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Top 3 Lessons Learned from My First Year Managing a Department
This month is the one-year anniversary of starting my new job as a departmental manager. Earlier this year, I wrote about the top 3 lessons I learned as a first-time supervisor. Those lessons were hard-earned and have helped me develop strong relationships with my staff and earn their trust.
In many ways, this past year has helped me understand my strengths as a supervisor and glaringly highlighted areas I need to improve sooner than later. Thankfully the senior leaders within my organization have allowed me to grow into this role and learn these lessons without shame or impunity.
But supervision wasn’t the only set of lessons I learned in this first year. I also learned a great deal about managing the department. With nearly 50 separate budgets to manage, a bifurcated office set-up, and a nearly empty list of institutional precedents, it has been a struggle to create a wholly new set of expectations and practices against which to measure our success.
But a successful year was achieved by my staff. And would dare say, I had an equally successful year. Similar to my advice about supervising staff, I believe I have identified three areas that will benefit others who are finding themselves in the first-time position of managing a department.
