Every new manager makes mistakes. The transition from doing the work to leading the people who do the work is one of the hardest shifts in a career. What separates managers who grow from those who struggle is how quickly they recognize the traps and adjust.
Here are seven of the most common ones.
1. The Micromanagement Trap
New managers often micromanage because they are anxious about outcomes they no longer control directly. You know how you would do the work, and it is hard to watch someone do it differently.
The problem is that micromanagement kills initiative. Your team stops thinking for themselves because every decision runs through you. Productivity drops. Resentment builds. Your best people start looking for the door.
How to avoid it: Define the outcome you need and let your team decide how to get there. Set clear expectations up front ("I need the proposal by Thursday with budget estimates and a timeline") and then step back. Check in on progress at agreed-upon milestones, not every hour. If the result meets your standard, the method does not matter.
2. The Feedback Avoidance Trap
Most people dislike conflict, and new managers are no exception. The temptation is to avoid giving negative feedback because it feels awkward, or because you worry about damaging the relationship.
The result is that problems go unaddressed for weeks or months until they become big enough to force a difficult conversation. By then, the employee is blindsided and the relationship is damaged anyway.
How to avoid it: Give feedback within 48 hours of the event. Use the Situation-Behavior-Impact model to keep it specific and non-personal. Start small. The more you practice, the more natural it feels. Remember: withholding feedback is not kindness. It is avoidance, and it hurts the person you are trying to protect.
3. The "Being Everyone's Friend" Trap
If you were promoted from within the team, this one is especially hard. Yesterday you were peers. Today you are the boss. It is natural to want to keep the same dynamic.
The problem arrives when you need to hold someone accountable, deliver a tough review, or make an unpopular decision. If your authority is built on friendship rather than respect, those moments become nearly impossible.
How to avoid it: You can be warm, approachable, and genuinely caring without being a friend. The shift is subtle: instead of seeking approval, focus on being fair and consistent. People will respect a manager who treats everyone equitably far more than one who plays favorites or avoids hard calls to stay popular.
4. The "I Will Just Do It Myself" Trap
When a direct report is struggling with a task, the fastest solution is to take it back and do it yourself. You know you can do it better and faster. The problem is that this approach does not scale, and it robs your team of the chance to learn.
Every time you take work back, you send two messages: "I do not trust you to do this" and "My job is to do the work, not to develop you." Neither is what you want.
How to avoid it: Instead of doing it yourself, invest the time in coaching. Walk them through your thinking. Show them what good looks like. It takes longer in the short term, but within a few weeks, they can handle it independently and you have freed up your own capacity permanently.
5. The Promotion Trap
New managers sometimes believe they need to prove they deserve the promotion by outworking everyone. They stay late, take on individual contributor work on top of management responsibilities, and measure their value by personal output.
This leads to burnout, neglected management duties, and a team that does not get the support it needs.
How to avoid it: Redefine what "good work" looks like. Your output is now your team's output. A great day as a manager might mean you unblocked two people, gave feedback that shifted someone's approach, and aligned the team on priorities for the week. None of that looks like writing code or closing deals, but it is the highest-value work you can do.
6. The Information Hoarding Trap
Some new managers hold onto information because they think it gives them power or relevance. They attend leadership meetings, learn about company strategy, and keep it to themselves.
Teams that operate without context make worse decisions. They guess at priorities, misalign their efforts, and feel disconnected from the bigger picture.
How to avoid it: Share everything you can. When you come out of a leadership meeting, spend five minutes summarizing the key takeaways for your team. When priorities shift, explain why. When you do not have the answer, say so. Transparency builds trust, and trust is the foundation of everything else.
7. The Ignoring-Your-Own-Development Trap
New managers spend so much energy developing their team that they forget about their own growth. They stop reading, stop asking for feedback, and stop reflecting on what is and is not working.
Management is a skill, and like any skill, it atrophies without practice and learning.
How to avoid it: Ask your own manager for feedback regularly. Find a peer group of other managers you can learn from. Read one management book per quarter. After difficult conversations or decisions, take ten minutes to reflect on what went well and what you would do differently. The best managers are the ones who never stop learning how to manage.
The Common Thread
All seven traps share a root cause: the instinct to keep doing what made you successful as an individual contributor. The skills that got you promoted are not the skills that will make you a great manager. The sooner you recognize that, the faster you will grow into the role your team needs you to fill.