As a new manager, you may be surprised at the number of things that you have to do each day. No longer can you just concentrate on your own job or one task at a time. The management theorist Frederick Mintzberg described a manager's job as being "characterized by pace, interruptions, brevity, variety, and fragmentation of activities."

As a manager, you will coordinate and control the work of your team, and so it is inevitable that you will use your interpersonal skills to communicate and negotiate with others. You will also be reacting decisively to unplanned events. In order to make appropriate decisions as a manager, you will need to gather all of the information that you need. You may also need to pass relevant details on to others.

Being expected to complete such a variety of activities may seem difficult at first, but in reality you play different roles in most areas of your life. At any one time, you may be fulfilling the roles of child, sibling, spouse, parent, friend, colleague, boss, subordinate, and citizen.

The three main manager roles involve the following activities:

Making Decisions – Managers must decide how to make the best use of the resources available, and negotiate for the resources that they need. Managers may have to make decisions about what changes should be made, and they often have to react to unplanned events.

Gathering and Distributing Information – Managers have to identify and gather all of the necessary information that they need. Much of this information may also have to be passed on to others.

Using Interpersonal Skills – Managers need to interact closely with people inside and outside of the organization. As leaders, they must direct their teams to meet organizational objectives. They may also have to represent their department or their company to the external world.

But what is involved in these different management roles? You may find it useful to assess your experiences against each of these management roles. Consider the following examples:

Making Decisions – "I had to make a call on how to deal with the latest influx of work. It was tough, because I had to prioritize a number of different projects, and also decide who should do what and when. In the end, I had to negotiate for more staff."

Gathering and Distributing Information – "When I was looking at changing the customer care system, I had to speak to a number of colleagues, customers, and external suppliers, to find out what my options were. Then I had to create a report to be distributed to the Board."

Using Interpersonal Skills – "A huge part of my job is communication. I have to interact with colleagues about managing workloads, and keep my team up-to-date by communicating strategy effectively. It can be tough."

You will not fill all of these roles every day, or even every week, but over time you will find that you are involved in most of them. If any areas are missing, consider whether or not this is due to the nature of your particular job. For example, you may have little opportunity to deal with people outside of the company. If this is the case, you should seek ways to extend your experience in that direction.

So you can see that the many different roles that you play and interruptions that you receive during the day are not in fact a distraction from your job, but an important part of it. However, having so many fragmented activities can lead to frustration if you feel that you have not done all that you have hoped to do.

The following activities may help you to appreciate what you achieve each day:

annotate your diary to see what was done and what was planned

keep a log of your daily activities for one week

discuss your frustrations with your mentor

compare notes with other managers

A management role can be very different from your previous technical or functional roles. There will be many more demands made by other people, and your time will be split between a greater variety of activities. A manager's job can seem very fragmented at times. It may not be so easy to cross off your list of completed tasks. You need to learn to look at your job in a slightly different way. This will help you to appreciate all that you are achieving from day to day.

The management writer Rosemary Stewart explained that any job is subject to a range of demands and a series of constraints. Inevitably, you will encounter demands on your time from your peers, your manager, your organization, and your staff members, as well as dealing with the external demands of, for example, legislation. And you may also be constrained by budget, resources, location, policy, or regulations.

Since management is all about planning, organizing, and controlling, it is clearly important for you to find ways of working successfully within the constraints, and in response to the demands, of your job.

Demands and constraints can be defined as follows:

Demands – Demands are things that someone must do because people, the system, or legislation, require it.

Constraints – Constraints come from both inside and outside of the organization and limit what can be done.

It is natural to feel intimidated by all these things that are outside your control, but having recognized them, you can work with or around them. As a manager, you will be faced with a number of different types of demands and constraints. Being able to identify them will help you to decide how best to deal with them. Some issues are easier to cope with than others, and this can depend on factors within your own organization.

Managers inevitably impose demands upon themselves by having high expectations about what they can achieve, and the standard that they can reach.

In addition, Rosemary Stewart identified five more demands that managers face:

Manager imposed demands – Your boss is likely to expect things of you that you will be unable to ignore.

Staff imposed demands – Your staff members will want and expect you to spend time with them, giving advice or training.

