Advice for the New Program Manager

 Just got an amazing new job as a program manager? Congratulations!  Welcome!

The first thing I would say is give yourself room to grow and learn.  Give yourself room to change.  Give yourself room to get better in your program area.  Whether you've been promoted from the inside or totally new to the team, you'll need to learn all the things you aren't expected to know just quite yet.  

Never are you expected to be the expert at all things you manage, but rather, to be able to manage the experts on your team.  Your skills are in being able to use the tools of your team to be able to accomplish the goals.  Remove obstacle for your employees and insipire them to work efficiently and effectively to accomplish the tasks!

Be prepared to lead from behind.  Promote the wellness and work of your teammembers.  Help them be the best of the best in their field of expertise.  The more they succeed, the more the program succeeds.  The more the program succeeds, the greater success you have.

The day to day weight of the accomplishments will be on the shoulders of your employees and you should therefore, ensure they get their names in the spotlight and headlines whenever accolades come your way.  Alternatively, if a task fails to get accomplished within scope, budget, or time constraints, you should definitely take the burden of that failure on your shoulders.  Did the task fail because your team was overworked, understaffed, stressed, confused, have inproper skills or training?  All of those circumstance are within your control.  They own the successes, you own the failures.