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3 tips for becoming a first-time manager, from a boss who's supervised 100 people in her career

3 tips for becoming a first-time manager, from a boss who’s supervised 100 people in her career
Luis Alvarez | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Managing people in a workplace doesn't come naturally to everyone, and a lack of formal training could be deterring more people from climbing the management ladder.

Less than half, 48%, of managers say they strongly agree that they currently have the skills needed to be exceptional at their job, according to research from Gallup.

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Christine Cruzvergara was among the share of people who were hired to managerial position without a ton of support.

Cruzvergara first became a boss as an assistant director at a university in 2011 and inherited a team where some of her staff were more than 25 years older and "significantly more senior" than her, she tells CNBC Make It.

In the absence of having any kind of guidance as a new manager, Cruzvergara, now the chief education strategy officer at Handshake, says three things were critical to her successfully leading a team.

Learn from your previous bosses

When you're starting to manage other people, it can be helpful to think about your previous experiences with former managers and what you liked or disliked about each person's style, Cruzvergara says.

"You learn a lot from both the good ones that you want to emulate, and you learn a lot from the bad ones" whose habits or communication styles weren't effective for you.

For example, maybe you had a manager who showed they were interested in you, receptive to your feedback and committed to your success.

Think about how they set expectations and communicated with you to make you feel that way. If it's possible, ask them about any of their strategies directly.

That way, you can "crystallize who you will be and what types of principles you will operate under" as a manager, says Cruzvergara, who has since managed over 100 people in her career across universities and corporate spaces.

Identify your strengths and weaknesses

It's also important to build a management style that leans on your strengths as a colleague and communicator, and also takes into consideration areas where you still need improvement.

In becoming a boss, "I was very reflective around my strengths and what I brought to the table and what was authentic to me," Cruzvergara says.

For example, she considers herself to be a very direct person who can also adapt to other people's communication and working styles. She quickly came up with a shortcut to getting to know her reports, which involves asking everyone she manages five key questions in their first formal one-on-one.

"After our first meeting, they know me a little bit better, and I know them a little bit better," Cruzvergara says. "We just fast-tracked months of working together because we explicitly talked about some of these things and set off on such a good path."

One area she learned needed improvement was being clear when she didn't agree with someone's feedback.

"Just because I take the feedback well, doesn't mean that I've completely incorporated all of it, or I've had a chance to fully digest it or think about it, or that I agree with it," Cruzvergara says. Now, she's learned to communicate that with her colleagues.

Build a network of other managers for guidance

Cruzvergara says she didn't have a good supervisor by the time she became a manager, so that wasn't someone she could turn to for advice leading her own team.

So, she turned to her peers.

"I discovered it was important to build a network of colleagues in my field" to lean on, share stories and ask for advice from "a neutral third party."

"In some ways, it was helpful that I didn't have a great boss at that beginning portion, because it allowed me to actually build a really strong network of colleagues that I could go to," Cruzvergara says.

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