First-Time Manager: Guidance from 5 Professionals

Introduction

In my last article, “Preparing for A Management Job: 3 Ways to Get Started”, I talked about ways to prepare for your first management job. In this article, I’m going to explore how first-time managers take on those roles and adapt to them. 

This is the most ambitious piece I’ve written since I launched MyManagementMentor. It is longer than every other article I’ve published but contains less of my opinions.

For this article, I interviewed five experienced managers that I worked for, or with, during my career. I wanted their perspectives on the challenges and opportunities that a first-time manager will confront.  Each of them told me about their first management job, the big problems they encountered, and some of the lessons they learned throughout their careers.  They also offered some guidance for anyone taking their first management role today.

My colleagues shared a wealth of knowledge that I am excited to present to you here.

Let’s get started.

The Five Managers

To begin, let me introduce my five colleagues.  In alphabetical order by last name, they are:   

I’m excited to share the insights from each of these talented managers.  They have been generous in sharing their knowledge.  If you’re considering a move into a management role, you will find good advice below.  If you are currently in a management job, you will probably find similarities between their experiences and your own.  I’m sure you all will find some actionable ideas in their comments.

What was your first management job?

I began my conversation with each of the managers by asking about their first management jobs and the challenges they faced.  

Scott Nowling worked for Cummins Inc. for eight years as a programmer, business analyst and project manager before he took a job as an IT Manager for what was then known as the Industrial Business Unit.  In that role he led a team of eight people that supported the Marketing and Sales groups.  

Scott said that one of the most challenging things about this job was getting to know his employees on a professional as well as personal level.  He learned, he said, that “in order to be a good manager, and a good leader of people, you need to know that every individual is different. They have different motivators, they have different needs. They have different communication styles, they have different backgrounds.”  Learning how to understand people as individuals and not make assumptions about them, Scott said, required an investment of time, but was a key skill that has helped him throughout his career.  

After six months on the job, Scott faced a new challenge – his manager left for a year-long sabbatical.  Scott was put in charge of the entire business unit IT group, reporting to the CIO and now interacting with members of the executive team as peers.  (More on how he handled those relationships in a moment.)

Chris Sanchez’ first management job was as an IT Service Desk Supervisor at a small computer services company.  He was promoted from within the team and faced a common challenge for many first-time managers – managing people who were formerly his peers.  “It’s going from your co-workers being your friends to now being your friend’s boss”, he said.  He was fortunate that it was a stable team, with four other people who were skilled at their jobs.  “It was probably more uncomfortable for me”, he said.  “To them, it was really no different, because as long as they got their work done, the relationship more or less stayed the same.”

Chris faced many of the same challenges as most new managers, including learning how to do one-on-one meetings, conducting performance reviews, and even having to fire one of his friends.  He said he received great support from a mentor who helped him learn how to create a positive team environment. 

Melanie Sandlin’s first management job began with a tap on the shoulder late one afternoon.  At the time, Melanie was working at Cummins Inc. as a web developer and also doing production support work.  She was approached by the Executive Director in her organization, a man “many, many layers above me” who asked her to come to his office.  When she got there, she saw an org chart drawn on the chalkboard.  (Yes, we had chalkboards until the early 2000’s.)  He told her that he was forming a new team to create IT solutions and he wanted her to lead it.  She immediately had two concerns.  First, it would mean giving up a technical role that she enjoyed.  But also, “What are my friends, my peers, who I have to lead now, going to think?”  (More on how she handled those relationships below.)

She agreed to take the job, but asked for two things:  First, she requested that the Executive Director assign a specific senior manager as her mentor.  She said, “I just thought that in order to be successful, I know I’m going to need help.  I’ll need someone to turn to.”  

Second, she asked to name the team.  “This was a brand new thing and they didn’t know what to call it.  I wanted to help the team have an identity.”

Sarvant Singh was two years out of college, working for Tata Steel in India, when he became a first-time manager, leading a small team that was part of a large ERP system implementation.  He had two employees.  Very quickly he recognized that he needed to change his focus.  He told me, “When you’re an individual contributor, it’s all about focusing on your work, and getting it done as quickly as possible. That is the measure of success. But when you’re leading, your focus has to shift towards people. That is where I struggled initially and that’s where I learned the most. 

