I had a boss once, who in the middle of an important meeting exclaimed, “I think I’m finally starting to understand!” and then proceeded to explain how it takes a new manager nine to twelve months to truly understand the environment they are working in. He was just past the nine month mark when he blurted that out, and he couldn’t have looked happier. It turns out that he once had a boss who did just about the same thing as well.
There’s plenty of discussions out there over how long it takes a new employee to get up to speed. Thanks to our instant gratification world, an astonishing 27% of executives think that an entry level employee will be successful or not in the first two weeks. That number reaches 78% when the time frame is at three months.1 While I’m all for using your gut feeling on people, and there are some that will certainly stick out as awesome or awful in just two weeks, two weeks is just not enough time to navigate the waters (especially at a large company) and show what you’re capable of. According to one study, it takes up to two full years for a new employee to become as productive and effective as the prior employee.2
And just think, that’s only a new individual contributor.
Let’s say that after three months, the new employee is at 80% productivity. That’s pretty good. But what about the new manager? If this person is new to the company and wasn’t promoted from within, then they have to learn the product, learn the company, learn the culture, all on top of managing a team and learning their strengths and weaknesses. You would be hard pressed to be operating consistently be at 80% effectiveness at the three month mark. You could safely double that to six months and you’d be getting close. But at nine months to a year, that’s enough time to fully immerse yourself into the company’s culture, product, and processes, to the point of comprehending some of the nuances that would not be so obvious when you were only three months in.
So as a new manager, don’t worry if it feels like you’re not as productive as you were down in the engineering trenches as soon as you change roles. Just keep working hard, push forward and ask questions. Your effectiveness and understanding of the job will come.
Existing managers, please be sure to do all you can to help those who are just stepping in to the management role, especially if they are new to the company as well. Remember that it takes time to be effective, and please be sure to give them all the tools and contacts they’ll need to be successful. You’ll be glad you did.
I’d like to add one more link in there though, to Harvard Business School’s article on getting new managers up to speed.3 While it doesn’t back up my time frame claim (or even give timing), it does give some very good advice over how to help new managers succeed, and that’s something I want to remember in nine month’s time…
Resources
1. http://fortune.com/2015/09/18/new-employees-onboarding-training/
2. http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/trainingindustry/tiq_2012winter/index.php?startid=40#/40
3. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/getting-new-managers-up-to-speed