Peer imposed demands – Other managers within the organization will often require information, support, or assistance from you.

System imposed demands – Your organization will have its own set of systems that cannot be ignored. These will include budgets, reports, and meetings.

Externally imposed demands – Your customers, suppliers, or other stakeholders may require information or action from you.

The attitudes and expectations of those around you will constrain how you, as a manager, are able to act. This is about what people expect as a result of the action being taken, and how they are likely to respond to it. It also includes the general attitude that employees have towards you as their manager, or the work that has to be done.

Stewart also identified five additional constraints that limit a manager's course of action:

Limited resources – All resources are limited in some way, and as a manager, you will have to work with, and make the best use of, the type and amount of resources that are available to you.

Legal regulations – Legal regulations are a constraint on everyone. As a manager, you have a responsibility not only to act within the law, but to ensure that your team does, too.

Processes and equipment – You will be constrained by the processes and equipment available to you. This applies equally to the quality and to the type of resources available.

Diverse teams and locations – You may be working with a number of teams, some of which may not be at the same location. You may also find that you have to work with other departments, suppliers, or customers who are geographically remote.

Policies and procedures – Every organization has its own policies and procedures, and you will have to work within them.

It might be helpful to consider how the demands and constraints of a manager's job differ from those of your current or previous non-managerial role. Being a successful manager involves juggling conflicting demands, and working within constraints in order to meet the needs of the organization.

Constraints can be the physical location of teams, technological limitations, and regulations applied to the industry as a whole. Other managers may be constrained by limited resources, organizational policies, or people's attitudes.

Demands can come from bosses, employees, and customer demands. They can also come from peers, the system, and the external environment. Of course, some of the toughest demands may come from you, yourself!

Demands and constraints will not go away. In fact, they are part of the challenge of management. But if you know what you are dealing with, then you are on the way to tackling them successfully.

Management is a complex task. As a manager, you are continually faced with problems that need solving and decisions that need to be made. Making decisions is not easy, but it is a major part of a manager's role.

As a new manager, you may be worried about making the wrong decision, but making no decision at all is rarely a satisfactory option. Employees expect good leadership and sound decisions from their managers. Failure to deliver these will result in frustrated and disillusioned staff members.

Put simply, decision making is about choosing between alternative possible courses of action. Routine decisions – for example, which call to make next – usually do not require a lot of thought or planning. However, more complex decisions which involve several people, and which may have far-reaching consequences, are better made when they are informed and considered.

Before you can even begin to make a decision, it is crucial that you identify exactly what the problem is. Once you have done this, you can determine what you expect your decision to achieve. This will enable you to ensure that all of the necessary factors are considered before you reach a final decision and take action.

Once you have identified your issue, you should structure your decision-making approach as follows:

Gather necessary information – Gathering information will help you to make a more informed decision. Some information may need to be analyzed. Do not use a lack of information as an excuse for procrastination.

Consider the options – Once you have all of the information, you will be in a better position to decide between possible courses of action. You may have identified specific criteria to help you to weigh the options.

Make a choice – You may choose to seek advice from others at this point. As a new manager, your own manager or mentor may be in a good position to help you. He or she will probably have dealt with similar situations in the past.

Implement the decision – Depending upon the nature of the decision, you may have to seek authorization from more senior managers before you can proceed. Remember that a decision cannot really be effective until it has been implemented.

Monitor the success of the decision – As always, it is important to monitor the action taken. If things do not seem to be going to plan, then it may become necessary to return to point three, and reconsider your options.

As a new manager, you will find it easier, and more effective, to use a structured approach when making decisions. Once you become more comfortable with your role, you may be able to adapt your approach. The steps involved are logical, but under pressure it can be reassuring to have a process to follow. Of course, sometimes it is not possible to follow such a structured path, because

• information or time is limited
• you have a decision forced upon you
• the number of available options is limited
• intuition replaces a rational approach
• implementation is impeded

As a manager, people are expecting you to solve problems. They want you to make informed decisions based on appropriate information, which is given due consideration. They are expecting you to identify the most effective course of action, and implement and monitor it carefully.

