LearnaBytes

This week’s focus is on Developing New Managers. A lot of first-line managers will have stories to tell about how they were dumped into the thick of managing a team without any preparation and the struggles and challenges they had to go through before finding their feet. The good thing is, great managers are made and not born. But it’s still not brilliant being thrown into a role you are not prepared for.

Julio Zhuo who wrote the focus book for this week titled, The Making of a Manager, writes this about her experience of being thrown into the deep end of management with no experience or preparation:

I remember the meeting when my manager asked me to become a manager. It was unexpected, like going for your daily run and tripping over a pirate chest. Oh, I thought, how intriguing. We were sitting in a ten-person conference room, kitty-corner from each other. “Our team is growing,” my manager explained. “We need another manager, and you get along with everyone. What do you think?”…… It was only later, walking out of the room, that I thought about the details of what she had said, “I got along with everyone. Surely there was more to management than that. How much more? I was about to find out.

I’m sure most people don’t get their first management role that way, but the experience you go through in that first new role may be similar. Until you start a management role you don’t know what it is really like to be a manager and you only start finding out when you are doing the job.

So, here is how we will explore ‘developing new managers’ this week:

• Tuesday’s post will be a bite-sized virtual training activity that can be used to run a short session for new and first-line managers. It will focus on defining management and exploring three things managers think about all day. The title of this virtual activity is – THE WHAT AND WHY OF MANAGEMENT.
• Wednesday’s post will be an introduction to a great book on management by Julio Zhuo, a former senior manager at Facebook. The book is – The Making of a Manager. I will also share a 1-page summary of one lesson from the book.
• Thursday’s post will be a video titled – ’11 Habits of Highly Effective Managers’
• I am currently going through an online virtual facilitation course, so on Friday, I will share with you some of the key insights I got from the course. 

I really hope you find this week’s posts valuable. Thank you and have a great day.