Four challenges faced by New Managers and how to find your management voice
No one is born knowing how to manage, and first-time managers are often given minimal formal training in skills and concepts vital to being an effective manager.
Management roles go far beyond technical expertise, and carry a different set of expectations and responsibilities, and a new focus on enabling others.
ANZSOG’s New Managers program is a dedicated program that supports public servants at the start of their leadership careers to develop effective skills and behaviours and find their ‘management voice’.
Led by ANZSOG’s, Manager Tailored Solutions, Hamish Alexander and leadership consultant Terri Soller, it uses a rich digital learning experience to provide a space where new managers can connect with others to reflect on the challenges of the role, learn practical skills and build confidence in their leadership.
Mr Alexander said that the program brings managers together from different jurisdictions to connect and share experiences.
“We've designed New Managers in such a way that it allows people to bring in their real workplace issues, so it's not an abstract program. They can apply the learning directly to the problems they are having,” he said.
“They leave the program, not just with a sense that they are not alone, but with a deeper understanding of their role and of their own potential as a manager.”
Four challenges facing new managers
1. Shifting from individual contribution to enabling others
“This really is a huge leap. Most of the time managers are promoted because of their technical competence. They have expertise and depth of experience, but managing is a totally different set of skills,” Ms Soller said.
“More importantly it is a different set of expectations, and a need to balance competing priorities. You don't take up management roles because you want to be the most popular in the group. It's often making decisions that people don't like, it's often having conversations that are much tougher.”
2. Role clarity and assumptions
Ms Soller said that part of the goal of the New Managers program was for participants to get clearer around what they were bringing to the role, and the assumptions and stories they held about it.
“The shift to being a manager needs to be done consciously, with enough scaffolding that people can continue to learn. Spending time reflecting on self provides an important platform for developing management capacity.”
3. Communication and people skills
Ms Soller said that communication skills and an ability to understand people were the core skills of management that the program explored.
“If you're working with people you need to have a level of emotional intelligence. A sense of being able to read a room and understand where people are at, because everyone brings in their unique personality and skills,” she said.
“A fundamental skill is around how we communicate. Not just talking, but rather how we truly listen and engage with curiosity. It is only then that you can create the enabling conditions where you're providing enough direction, constructive guidance or guardrails for people to perform at their best,” she said.
“Motivating people is not easy because you've got to be able to understand what they need, which comes back to taking time, making the effort to be in conversation, and have those conversations where we truly try to understand the other.
4. Self-management and self-improvement
Mr Alexander said that the program helped managers to understand the core responsibilities of their role and how they manage efforts in a sustainable way to deliver on these responsibilities.
“An important aspect of the program is to look at sustaining yourself as a manager, how to manage your own energy and wellbeing, so you don’t just endure the role, but continue to thrive within it, he said.”
“The program encourages the practice of ongoing self-reflection, and provides tools to support participants to continue on a journey of professional growth long after the program.
“They will also make connections and build trust with peers during the program, creating a network for support and exchange of ideas which extends beyond their agency and jurisdiction.”
Building confidence and finding your management voice
Ms Soller said the key thing that New Managers participants said they wanted was to become more confident.
“My response is: at what? and in what way? New managers haven't been given a script for managing. They've only either experienced good managers or bad managers and they're trying to copy, or avoid copying, them. What they should be doing is finding their own management voice,” she said.
“The only way you can be confident as a manager is if you are willing to experiment and practice. The program gives people the space to experiment in a safe environment where they can apply their learnings immediately in their role,” she said.
“When they finish the program, the main thing I’d like participants to do, is feel comfortable doing less, and enabling others to do more. That means they have confidence in their managerial ability rather than their technical ability,” she said.
Both presenters agreed that getting the first role right was vital for managers, because the experience became a template for how they managed in the future.
“Your first management job is probably foundational for anything that comes after - do this one right and then it's easier but if you don’t do this one right it becomes harder to break those habits and improve as you go along,” Ms Soller said.
“This is a pivotal moment in a manager’s career, and New Managers and provides an opportunity to embed the fundamentals early and build the confidence and capability needed to navigate what is both an exciting and demanding transition,” Mr Alexander said.
Experience: Designed for new public sector managers with up to 18 months experience in the role and brings together new managers from across jurisdictions and portfolios.
Delivery: Digital learning experience in 4x3-hour sessions over four weeks, to allow flexibility around busy schedules, and the opportunity to take insights back to their work.
2026 courses: commencing 23 July, 18 August and 6 October.
For more information, including how to register, visit the New Managers page on our website.