What's your job again?

Most problems and questions for new managers arise, because they are unaware of what their actual job is.

But that's nothing you can blame them for.

How should they know? In most cases they won't receive a proper introduction or training and are thrown into the role and need to figure out everything on their own. And if they ask their manager they also don't have a proper, helpful answer.

Let's fix this - it's not that hard.

Everything a manager needs to be successful falls into two categories: Results and retention.

Results means you and your team are creating results for your company that have a positive effect on the company's goals. Your team has to produce some value for the company. That can be software, that can be acquiring new customers - it depends on your industry.

Retention means you need to make sure that your team members are happy and motivated and will stay in the company. You make sure they have everything they need to be successful, you help them grow, and you make sure they understand what the context is and therefore the goals of the business are.

Those categories aren't separate, they depend on each other. If you don't have motivated team members, it will be hard to create positive results. If you don't create results for the company, you won't be able to keep your team employed.

Every manager that I've worked with tends to lean into one direction in the beginning - they are either result-oriented and focus on goals mostly, or retention-oriented and only have an eye for people.

This is not inherently bad, but to reach the next level with your team, you need to balance your efforts.