you want to review

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that with them to make sure that it's staying in line, to make sure that, you know, you're not adding

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bloat in. And it just helps create that clarity. And then you can also create clarity, Obviously

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with your meeting with them. So with like doing your KPI meetings and etc. but it's just very

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hard, I think, for the whole system of managing a team to work, as in people like push in towards

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targets and trying hard and experimenting and being fulfilled and challenged etc. if they don't

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know exactly what makes them successful. And maybe this is my like, I don't know, micromanager control

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freak brain. That's like we have to have clarity over everything. But what I've learned over the

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last ten years is it creates like a real sense of camaraderie. Like, people know what what

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their part is in the team, what role they play, how their role fits into and improves the team

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drastically. And so find a way to get people clarity as much over their role as much as you

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possibly can. Now, we can't talk about being a manager without talking about one on ones we all

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love one on ones, so one on ones. Okay. Ah, everyone has their own different way of doing it. Some

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people don't do them at all, so managers don't do them at all. Now, for me, the one on one system is

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so powerful and important because it does. It's so many different things I could talk about here, but

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like it shows your team that you care. It shows. It shows your team that you're listening, that you

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are carving out time in your week and your month and your whatever to ask them questions about

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them and write those things down, and then go and do something about those things, like whether it's,

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you know, sometimes it's them that needs to put the actions into place. Now, for the purpose of

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this episode, I'm going to give you my kind of overarching layout for one on ones and how I run

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them, but I'm also going to put a link in the show notes to go and download. I have like a PDF. It's

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completely free. You can go download it. That just lays out like my exact one on one framework and

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all the agendas with the exact questions that I use. It's so good, and I'm not going to go through

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all of it for the purpose of today, I'm going to just give you a real like lay of the land. So some

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big mistakes that managers make with one on ones are cancelling them are not just shutting up and

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listening to your team like you need to actually give them space. Not preparing. So like not

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bringing the right questions to make sure we point them in the right direction, we often just

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turn them into like a status update. And all of this can be avoided by just having a really

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simple, brilliant written down system. So my system is every fortnight. I have a 20 minute meeting

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with every member of the team that we don't have an agenda for, so that is just a space for them to

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bring whatever they need, whatever support they want from me and if I need anything from them,

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it's just a really important space that's held in that space essentially replaces the um. My door is

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always open because I think traditionally we've been like, oh, my door is always open, doors is open.

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But actually, like, it's not unless people feel super safe and carve out the time to come

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and give you the feedback and get the support, which just it's hard for them to do. Then they

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won't do it. I think we have to carve out that space to make sure they have time for it. And it

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just sort of signals like, I'm listening. It signals. As a manager, I'm listening to you and I

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want to hear what you've got to say. Then every 90 days I do like a more in-depth one on one with

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them. So this is the one that I've got an agenda for. You can find the free download in the show

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notes, but every 90 days I spend 90 minutes with them asking them some deeper questions. So things

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like what is your biggest fear right now? Things like, if you were to hand your notes in tomorrow,

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why would it be? And a lot of people. Some people find those questions a bit weird. Whenever I post

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about this on the internet, I get lots of comments on TikTok. They're like, I hate managers who try

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too hard. Like, just let me do my job. I don't want to tell you what my biggest fear is, but 99% of

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people who use it have really positive feedback from their team, and they're like,

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finally, my team are happy that I'm asking them the right questions, that I'm giving them the

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opportunity to tell me these things. And guys like, if your team don't want to answer the question,

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they don't have to. If they, you know, if you say, what is your biggest fear right now, they don't

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have to go on a deep, dark route of telling you like what they're truly fearing. They could just

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say, oh, I'm a bit worried about, you know, this new task that I've got to do. Like, they can go as deep

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or as surface level as they want to. It's completely on them. The questions like open up

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loads of room and availability for if they want to go really deep, which a lot of people do, you'll

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find, I think you'll find a lot of them do. Or if they want to stay more surface level. And then I

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also the last one to mention is just I make sure we have an annual salary review, which goes

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without saying, just even if it's, you know, even if you're in a business where you can't give huge

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salary reviews right now, just still have the review, like, still speak to them, still open up the

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conversation about their salary. Don't avoid it just because you can't put it up. Like hear them

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out. Listen to it. Even if you can't do something about it, still give them the opportunity to talk

