Summary of ways to overcome the challenges

As has become evident, similarly to the challenges, which were varied, also the ways to overcome them were diverse. However, a couple of notes can be made: 1. Most of the challenges the informants faced got solved, 2. Usually a way to overcome even critical challenges was found, 3. Personal reflections and conscious choices are vital for a first-time manager, 4. Support and con- nections with people in similar situations are important, 5. The FTM training program offered meaningful support for many informants in many different ways and 6. The organisational context can also offer indirect support. A col- lection of the main ways to overcome challenges is in Table 3.

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The first two points offer hope for anyone thriving to become a manager.

Even though some challenges were tough to overcome and some still ongo- ing, so far most of the informants had been able to either overcome the chal- lenges or were able to reflect and plan on how to overcome the challenges.

Also, the role of time passing as a mediator should not be underestimated.

Furthermore, in many cases stopping, reflecting and consciously choosing to act differently was the key to overcome the challenges. And if not overcoming them, at least mediating their impacts as was the case with the Covid-19 pan- demic and how it had hindered some informants of getting into their new organisation.

Table 3. Summary of the main ways to overcome challenges by the inform- ants (the less prevalent are marked with (X)).

Also, a great example of the importance of taking own actions is agenda man- agement; those who were able to prioritise, delegate and lead oneself effi- ciently seemed to be doing well in their managerial role and reported less challenges with their well-being. A brilliant example of how becoming a man- ager is a learning process can be seen with informant 10: after a challenging

In- form-

ant

Overcoming the challenges with the help of

Rea- sona-

ble work-

load

Agenda mgmt

FTM train- ing pro- gram

Sup- port from peers or friends

Per- sonal reflec- tions about mgrial

work

Deter- mined

work with sub- ordi- nates

Own ac- tions shap- ing ways

of work-

ing

Tak- ing care

of own well- be- ing

Covid- 19:

taking own

ac- tions

Group 1 (Overall FTM experience challenging)

2 X

6 X X X (X) X

10 X X X

Group 2 (Overall FTM experience neutral)

1 X X

4 X X X X (X) X

7 X X X

12 (X) X X X X X X

13 X X X

14 X

Group 3 (Overall FTM experience easy/good)

3 (X) X X (X)

5 (X) X X X X X

9 X X X

11 X X X

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start she had become the master of her agenda. She is also an inspiring ex- ample of how a challenging start does not mean failing as a first-time man- ager. The topic of self-leadership was important to also other informants.

One informant from group 2 summed up the centrality of self-leadership as follows in her final essay of the FTM training program:

For me, the key takeaway from the training program was the realisation and ultimate confirmation that leading [others]

starts from leading oneself.

-Informant 7, quote 42 The importance of good and long-lasting support became evident during the study. Especially interesting is the case of informant 10, who was first of all sparked by the FTM training program to get on top of her agenda and sec- ondly was continuing to receive organisational support also at the time of the interview. At that point she had already been a manager for 14 months. Of course, it became evident that support was in a key role for other informants as well. Some other informants had and were still receiving excellent organi- sational support and those who had not or were not receiving it, had figured out some other ways of coping. Some had read books or listened to audio- books, some had contacted peers in their organisations, and some had con- tacted their friends in similar situations. And as mentioned earlier, many in- formants had found the FTM training program important and meaningful.

Some found its group discussions crucial, some found the program’s themes about self-leadership important, some found the assignments inspiring and some mentioned the reflections during it essential. Also, it was interesting to find out about miscellaneous outcomes the FTM training program had trig- gered: the informants reported outcomes such as ‘daring to be the manager’

(informant 12) and ‘understanding the importance of creating an open at- mosphere’ (informant 3).

Examples of indirect support that had helped the informants out would be e.g., previous reflections on own beliefs of managerial work (e.g., informants 6 and 12), reasonable workload (e.g., informants 4 and 7) and a healthy or- ganisational culture (informants 5 and 14). Previous reflections can ease up the number of challenges during the early phases of becoming a manager when the FTM has at least some basic ideas to follow. As has become clear, a reasonable workload seems to lead to better overall experiences of becoming a manager and also makes logically sense. As becoming a manager is a learn- ing process, it makes sense to give time and space for the learning and only after a while increase the new manager’s workload if it is appropriate and needed. As one informant explained about learning a new skill:

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Also, it could be said that learning a new thing is always a stress factor.

-Informant 3, quote 43 I believe building and fostering a healthy organisational culture is crucial for many reasons and supporting FTMs starting their new phase of career is a further reason. Good organisational culture can help getting into the organi- sation and smoothen the process of learning managerial work. On the other hand, poor organisational culture can turn out to be a hindrance. However, it was good to see, that balancing factors could smoothen at least some of its negative effects. Finally, it felt nice to notice, that none of the 13 managers interviewed for this study had failed. No matter young or older, inexperi- enced, or more experienced they all had pulled it through so far, despite of facing some challenges on the way.