New Managers Can Gain Employee Confidence Quickly Using Planned Communications

Employee performance, operations and leadership expectations are only a few aspects new managers must understand and be prepared to handle. Daily activities, learning about organizational history and being able to address short term problems while planning for the future contribute to the pressures new managers feel, often impacting their effectiveness.

New managers typically lack the experience to understand how to handle competing priorities or empower employee performance. This lack of experience also impacts a new managers’ ability to gain employee confidence quickly.

Two Ways to Gain Employee Confidence Quickly

Two ways new managers can approach this challenge involves respecting tradition while motivating progress and through deliberate communication designed to excite and persuade employees.

A new managers’ actions impact employee perceptions and attitudes. Employees can appreciate a new manager who shows respect for organizational symbols. New managers should take the time to understand the symbols revered by the organization as well as their history and how they are typically used. With this understanding, managers can identify upcoming opportunities to include symbols in their interactions with employees. Preparing for such activities may involve the support of leadership.

For example, with upper level support, a new manager can plan activities in support of a Day of Service where employees work together to help others in the community. Tee shirts and water bottles branded with the organization’s logo and a symbol could add to the significance to the activity. Afterward, photographs of the new manager working with the team could be displayed throughout the workplace to further promote goodwill and team building.

Deliberate communications could also involve speeches and story-telling. Well planned and executed speeches can serve to motivate employees and help them visualize the organization’s future. Story-telling can help get and keep employees engaged. They also help excite employees because they can help employees associate feelings with information—story-telling can be a powerful way to help gain employee confidence quickly because employees can connect with the new manager on a different level.