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Your first week as a new manager: a day-by-day plan

In your first week as a manager, your job is to listen, not to fix. Meet your own boss on day one to agree what success looks like, introduce yourself to the team in a short first meeting, start a one-on-one with each person, and learn how the work actually gets done. Change nothing big yet, write down everything you notice, and make one small promise you can keep by Friday.

The first week sets how your team reads you for months. They're watching three things: whether you listen, whether you're straight with them, and whether you do what you say. Below is a plan for each day, what to say, what to ask your manager, how to handle the first problem that lands on your desk, what to leave alone, and a checklist for Friday. If you were promoted from inside the team, there's a section for that too.

What your first week is for

Michael Watkins, in The First 90 Days, argues that people moving into a new role fail most often by acting before they understand. The first week is the start of that learning. It has five jobs:

1. Agree with your boss what you're there to do, and how you'll both know it's working.
2. Meet the team, as a group and one by one.
3. Learn the work: what the team does, for whom, with which tools, and where it breaks.
4. Set your own rhythm: 1:1s, the team meeting, how people reach you.
5. Keep one small promise. Fix one small thing people asked for, and say you did.

What's not on the list: a new strategy, a reorganisation, new processes, opinions about how the last manager did things. Those come later, once you know enough to be right about them.

Before day one

• Ask your manager for an hour on day one. Put it in their calendar now.
• Get the basics: a list of your team with roles and start dates, the team's goals or targets for the year, any recent review or survey results, and the dates of the next deadlines.
• Ask about anything live: "Is there anything going on with the team I should know before I start? Someone who's leaving, a complaint, someone who applied for this job?"
• Write a short hello to send on day one (below).
• Block your calendar for the 1:1s and the first team meeting, so the week doesn't fill with other people's meetings.

The plan, day by day

If your team is bigger than eight, the 1:1s will spill into week two. That's fine; book them all now so everyone has a date.

Day one: what to do and what to say

The hour with your manager

This is the most important meeting of the week. You're trying to find out what they expect, without guessing. Questions to ask:

• "What does success look like for me at three months? At a year?"
• "What are the one or two things you most need from this team right now?"
• "What's going well that I should leave alone?"
• "What's not working that you'd want me to look at first?"
• "Who on the team should I lean on? Who might need extra support?"
• "Is there anything about any person on the team I should know?"
• "What decisions can I make on my own, and which do you want to hear about first?"
• "How do you like to get updates: a weekly note, a meeting, only when something's wrong?"
• "Can we meet every week for the first month?"

Write down the answers and send a short summary afterwards: "Here's what I heard. Let me know if I've got any of it wrong." It shows you listened, and it gives you both something to check against in a month.

The hello to the team

On day one, catch the team in person (or on a quick call) for five minutes, then follow with a short note. Keep it plain:

Hi everyone, I'm starting as the team's manager today. I'm looking forward to working with you. For the first few weeks I'll mostly be listening: I'd like to understand how the work gets done and what gets in your way before I change anything. I've booked a team meeting for Tuesday at 10 and a 30-minute one-on-one with each of you this week or next. If something can't wait, message me or stop by. Thanks, Jordan

What not to do on day one

• Announce changes.
• Talk about how things worked at your last job.
• Comment on the previous manager, good or bad.
• Spend the whole day in onboarding videos while your team wonders where you are.

Day two: your first team meeting

Keep it to 30–45 minutes. Introduce yourself in under five minutes, say what you won't change yet, ask the team two or three questions, and listen. Good questions:

• "What's going well that I should protect?"
• "What gets in your way most often?"
• "What do you need from a manager?"

Our guide on how to conduct your first team meeting has a timed agenda, the invite, and what to say if you were promoted, hired from outside, or are replacing someone who left.

The first one-on-ones

Thirty minutes with each person, ideally in week one. This is where you actually learn the team. Use the same questions with everyone, so you can compare answers:

1. "Tell me about your role. What does a normal week look like?"
2. "What do you like most about the work? What drains you?"
3. "What's one thing you'd change about how the team works?"
4. "What do you want to be doing in a year or two?"
5. "How do you like to get feedback: in the moment, or saved for our 1:1?"
6. "What did you like about how you were managed before? What didn't work?"
7. "What should I know about you that wouldn't show up in a file?"

Take notes, say little, and end with: "Let's keep this time every week (or every two weeks). Is this slot good?" Our guides on how to have an effective 1 on 1 and one on one questions to ask employees cover the regular meetings after this one.

Learning how the work actually gets done

Spend at least half a day watching the work itself. Sit with one or two people while they do it. Ask, "Show me how you do this," then "What slows you down?" and "What breaks most often?"

Things to learn by Friday:

• Who the team serves (customers, other departments), and what those people complain about.
• The main tools and where the data lives.
• How work arrives, who decides what gets done first, and how it's tracked.
• The team's numbers: targets, current results, and how they're measured.
• The regular meetings and reports, and who reads them.
• Which approvals are yours now: time off, expenses, schedules, hires.

Keep a running list called "things I noticed". Don't act on it yet. In three or four weeks, you'll see which items were real problems and which just looked odd from outside.