Sarvant said he also had to adjust his perceptions of speed.  “When you are managing people, there are some things that just take time. Changing software code is easy and there’s instant gratification because you immediately can see the result. But when it comes to having your people adjust, that’s a different ball game altogether. You may be in for weeks or months worth of discussion.”

Debbi Young was also just a few years out of college when she started her first management job with the Delco Moraine division of General Motors.  She was responsible for a small team of three people working on a new MRP system being developed in-house.  (This was in the mid-1980’s, before “enterprise software” was widely available.)  One of her employees, an intern, was also the favorite nephew of a division vice president.  The intern had been steered toward a career in programming by his uncle, but the young man had no talent for it.  Debbi said, “As much as he tried, he couldn’t determine how to approach resolving a programming problem. He simply wasn’t an analytical thinker.  He was much more of a creative type, a relationship guy.”  

Debbi initially had some self-doubt about the intern’s performance, wondering “Is it me?  Am I just not doing something right?” She tried different approaches, but nothing worked and it became clear that the intern simply wasn’t right for the role. She said she recognized “it just was a lose-lose scenario trying to force him to do something that he simply couldn’t do. It wasn’t a matter of him not trying, he simply couldn’t do it. His career success was going to be in a completely different area.”

Debbi had a hard conversation with the intern, who acknowledged that he wanted to do something different.  She was able to give him assignments that more closely fit his skills and interests and that allowed him to demonstrate his innate talents.

Debbi also faced a problem with an older employee who resisted reporting to a young woman and even said she was “taking work away from fathers who needed to support their families”.  (More about that in the next section.)

Dealing with two common challenges

The stories my colleagues tell about their first management jobs illustrate two of the most common challenges that first-time managers face – managing former peers and managing older, more experienced employees.  Here is more about how they handled those situations.

Managing former peers

Chris Sanchez approached this challenge at both an individual level and at a team level.  With individuals, he made it a point to conduct frequent one-on-one meetings.  He said he tried to balance the conversations by focusing on both personal topics as well as professional ones.  

He told me, “We’re all human beings, we’re not robots.  When you develop that sort of hybrid personal / professional relationship, I feel you get more done.  There’s that level of openness and transparency, you know.  Just doing that consistently makes things much more productive.” 

When working with his entire team, Chris said he encouraged team members to ask questions and voice opinions.  He said, “I’m not afraid to be wrong.  I don’t think I’m always right.  Just because I’ve done something 10 ways, and it worked, doesn’t mean there’s not a better way.  I want to encourage my team to prove there’s a better way, because that’s what innovation is all about.”

Melanie Sandlin had a unique attitude she took into her initial one-on-one meetings with her former peers.  She said she tried to put herself in the shoes of the employee, and asked herself “How would I want to be treated?  What would I want to hear?  How awkward must this be for them?”  Having worked with all her team members as a peer, she knew their skills and told them “I’m not going to get in the way of what you’re good at”.  She said she didn’t want anyone to feel threatened by the possibility of sudden change, emphasizing “You’re good at what you do. Just keep doing what you’re so good at.”

Melanie was also straightforward with her team about her own lack of experience as a manager and engaged them in a discussion of how they would be successful as a team.  She told me, “I wanted everyone to know I needed them and that I wasn’t going to come in with all the answers. I think just trying to be open about it. Saying ‘I’m new at this, too, and I need you guys’ help’ in the beginning helped break the ice and navigate it. I made it really clear,  ‘I’ve never done this before, but we’re going to figure this out. And that’s okay’.” 

Managing older, more experienced employees

When Debbi Young became a first time manager, she was 25 years old, but looked much younger.  “I probably looked like I was 12”, she told me.  She was excited to have an experienced employee assigned to her team, until he reacted with “I’m not gonna report to that little girl!”  He said he had kids older than Debbi.  

Initially she was taken aback and unsure of how to handle the situation.  She sought advice from a mentor who advised her to approach the problem head on.  He told her “Why are you even questioning it?  You were put in this position, so do what you need to do. You know, that’s his problem, not your problem. Respect him, but work it out.”  

Over the course of several weeks, Debbi and her employee had multiple conversations.  She made an effort to get to know him, asking about his past roles, his experience, and things that were important to him.  She asked him for his insights about challenges he had at work and how the new system they were developing would address them.  She explained how she saw his role fitting into the team and contributing to the success of the program and asked for his feedback and concerns.  Finally, they agreed on a set of specific goals and a plan for how to address them.  