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to you about it. Because the thing is that they're talking about it. They're talking about it to

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their friends, to their family, potentially to their other colleagues. so make the space for them

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to talk about it to you, even if it feels negative and awkward because you can't do anything about

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it. At least you're on the front foot with having that conversation, and you're able to very clearly,

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transparently say to them, look, I'm going to push for you. I'm going to advocate you as best as I

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can. But just so you know, like we're struggling with this across the board, and then you keep the

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conversation with them and not just, you know, turn it into gossip. Then after one on ones, one of the

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next super practical things is delegation. Delegation. I spoke about this a little bit

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earlier, but it's just I think this is such an underrated skill. Like, I think managers never

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quite learn fully delegation. And I might have to do a full episode on delegation at some point,

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because I think it is one of like the skills over the years that I would say I've honed to the

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point where it's like one of my most powerful skills is using delegation as a way to inspire

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people. I think a lot of people, a lot of us tend to think we hand tasks off and it's going to

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annoy people. It's going to piss them off because they've got more to do and they've already got so

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much to do. But using the frameworks above, things like one on ones so you can find out if they're

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annoyed using the roles and responsibilities docks for clarity. So if we are giving them too

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much, we can remove things. Delegation then, is just another wonderful piece of the puzzle to say.

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Actually, you have skills here, so I'm going to grow your skills by delegating this thing to you

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and then we can. If it's too much, we can remove something else that's less of a priority.

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Delegation. I'm not going to tell you every corner of delegation right now. I'm going to do a

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separate episode, or actually, I've got a YouTube video and delegation. That's brilliant. If you want

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to go over to leadership, Heather YouTube, go watch that. But for the purpose of today, the most

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important thing to know about delegation is see it as an investment of your time. You are buying

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back your time in the future and use the context and purpose. Explain. Take as much time as you need

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to explain the purpose and the context of delegation to your team member, so that they can

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connect it to the bigger picture. They can take some ownership and accountability then of how the

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how like how they actually want to, um, do that. Like put that task into place. Then the final

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thing that I wish someone had said to me is holding people accountable is tough, as in like

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holding standards. You know, if someone drops us, drops below the line, drops a standard, and you

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have to hold them accountable. It is tough. It can feel tough because it feels like, you know, it

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starts at the point where you're like putting your foot down. This is the job, and holding people

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accountable is kind of holding people to high standards is kind. The moment that you let those

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standards slip, whether it's by allowing others to let their standards slip or your own standards

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slip in, is the moment you kind of signal, okay, we tolerate this now, like your team will do as you

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do. They won't do as you say. And so accountability holding people accountable. And if accountability

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feels hard right now Just default to questions. Ask questions. That's what I always say. If you

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know if someone's dropped the mark with a KPI, someone's dropped the mark with a standard, ask

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them questions. How are we going to make sure this doesn't happen again? How are we going to make

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sure that this is up to standard next time? Because I see accountability is almost like this

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physical thing where at the minute I have it and I want to pass it over to someone else. So if I

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want someone else to be accountable, I need to hold them accountable using my questions instead

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of telling them what to do. And I think accountability is one of the most complex parts

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of management. You could Google any of the other topics we've been talking about today, like

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feedback and, you know, one on ones and you could find other thoughts on it. Accountability is one

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that not many people have dug into yet, because not many people have got it right. It's a really

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tough one, and I think it is like, I never like to say the word expert with leadership, but if there

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was any time to say, it would be now like to become an expert in leadership, it's knowing how

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and when to properly hold your team accountable, because a lot of us, we love to give people slack

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and we love to, you know, like drop our standards because it just feels easier and more comfortable

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in the moment. But so yeah, accountability is a tough one, but it's something we have to do as a

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new manager, as a fresh manager or someone who wants a refresher just gets so, so, so good at. So

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I'm going to leave it there. There's so much honesty. I could go on for hours and hours about

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things. I wish that I knew that I could just slap 19 year old me around the face with, but I'm gonna

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leave it there. Let me know in the comments. What do you think? What do you wish someone could tell

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you as a new manager? Like what is that one bit of advice that you've maybe heard that's really

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helped? Um, because there's lots I know there's going to be lots of brand new managers listening

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to this, and we can all learn from each other in the comments. So let me know. And as always, if

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you're not subscribed, if you're not following along, please, please follow along. It means the

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world to us. Thank you so much.