Want words like these ready every morning? Take the 2-minute quiz and get a 10-minute lesson and one script a day, for the talks of your first weeks.

Day four: the people around your team

Your team's success depends on people outside it. In week one, meet (or book) a short call with:

• Your peer managers. "What do you need from my team? What's been hard working with us?"
• The teams you hand work to, or get it from. Same questions.
• HR or your people partner. Ask what's open: any performance plans, leave, complaints, or promises the last manager made.
• One or two key customers, if your team faces them, with someone from the team there.

You'll hear a version of your team that the team itself won't tell you. Neither version is the whole truth; you need both.

Day five: write it down and keep one promise

Block an hour on Friday afternoon. Write a one-page note to yourself:

• What the team does well.
• The three problems you heard most often, and from how many people.
• Each person in two lines: what they're good at, what they want.
• Open questions you still can't answer.
• What your manager expects, in their words.

Then keep one small promise. In the first meeting and the 1:1s, someone will mention something small and annoying: a broken monitor, a meeting nobody needs, a report nobody reads, a missing login. Fix one, and tell the team you did. It shows that telling you things works, which is the most useful thing they can learn in week one.

Finally, send your manager a short Friday note: what you did, what you learned, what you're doing next week. Keep it to five lines.

When a problem lands on your desk in week one

Something will: an angry customer, a missed deadline, two people who aren't speaking, a request for time off in a busy week. You don't have to have all the answers yet. Use three questions:

1. "How was this handled before?" Ask the person who brought it. Often there's a working answer.
2. "What do you suggest?" They usually know the work better than you do this week.
3. "Does this need a decision today?" If not: "Let me look into it and come back to you by Wednesday." Then do.

If it's a conduct or safety issue (harassment, a threat, something illegal), it can't wait for you to settle in. Take notes and go to HR or your manager the same day.

If you were promoted from the team

Everything above still applies, with a few changes:

• Say the change out loud in the first meeting: "This is new for all of us, me included. I'll still be the same person, but my job is different now."
• Have a private word first with anyone who applied for the role, before the team meeting.
• Be careful with friends. Lunch with the same two people every day, inside jokes, or turning to them for support in meetings will be noticed.
• Stop doing your old job. You'll be tempted to keep the tasks you were good at. Hand them over within the first two weeks.

Our guide on managing former peers covers the first month in detail.

If your team is remote

• Do the hello on video, not just by email.
• Hold the first meeting on video with cameras on, and keep it shorter (30 minutes).
• Ask in each 1:1: "What's the best way to reach you? When do you prefer not to be interrupted?"
• Join the team's channels and read back two or three weeks. You'll learn how the work flows, and where it gets stuck.
• Over-share your own calendar and status, so people can see when you're free.

What to leave alone in week one

Week one is the start of a longer plan. Our 30-60-90 day plan for new managers carries it through your first three months.

Your first-week checklist

• ☐ An hour with your manager: success at 3 months and a year, written down and sent back
• ☐ Weekly meeting with your manager booked for the first month
• ☐ Hello to the team, in person or on video, and in writing
• ☐ First team meeting held
• ☐ A 1:1 booked with every person (held, or dated)
• ☐ Half a day spent watching the work
• ☐ The team's numbers, tools and approvals understood
• ☐ Met your peers, HR, and the teams you work with
• ☐ "Things I noticed" list started
• ☐ One small promise kept, and the team told
• ☐ Friday note sent to your manager

After week one, the work shifts from learning to setting things up: regular 1:1s, a team meeting that works, and your first feedback conversations. Our first time manager tips guide has a week-by-week plan for the rest of the first 90 days.

Every new manager leans one way in week one: some listen so long they never decide, some fix everything on day two. The free leadership style quiz takes about 2 minutes, names your style, and shows the conversations you're most likely to put off.

Questions about the first week as a manager

What should a new manager do on the first day?

Meet your own manager to agree what success looks like, say a short hello to the team in person, send a written hello, and book the first team meeting and the one-on-ones. Don't announce any changes.

What should I say to my team on my first day as a manager?

Who you are, in a sentence or two; that you'll be listening for the first few weeks before changing anything; when the team meeting and 1:1s are; and how to reach you. Under five minutes.

How soon should a new manager make changes?

Small fixes people ask for, right away. Process or structure changes, usually not before your first month, once you've heard from everyone and checked with your manager. Urgent problems (safety, a customer at risk) are the exception.

Should I have one-on-ones in my first week?

Yes, start them. If the team is large, hold some in week one and book the rest with dates, so nobody wonders when theirs is.

How do I handle being nervous in my first week as a manager?

Most new managers are. Lean on questions instead of answers; nobody expects you to know everything yet. Find one experienced manager outside your team to talk to, and write down what's going well each day, not just what isn't.

What if my team doesn't respect me in the first week?

Respect comes from what you do over the first weeks: listening, following up, being fair. If someone openly undermines you, have a private, calm conversation about the specific behaviour. Our guide on difficult conversations with employees has the words.

Next: take the free leadership style quiz to see what kind of new manager you are, or browse all our guides for new managers.

Sources

• Michael D. Watkins, The First 90 Days, Harvard Business Review Press, 2003 (updated 2013).