At first, decision making can be daunting. Using a structured approach will help you to consider all aspects and come to a sound conclusion. It can be tempting to think that the process is over once a decision has been made, but do not forget to check that the decision really is solving the problem and meeting the objectives identified at the outset.

A move that takes you out of your comfort zone, out of a familiar job, and into a challenging new role can be difficult to handle. Change is unsettling for most people, and even welcome change usually requires a period of adjustment. The transition to a management role, even when it has been eagerly anticipated, can involve a roller coaster of emotions.

J. Adams said in his book Seven Stages of Transition that: "It is recognized that any change in a person's routine, planned or unexpected, will provoke a standard sequence of emotions."

Understanding the transition process and knowing that you are not alone in experiencing these emotions, will help you to deal with each stage more effectively. To find out some more about how you might be feeling at each stage in the transition process, consider the stages listed below:

Immobilization – It is the new role that you wanted, but you are not quite sure what to make of it.

Minimization – You may try to carry on as though nothing has changed, because this seems to be the easiest route. You might be tempted to choose a lot of your old tasks and ignore the management elements of your new role.

Depression – You may feel a sense of panic, anger, or depression as a result of your own high expectations, and the pressure that you feel to perform well.

Acceptance – This is real progress. At this stage, you begin to realize that you can do the job, and that, in fact, you have already begun to make a difference.

Testing – At this point, you will feel free to do the job your own way and confident enough to try out new ideas.

Seeking Meaning – For the first time, you give yourself the chance to reflect on what you have learned so far about yourself and about others around you.

Internalizing – Now you identify yourself with the job more readily. You are no longer inexperienced, but instead, comfortable in your position as manager.

If you have already been promoted to a management role, you might want to identify which stage you have reached. Each stage in the transition process provides you with a new learning experience. These experiences will also help you to support your own team's development more effectively in the future.

As a manager, you will want to have some control over your own development. It is helpful, therefore, to consider what you can do to deal with the difficulties of, and capitalize on the strengths of, each transition stage.

The actions that you can take are as follows:

Immobilization – You may feel that there is so much to do that you end up doing nothing. You can feel very isolated at this point, and it is wise to seek some support. Talk to your manager or mentor about how you feel, and try to identify some clear objectives.

Minimization – Be wary; this can be a difficult stage. It may be tempting, but you cannot pretend that things have not changed. Your staff members need clear leadership from you, not direct interference in their work.

Depression – At this stage, you need to remind yourself of your past successes. Break the current challenges that you face down into manageable tasks. Make sure that your objectives are achievable, and reward yourself when any task is completed.

Acceptance – Make the most of your positive feelings during this period. Now may be the time to tackle some of the more difficult tasks.

Testing – Having the confidence to express your own views represents significant progress, and is a positive step. Make sure, however, that you retain a healthy balance, and avoid being aggressive. Be assertive instead.

Seeking Meaning – Allow yourself adequate time to reflect on what has happened to you, on what you have learned, and on how many of your attitudes may have changed.

Internalizing – Congratulations! You have reached your goal, and are no longer surprised when you are introduced as a manager. Remember to use your experience of the early stages of the transition process to understand others who are facing some kind of major change.

Do not be concerned that the emotions associated with some of the stages are negative. Dealing with these stages successfully will improve your management skills. You cannot expect everything to change overnight. You will take some time to adjust to your new managerial role, but this is natural.

As the transition process demonstrates, you will pass through clear stages on the way. Understanding these stages, and how you might feel, will help you to handle this important progression in your career more successfully.

All companies seem to have their own particular way of doing things. The personality, or culture, of the organization affects the way that everything is seen and done. The culture may be visible in the style of the building, the layout of the offices, the corporate brochure, the dress code, and the workplace jargon.

Less tangible, but no less important in helping to identify a company's culture, are the shared traditions, values, policies, attitudes, structures, and beliefs within the organization.

Charles Handy analyzed the shared and unwritten rules of workplace behavior in his book Understanding Organizations. Handy used analogies to illustrate the main features of each culture. You may already have a good idea of the culture of your organization. If not, then the following may provide some more clues:

A spider's web depicts power cultures – These organizations are usually controlled by one main character. Such cultures are common in family-run businesses and small entrepreneurial companies.

