Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership

Becoming a Manager

New managers must learn how to lead others rather than do the work themselves, to win trust and respect, to motivate, and to strike the right balance between delegation and control. It is a transition many fail to make. This book traces the experiences of nineteen new managers over the course of their first year in a managerial capacity. Reveals the complexity of the transition and analyzes the expectations of the managers, their subordinates, and their superiors. New managers describe how they reframed their understanding of their roles and responsibilities, how they learned to build effective work relationships, how and when they used individual and organizational resources, and how they learned to cope with the inevitable stresses of the transformation. They describe what it was like to take on a new identity. Two themes emerge: first the transition from individual contributor to manager is a profound psychological adjustment--a transformation; second, the process of becoming a manager is primarily one of learning from experience. Through trial and error, observation and interpretation, the new managers learned what it took to become effective business leaders. A paperback version is available.