“The biggest change after I moved into the new role was that I no longer spent my time in the field and with communities the way I used to. There were meetings, planning, review calls, reporting, and the responsibility of taking the team along. At that time, I had no idea how to manage all of this at once. Sometimes it felt like the whole day had gone by, but I had not actually done anything.”
This is how Biraj Krishna Upadhyay, Senior Manager at Network for Youth Development and Healthy Environment (NYDHEE), recalls becoming a manager for the first time.
If you have recently become a manager, you may have experienced something similar. Delegating work, giving feedback, setting priorities, making decisions, and taking responsibility for a team require a different set of skills unique to the role.
In the development sector, people move into managerial roles based on their experience in the field or on programmes. Others take on managerial responsibilities soon after joining a new organisation. In both cases, the transition requires them to work differently and develop skills they may not have needed in their previous roles.
Yet many new managers continue to carry the responsibilities of their previous role while also taking on the demands of the new one. This can quickly become overwhelming and leave little room for managing a team.
Becoming a manager changes more than just your work
When you become a manager for the first time, your responsibilities change, and so does the way you work. The focus of your role shifts away from what you accomplish yourself to what the entire team is able to accomplish together. This transition can become even more complicated in smaller organisations, where there may be no separate teams or departments for different functions. Managers may have to take on several responsibilities in addition to their core role. These range from managing information systems and tracking programmes to preparing reports, handling communications and design, planning, and developing new systems for projects. Biraj Upadhyay explains:
“Initially, I was quite confused about reporting while working at my desk. Managing activities and MIS also became my responsibility. This was a major challenge for me because I had no prior experience in doing these things. The project I was leading came to me after it had been approved, so I had to design, develop, track, and manage all of these aspects myself. Along with taking on the new role, I gradually learned how to do all these things on my own.”
But the change is not limited to an increase in the number of tasks. As a manager, you have to shift from doing the work yourself to deciding who should do it, what support they need, and when you need to step in.
“Along with distributing work, I also had to change the way I looked at it. Earlier, my role was to listen to people, understand what we were discussing, and then give it some structure. But now my job was to tell the other person whether what they had done was right or not. I found that difficult to process,” says Naynika Das, team lead at Pravah.
“There is also a limit to how much you can review someone’s work,” she adds. “A lot of your time goes into giving feedback, and you gradually learn to accept that, or you keep feeling that you could just do it yourself. Not only that, I was also hesitant to give feedback in the beginning.”
These changes can be difficult for new managers because helping someone else do their work better requires a different set of skills from doing the work yourself.
Building a new role within existing relationships
If you have recently become a manager in your organisation, your relationships with colleagues change along with your work. People who were your peers until recently may now expect you to assign work, set priorities, give feedback, and review their work.
Balancing the ease and familiarity of old relationships with your new responsibilities can be challenging. The team may expect the same informality and comfort as before, while the organisation may expect you to take on a more strategic role and make decisions that affect the team.
Premchand, who has worked as a programme manager at Project Potential Trust, shares his experience:
“When I was promoted in one of my previous organisations, some people on the team felt that I had more authority because I had been there for a long time. But when I joined my current organisation as a manager, one perspective within the team was that I was new and would need time to learn. So, when your role changes, you have to navigate these perceptions as well.”
Another important point to keep in mind is that a manager’s authority is not determined only by their position. A team member’s age, gender, and other social identities can also influence how they respond to a manager’s feedback and leadership.
According to research published in the Academy of Management Proceedings in 2024, a manager’s age and gender can affect how team members receive their feedback. New managers, therefore, need to recognise that the same approach may not work equally well with every team member.
What not to do after becoming a manager
When you have only recently become a manager, almost everything about the role can feel new. Research by the Center for Creative Leadership identifies balancing a new workload and delegating while building trust as among the common challenges faced by first-time managers. 26 percent of first-time managers felt that they were not prepared to lead others when they started.
