ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°158 - Janvier/Février 2015 - 62

CARRIÈRE
By Charlotte TERRIS (11)

First Time Manager
First times are not always easy. And being a manager is complex. Helen
FARROW, Consultant and Coach at Hudson Global Service and collaborating
with ESCP Europe Alumni as career expert, has held a conference at ESCP
Europe on 16th October 2014, on the theme: "First time manager" sharing her
experience in management in international organisations. By her side, Fabrice
SEPULCHRE (06), Head of administration and finance at Bouygues Construction
Plant & Equipment, explained the challenges he was faced with when he moved
to his first management role.
Organizing, planning, setting goals, communicating, developing people and motivating... Here
are some of the responsibilities managers have.
Difficult to say where is the beginning and the end.
According to Helen Farrow (HF), «the principal
role of a manager in the company is to achieve
results by organising and optimising the human
and material resources available». In other words
«managers must create a team».
Demonstrate you know how to get things
done
Taking on their new role, first time managers are
quite proud and excited but also a little bit scared.
Indeed being good on achieving results on their
own, being good as an expert, doesn't guarantee
they will become good managers. Most of them
learn on the job, but having some management
training may also prove to be useful, even if they
cannot fully prepare for what they are going to be
faced with.
Young managers also have difficulties in evaluating
how to allocate their time and how to prioritise their
tasks. «You have to be clear about your expectations, time and resources management and how
you communicate. You should not take decisions
straight away» explains Helen Farrow.
First time managers need to understand the objectives of their organisation and communicate them
to their team. Communication is therefore in both
ways. Fabrice Sepulchre (FS) explains the impor-

- ESCP Europe Magazine N° 158 - Janvier/Février 2015

tance of anticipating and planning objectives in the
long term. This contributes to increase personal
and team performance.
Focus on building a team, not individual
friendships
What is the right attitude for young managers faced
to their new team? What is the best way to manage
former colleagues, or individuals who are younger
or older? The most common mistake, says Helen,
is that «you try to stay friendly. At the beginning you
want everybody to like you». To get the work done
through other people, Helen advises managers to
be open and firm at the same time, while showing
commitment, creating team synergies and communicating goals to the team regularly.
Managers have to coach, support and give feedback to their team members but should not take
the monkey and do the job themselves. They also
need to adapt to people from different cultures and
generations: Gen Y individuals, for instance, prefer
to communicate by texting while baby boomers
prefer face to face talks.
Authority does not come with a title. It may take time
to convince more experienced professionals that
one is a capable manager. This is why managers
need to earn the respect from their team members.
Managers should not control everything and everyone, especially more senior professionals; they
need to give them room and responsibility, as long
as expectations and deadlines are met.
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ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°158 - Janvier/Février 2015

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