First-time manager check-in
For: Manager & team lead
A 12-question check-in for someone in their first 6-12 months as a manager. Surfaces the patterns that make or break early management — without feeling like a performance review.
- 12 questions
- 4 dimensions
- ~4-5 min
- Self · Peer · Both
The first year of managing is hard, and most of the feedback during it is too vague to be useful ('You're doing great!') or too late to act on (the annual review). This template gets specific about the early-management patterns research has shown to matter — the doer-to-manager pivot, listening before solving, asking for help, knowing what to prioritize. 12 questions across four dimensions.
How it works
Fill it in for self-reflection, send it to your team or peers for outside perspective, or both for the comparison. Especially useful at 90 days in, when patterns start setting in but it's still early enough to course-correct.
What's inside — 12 questions across 4 dimensions
Transition
moving from doing the work yourself to enabling others to do it
Team trust
listening, presence, treating people as individuals
First decisions and priorities
what to prioritize, what to say no to, when to hold the line
Self-care under pressure
coping with the role, asking for help
The questions, in full
Every question is included below. You answer them yourself first, then send the same set to the people who've seen you work.
Transition
- Q1Rating (1-5)
This new manager has stopped doing the work themselves and started enabling others to do it.
- Q2Rating (1-5)
This new manager is honest about what they don't know yet.
- Q3Open answer
What's one thing this new manager has handled better than expected? What's one thing they're still figuring out?
Team trust
- Q4Rating (1-5)
This new manager makes time to listen before solving.
- Q5Rating (1-5)
I trust this manager to have my back when things get hard.
- Q6Rating (1-5)
This new manager treats team members as individuals, not as roles to be filled.
First decisions and priorities
- Q7Rating (1-5)
This new manager is clear about what's important right now and what isn't.
- Q8Rating (1-5)
When this manager says no to something, the reasoning is clear.
- Q9Multiple choice
How is this manager handling the shift to leadership decisions?
- — Defaulting to what they used to do as an individual contributor
- — Asking for input but slow to decide
- — Making decisions but not explaining them well
- — Striking a healthy balance — explaining the why and committing
- — They haven't really had to make hard calls yet
Self-care under pressure
- Q10Rating (1-5)
This manager seems to be coping with the role, not buried by it.
- Q11Rating (1-5)
This manager asks for help when they need it.
- Q12Open answer
What's one thing that would make this manager's job easier? Speak as if you could only tell them one thing.
The research behind these questions
Questions draw from Linda Hill's HBS research on first-time managers, Daniel Goleman on emotional intelligence, Amy Edmondson on psychological safety, Gallup's Q12 engagement framework, and decades of MBA-level case material on the doer-to-manager pivot. Each question targets observable behaviors — not vague qualities like 'leadership potential'.
References
- — Linda Hill — Becoming a Manager (HBS)
- — Daniel Goleman — Emotional Intelligence framework (HBR)
- — Amy Edmondson — The Fearless Organization
- — Adam Grant — Think Again
- — Carol Dweck — Mindset
- — Marcus Buckingham — Now, Discover Your Strengths
- — Stephen Covey — The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- — Gallup — Q12 Engagement Survey methodology
- — Jeff Bezos — Disagree and commit shareholder letter
Ready to run this round on yourself?
Sign up, pick this template, answer it about yourself, and send the same questions to the people who've been in the room with you. The gap between your view and theirs is where the actual learning lives.