In such situations, it is natural to adopt shortcuts to get the work done. You might take over tasks yourself, stay so closely involved that your oversight becomes micromanagement, or delegate a task and then disengage completely. Over time, however, these approaches can create difficulties for both you and your team.
The challenge is to find the right level of involvement: knowing when to step in, when to give the team space to take ownership, and when to stay involved and keep track of progress.
1. Don’t do everything yourself
When the team is not delivering the expected results, taking over every task yourself may seem like the easiest option. But this takes away the team’s opportunity to assume responsibility and learn. Instead, try to understand what kind of support the team needs.
“In the beginning, it can seem easier to just do the work yourself rather than repeatedly explaining things to the team or monitoring the work,” says Raj Kishore, operations manager at Project Potential Trust. “Over time, you end up involved in every task, big or small. The hidden downside is that instead of learning to trust the team, you get used to doing everything yourself.”
2. Avoid micromanagement
Constantly monitoring every decision or task after delegating work can affect the team’s autonomy and trust. Give the team space to make decisions instead of taking every small decision into your own hands.
3. Don’t delegate and then forget about the work
“When you give someone a task and it does not turn out the way you expected, it can be frustrating. You have to think about it, push things along, provide hand-holding and support. For example, if something cannot be handled in the field, you have to go there yourself. You have to help develop the skills there and move forward together,” says Biraj.
For a new manager, knowing when to step in and when to let the team take ownership is an important part of finding this balance.
What can you do to handle the new role?
1. Plan your work
Once you become a manager, you will have more responsibilities than before, so you may not be able to get everything done at once. Plan your work around your programme and set priorities for the week. Decide in advance which tasks require your direct involvement and where you need to work together with the team. This will ensure that important work does not get pushed aside by unexpected tasks.
2. Listen and clarify the direction of the work
Managing people begins with understanding their perspectives and what they know. Before deciding how a task should be done, listen to the team’s suggestions and the challenges they are facing. This turns the conversation from one-way instruction into a two-way dialogue.
When assigning work, be clear about the expected outcome, the timeline, and which decisions the team can take independently.
3. Identify the real problem behind team capacity
If the team is not completing the work as expected, first understand why. Is there too much work? Is there a problem with the people or processes? Does the team need additional training?
Part of a manager’s role is to understand the problem and find a solution, instead of questioning an individual’s capability without knowing the reason.
4. Make room for mistakes
If a team member makes a mistake or a plan fails, immediately taking the work back may be the easiest response. Instead, give people the opportunity to correct their mistakes and learn from them. Making room for mistakes does not mean compromising on quality or accountability. It means recognising that learning is part of doing the work.
5. Don’t give up when problems arise
The failure of a plan does not mean that you have to stop there. It is important to remain patient while looking for a solution.
According to Premchand, seeking advice and having conversations with senior members of the team when necessary can be a way of solving problems.
6. Create an environment of collaboration
As a manager, you will have to take the initiative to build an environment where people can ask questions without hesitation, share their views, and seek help when they need it.
Premchand describes an experiment they tried at Project Potential Trust to create a congenial environment within the team.
“We made a tea chart at the office. According to the chart, each team member takes turns making tea every day, and everyone’s name, including the manager’s, is included. Everyone has to accept the tea the way it is made. Activities like this strengthen a sense of equality and collaboration within the team.”
If you are also facing these kinds of situations as a manager, the change does not have to begin with a major decision. It can begin with the very next task.
The next time a piece of work comes to you from your team, ask yourself whether you really need to do it yourself. If the answer is no, send it back to the team.
That can be where your transition into the role of a manager begins.
The views presented in this article are based on conversations with and experiences shared by Biraj Krishna Upadhyay of Network for Youth Development and Healthy Environment (NYDHEE), Naynika Das of Pravah, and Raj Kishore and Premchand of Project Potential Trust.
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Know more
- Read more about why nonprofit leaders find it hard to delegate and how they can let go.
- Read more about why leadership transition in nonprofits needs a plan.
