How Should Employees Adjust to New Managers?

A new manager in your department might mean significant changes in the direction of your team’s work, your own role, or the team’s workflow, turning a job you love into one of agony and frustration.

“Getting a new boss can shake up your world,” Mary Abbajay, president of Careerstone Group and author of “Managing Up: How to Move Up, Win at Work, and Succeed with Any Type of Boss,” told Harvard Business Review (HBR). “You have to adjust to a new management style and personality, which is hard if this person is a micromanager, not as friendly as your old boss, or has different priorities. You’re starting from scratch.”

On retail selling floors, the turnover rate of managers is high. A Korn Ferry survey found the turnover rate in 2022 for store managers and assistant store managers was 17.7% and 29.2%, respectively.

The HBR article offered a number of tips for adjusting to a new boss, including keeping a positive mindset, having empathy for the pressures facing a new boss during the transition, working on understanding your new boss’s priorities and preferences, and focusing on constructive criticism rather than being defensive about changes.

“Don’t sabotage the boss’s efforts,” said Abbajay. “Bosses can feel it when the team isn’t with them.”

Communications expert Sara McCord suggests coming up with fresh ideas and “being your most impressive self” in the initial transition period for the new boss. She wrote in The Muse, “While it can be confusing because you know your job inside and out at this point, you need to remember that you’re back at square one in the impression game with your new boss.”

In a column for Fast Company, Amii Barnard-Bahn, a partner at Kaplan & Walker and the CEO of Barnard-Bahn Coaching & Consulting, suggests trying to understand the reason behind the change in leadership and take the lead in making recommendations to the new boss. She wrote, “Change can be a rough journey. It’s an easier destination if you invest time to envision the future, identify the shifts, and design a concrete plan to lead yourself and your team through the new landscape.”

Lindo Gharib, district president of staffing firm Robert Half, suggests recognizing it will take time to get to know your new boss and keeping an open mind. He told Fox Business, “A new manager will help you push yourself to tackle challenging goals, gain a fresh perspective and help you learn how to work effectively with different types of people.”