A Greek temple represents role cultures – These gain their strength from the various functions, rules, roles, and procedures in an organization. Large organizations tend to have this type of culture.

A net illustrates the linkages between individuals that are typical of task cultures – Task cultures tend to be responsive and flexible. They are often advertising agencies, high-tech companies, and other research-based organizations.

The individual is of paramount importance in person culture – the organization is secondary. Medical practices and law firms are good examples of this type of culture.

So, how does knowing the type of culture that exists within your organization help you as a new manager? Understanding the culture is important, because the characteristics of each culture will have an impact on the way that things are done, or can be done, in an organization.

The characteristics of the four types of culture are:

Power – The main characteristic of a power culture is a strong, central figurehead who is the source of all authority within the organization. The central figure delegates tasks on a need to do basis, and planning is ad hoc and short-term. Communication is informal, and bureaucracy is low.

Role – This is a structured, bureaucratic type of culture. Continuity, stability, and predictability are important. Job roles in the company are defined, position confers authority, and training is valued. Communication is formal, and these companies tend to be established and stable.

Task – Communication is informal, and bureaucracy is low in a task culture. Authority is based on expertise and not on position. In this culture, multi-disciplinary teams are common, and work is of a problem-solving kind. This culture is typical of fast-moving entrepreneurial businesses.

Person – In this culture, the needs of the individual take precedence over those of the organization. There are few formal procedures. Decision making is informal, and centers around influential individuals. Many not-for-profit organizations and professional practices fit this model.

New managers face slightly different challenges as a result of their organizational cultures. Understanding the particular difficulties that you may encounter will help you to deal with them more effectively.

Possible challenges you may face are as follows:

Task – Introducing tiers of management or processes to a task culture may be difficult. Formal job descriptions are often non-existent. You mustn't be offended if someone else works on your task, because completion of the task is the most important thing.

Role – Trying to introduce more creative thinking can be difficult, because roles are usually defined, and communication is formal. You need to be aware that systems are important, and decision making may be slow. For example, new initiatives may have to be agreed to by a committee.

Person – Trying to structure decision making in a person culture may be very difficult. You will also find that trying to move the focus away from the individuals involved and onto the task can be a challenge.

Power – Trying to formalize lines of communication can be difficult. If you are brought in as part of a new layer of management, you may meet with some resistance, as people are used to going to the figurehead for decisions. It could be difficult to get anyone to focus on long-term plans.

Nothing lasts forever, and an organization's culture might change and evolve over a period of time. An organization that begins life as a power culture may need to become a role culture when the owner sells the company, or when the business grows much bigger, for example.

The important thing is that, as a new manager, you understand your organization's prevailing culture, and work with it, not against it. If you do this, you'll find it easier to make a difference.

So much to do, and so little time in which to do it. Is that how you feel? You will probably find yourself agreeing with management guru, Peter Drucker. He said: "Time is the scarcest resource...Unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed." Planning the best use of time is a vital management skill.

Good time planning will allow you to concentrate on the most important tasks, reduce time-wasting, enable you to complete more in the time available

If you are already feeling overloaded by the amount of work you have to do, being told that you need to organize your time better might initially make you feel more stressed. You may feel like saying: "Great idea, but when am I going to find the time to do that!"

You can begin to improve your time management skills by doing all or some of the following:

Being prepared to delegate

Limiting meeting and phone call time

Using planning aids, such as schedules

Not avoiding unpopular tasks

Reassessing priorities

Doing a quick audit of how you currently spend your time can help you to identify ways in which to manage time more effectively.

Important/Urgent Matrix

As a new manager, you may find it difficult to reassess your priorities. It can seem as if everyone wants something from you – and they want it yesterday! The good news is that it is possible to manage your priorities using a simple tool. This tool is the important/urgent matrix.

By using the matrix, you can divide tasks up into four different categories:

Both urgent and important – Tasks that are both urgent and important should be dealt with immediately. These might include producing your sales figures for tomorrow's management meeting, or preparing yourself to interview new staff members this afternoon.

