Lessons I Learned as a First-Time Manager
It was 2016 and I was at a birthday party at my uncle’s house in Toronto, Canada when I ran into an old coworker, Christian. A couple of years earlier, I was an intern at Out Adventures, a small group tour company that shared an office with Intrepid Travel. At the time, Christian was working as their General Manager and Vice President of Sales in North America. We got to chatting and he told me that he had recently left Intrepid Travel and had opened up TourRadar’s North American office and that I should apply to join the team as a Customer Support agent.
At the time, I was fresh out of school and had a decent job at a custom private tour operator in downtown Toronto. The job was okay and it wasn’t too far from my apartment downtown. The people were nice, but I was honestly questioning why I had spent two years in school only to join a company that felt like we were selling insurance and not what I loved, travel. Fast forward a couple of weeks and I had accepted the role at TourRadar.
So I hopped on the subway, and then another, and then a bus, and ended up in an industrial area in Scarborough (a suburb of Toronto) to TourRadar’s “office”. I use quotations because it wasn’t an office in the traditional sense. It was essentially a few desks in the front area of a warehouse. I was a long way away from the brand new office in the city centre that I was used to but there was something that I was immediately drawn to about TourRadar. They were trying to do something different, they were trying to change an entire industry through technology. And knowing Christian, I knew that something BIG was happening.
So I took a chance on them, and they took a chance on me.
Immediately I was hooked by the energy at TourRadar. Everything moved fast and everyone had a voice. The Customer Support team was young and lacking structure, but it meant that every single person played a key part in building it. But the thing that I loved most was that everyone in the entire company had the same thing in common, their love of travel was infectious. Our sole purpose as a company was to make it easier for travellers around the world to find and book life-enriching travel experiences.
Fast forward to a year and a half later and I was the Assistant Team Lead of the Customer Support team in Toronto. I was challenged daily by the role but still felt that I could be doing more. I felt that I hadn’t yet reached my full potential yet.
One morning I came into the office with a message from my boss, Carly, asking to jump on a call with me. I hadn’t spoken to her much since my interview, so I honestly thought that I had done some bad, something that warranted a call from the Head of Customer Support and Sales. But the meeting went a little bit differently. “Would you ever consider coming to Vienna to be the Team Lead for our Customer Support team here?” she asked. If you’ve read the title of this article, you already know the answer.
I arrived in Vienna, Austria in October 2017 as a first-time manager with a team of six. I was forced to learn a few very hard lessons quickly and here are my tips for anyone who is a first-time manager.
Your Team’s Wins Are for Them, Their Losses Are for You.
From the outside looking in, it seemed like the team in Vienna was functioning perfectly but when I arrived it became very clear very quickly that there were some internal issues.
Through 1-on-1’s with the team, it was obvious that there was someone within the team that was dragging everyone down and it became my responsibility to either turn this around or let this person go. I tried my hardest to turn it around as I didn’t want to have let someone go. But when push came to shove, I was forced to let them go. It was and is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my career thus far.
Everyone on your team needs to subscribe to the same dream. They need to believe in your company’s “why” and you as a manager, are the one to implement this culture within your team. You need to champion your company’s values and remind them why they’re doing what they’re doing. They get the glory for subscribing to this dream and when things go wrong, it’s not on them, it’s on you.
Trust, Trust, Trust
One of the things that I love about TourRadar is that there is trust amongst all employees. Trust to make decisions, to try new things and to fail. But most importantly, there is trust that you are not your mistakes, that things happen and as long as you’ve learned from them and applied those learnings to your work on daily basis, you’ll be fine.
Trust is something that I immediately tried to build into my management style. I worked with the team in Vienna as a Customer Support agent for over a year and I knew that they were all extremely hard-working and dedicated individuals and I made it clear to them that I was not going to be breathing down their necks.
Trust allows people to feel comfortable and to try things and know that the company has their back. TourRadar trusted me by giving me a team to lead. So it is my duty to pay that forward with my team.
Whisper Your Team’s Failures, SHOUT Their Accomplishments!
One of the catch 22’s of working for a startup is that everyone is aware of the company’s highs and lows. They feel them and that can sometimes have an effect on their work.
As our team continues to grow, it’s evident that not everyone needs to bear the weight of the company on their shoulders. Some people respond to this pressure with great performance and output but the majority of people do not.
When I became a manager I made it my mission to be the filter between the Customer Support team and upper management. I let my team know that I had their backs, 100%, no excuses. This can be a difficult thing to maintain, especially if your team is not performing like you know they can. But it’s your job to make sure that everyone outside of your department is aware that your team is putting their blood, sweat and tears day in and day out to move the needle, even when this is not necessarily the case.
If they are underperforming then it is your responsibility to call them out on this. Conversations about underperformance have been the most difficult ones that I have had to have while being a manager, but they are the most important ones.
As a manager, you will be lucky enough to be included in the “bigger picture” conversations that may not be clear to your team. So you have to act as the conduit for this and to feed people just enough information to keep them hungry and motivated.
With all that being said, when you have the chance to give a shout out to your team, take it. Customer Support is relentless and in a lot of companies, underappreciated. Dealing with customers day in and day out is exhausting but there are some amazing little moments that take place while doing it. When someone on your team goes above and beyond, make it known to the company, your team will appreciate it.
Be a Human Being
TourRadar is not about hierarchy, office politics do not exist here, there is no boss and worker, there are is just a bunch of people all working tirelessly towards the same goal. Our CEO, Travis, is just as approachable as someone who joined the team a week ago.
I’ve tried to make this very clear to my team that they can come to me with anything, both work-related and personal. I let them know whenever I can that I’m there for them whenever they need me.
Some of the best connections that I’ve made at TourRadar are not from sitting down at my desk and hammering out work or collaborating on projects. It’s over a game of foosball or those after work drinks or just a nice lunchtime chat. These kinds of human connections motivate teams and have also helped me make things move within the company faster and that is invaluable.
My team are some of the hardest working, dedicated, intelligent, and fun people that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and they make coming into work every single day easy. They will always have my respect and friendship.
So yes, being a manager for the first time can be challenging and scary. It’s a bumpy road, I’m not going to lie, especially with a scaling team (16 employees currently) the challenges grow every day. But if you follow these simples steps, I’m confident that you’ll power through them and help create a team of rockstars.
One last piece of advice for anyone reading this, if you’re ever lucky enough to have an opportunity to join a company like TourRadar that trusts in you and you trust their vision, take it.
It will change your life.
It changed mine.
Are you interested in joining TourRadar? We’re always looking for talented, motivated individuals to join our team!
