The job is different
You were probably promoted because you were good at the work. Management is a different craft, made of hiring, setting priorities, removing obstacles, giving feedback and explaining decisions made above you. The commonest failure among new managers is remaining the team's best individual contributor, taking the hard assignments personally and leaving everyone else to watch. Your output now is the team's output. A week in which you produced nothing yourself but unblocked four people was a productive one.
The first thirty days
Meet each person on the team individually in your first week or two. Ask what is going well, what is getting in the way, what they want to be doing in two years and how they prefer to hear criticism. Ask your own manager how your success will be judged and which problems are most urgent. Change very little during this period unless something is on fire. A new manager who reorganizes in week one is acting on the previous manager's complaints and nobody's facts.
One-on-ones
A standing one-on-one is the basic tool of the trade: thirty minutes, every week or every other week, with each direct report. It is their meeting, so they set the agenda first and status reports go in writing elsewhere. Do not cancel these when you are busy. Reschedule them, because a cancelled one-on-one tells the person exactly where they rank.
Managing former peers
If you were promoted from within the team, say so directly to your friends: the relationship has a new element, you will be fair to everyone, and some information can no longer be shared. Stop joining in complaints about the company, since a gripe from a manager is heard as policy. Expect one colleague to have wanted your job. Talk with that person early, acknowledge it plainly and find them work that matters.
New obligations
You now act for the employer in a legal sense. If an employee tells you about harassment, discrimination, a safety problem, a medical condition or a need for leave, you generally cannot keep it between the two of you, and you should take it to human resources promptly. Learn the company's procedures for leave, accommodation, discipline and pay before you need them. Never promise a raise, a promotion or job security that you lack the authority to deliver.
Tip Ask your company for management training in your first quarter, and find a manager two or three years ahead of you to compare notes with monthly. Hardly anyone is taught this job before being handed it.