Urgent, but not important – Tasks that are urgent, but not important should be dealt with quickly. You should be careful not to spend too much time on these tasks, which might include answering routine calls from customers, or dealing with an e-mail from a supplier.

Important, but not urgent – Tasks that are important, but not urgent, should be started as soon as possible, because they can become urgent if they are left too long. For example, finding and booking a new location for the sales conference that is to be held in six months.

Neither urgent nor important – Tasks which are neither urgent nor important can go to the bottom of the list. These are usually the tasks that can most easily be delegated to members of your team, and might include undertaking research to identify new suppliers.

For example, consider the tasks that new account manager, Evan, faced on Monday morning. He has to decide which box each task should be allocated to in the important/urgent matrix.

8:30 am – Evan begins the day hoping to spend some time preparing for the next round of employee reviews. The reviews are not due to take place for another two months, but these are Evan's first staff reviews, so he wants to make sure that he is prepared.

9:00 am – When Evan arrives at the office, he has several e-mails from existing clients, involving routine inquiries.

9:30 am – As Evan begins to deal with the e-mails, he receives a call from his boss, Beth. Beth is catching the evening flight to Boston for a hastily arranged meeting with an important prospective customer. Beth needs Evan to produce the slides for part of her presentation.

10:00 am – The receptionist calls Evan to tell him that a representative from a printing company is on the line. The representative is in the local area, and would like to know whether it's convenient to come into the office and talk to Evan about prospective work.

You may initially find it time-consuming to categorize your tasks, but as you become more familiar with the matrix, it will become automatic. But what about Evan? His tasks can be divided into the matrix as follows:

preparing for the reviews is important, but not yet urgent

replying to his e-mails is urgent, but not important

preparing Beth's presentation is urgent and important

meeting with the sales representative is neither urgent nor important

Planning is one of your main responsibilities, although it can be easy to neglect the planning of your own activities as your workload increases. Remember that taking a little time to plan properly now will save you time in the long run.

As with any new job, when you first become a manager, you will probably experience a very steep learning curve. You will be faced with many new challenges and find that you are continually trying to learn new skills. Understanding the way that you prefer to learn will help you to make the most of the opportunities presented to you during these first months of your new job.

Peter Honey and Alan Mumford identified four different learning styles. They proposed that individuals are activists, theorists, pragmatists, or reflectors. Consider the following statements. Which applies to you and the way that you like to learn?

1. some people have to do things
2. some people have to read about things
3. some people want to apply new skills immediately
4. some people like to research and compare

Each of the learning styles has its own characteristics, and associated strengths and weaknesses. These learning styles can be defined as follows. Consider, as an example, each associated person to see how that learning style affects how they learn about a new computer model.

Theorists – like to integrate their observations into logical frameworks by combining new ideas with old ones. They like to analyze, and are able to remain objective, although they are often perfectionists.

Beth is a theorist. She is detached and analytical. She is likely to challenge things that do not fit with her view of the world. She has been testing the features of her new computer and comparing it against the old one.

Reflectors – like to consider experiences carefully and listen and observe. They prefer to stand back and gather data before coming to any conclusion. Because of this consideration, reflectors can be seen as overcautious.

Bruce is a reflector. He likes to ponder new experiences. He is cautious and observes as a way of understanding. He waited to see what experiences other people had with the computer model before he bought one.

Activists – are enthusiastic about anything new and like to be the center of attention. They thrive on challenge, and will try anything once. However, they often become bored with implementation.

Joe is an activist. He is enthusiastic about anything new. He is enjoying the challenge of mastering all of the features of his new computer, but he will quickly become bored once the novelty wears off.

Pragmatists – like to try out ideas to see if they work in practice. They are constantly trying to find better ways to do things. They are practical and good problem-solvers, but often become impatient with lengthy discussions.

Donna is a pragmatist. She likes to look for better ways to do things, is a good problem-solver, but is not interested in discussions. She has not looked at the manual for her computer, because she wanted to push ahead with practical things.

So which category do you fit into? If you understand how you learn, you will be able to optimize your learning experiences. As a busy manager, it is important that you make the most of your time and of opportunities to develop more skills.