Debbi said that not only did her approach work in the short term, but it helped her establish a good relationship with her employee that lasted well beyond the time they worked together.

Scott Nowling also faced challenges with older employees when his responsibilities expanded early in his first management role.  As the new interim IT leader for his business unit, Scott now had several very senior people reporting to him on a dotted-line basis.  These individuals had broad responsibilities for large IT organizations or programs.  Several of them reported directly to the business unit president.  Scott told me he approached these senior people with an attitude of respect, and a desire to build partnerships.  “I wanted them to understand that I valued their knowledge, their opinions, and their experience”, he said.  But he also made it clear that he had responsibilities of his own and would have to make decisions that affected their areas.

Scott recalled an initial meeting with an Executive Director who was leading a major program.  The ED opened the conversation by asking “Who are you?”  During their first few conversations, the ED was dismissive, listening, but basically responding, “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” 

But after a couple of meetings, Scott clearly articulated his expectations.  He said, “Hey, look, at the end of the day, the CIO expects me to have some oversight over this budget, over this program, over this initiative. I’m not running it, you’re running it.  But I need you to give me some information.  We need to be open. Because I have a job to do. So while I respect you, I still have responsibilities to lead and to contribute to the organization and to represent that. You’ve got to allow me to do my job and I’ll allow you to do your job. And we’ll get along just fine.” 

Scott said this approach worked because it clarified responsibilities, set expectations, and emphasized their partnership without being threatening.

What Would You Do Differently Today?

I asked each manager, “If you were starting over as a first-time manager today, knowing what you now know, what would you do differently?”  I was very interested to hear the common themes that emerged from their answers.  Here are some of their thoughts.     

Focus on People First

Scott responded that he has changed his management style significantly over the past twenty years.  Today, he said, he would spend more time with his employees as well as his business partners and customers, “really listening to what their needs are and what their wants and desires are”.  Doing that, he said, helps you collect the information you need to develop plans and deliver results.  

Along with listening, Scott also mentioned the importance of communication.  Once the plan is developed, he said, you must “communicate frequently about how you’re doing in terms of delivering on the things you’ve committed to”.  Whether it’s with your employees, stakeholders or your boss, he recommends communicating “as much as you can about what’s going on” to help get everyone involved and engaged.

Sarvant had a similar comment.  He told me that if he were starting over today, he would “turn the model completely upside down”.  Instead of focusing on the work, he would “Focus on building relationships. Focus on people first.  Getting to know them, getting to know what motivates them. Finding out why they are where they are in their careers.”  After that, he said, he could focus on speed, recognizing, as noted above, that everything is not always “go, go, go” when you’re managing people.

Sarvant also said that when he started his career in India in the mid-90’s, businesses were run with a more formal, command and control approach.  Today, he says, successful managers must adopt a more collaborative style.

Pay Attention to Employee Fears

Debbi said that early in her career she was aggressively trying to establish her legitimacy as a manager, saying things like, “I’m here for a good reason”.  She has learned over time that “you get much farther by really trying to seek to understand and listen and see where somebody’s coming from, and trying to find common ground”.  She says it’s especially important to understand employee concerns and fears about changes in their relationship with a new manager, their responsibilities, or other changes in the organization.

Lose the Insecurities

Like many first-time managers, Melanie found herself surrounded by a new group of peers who were more senior than her.  “It was intimidating”, she said, “and I was overly deferential and quiet at that table.”  Her manager, the ED who had promoted her, noticed her reticence. He encouraged her to become more engaged and vocal, telling her, “You know, you’re here for a reason.  We want to hear your voice.”

Melanie said she heard that same advice more than once.  If she were starting over today, she would “shed the insecurities a lot sooner” and establish her identity among her peers faster in order to be an active contributor to her new peer group.

Focus on Soft Skills

Chris said he would place greater emphasis on developing his soft skills for dealing with his stakeholders.  He told me that during his early years as a manager, his response to the problems his stakeholders reported about their systems was  “more binary, right or wrong”.  He said he learned quickly that “nothing infuriates people more than being told, ‘Well, no, it’s right here.  You’re just not doing it right.’”  

Chris said that he had attended some excellent training on soft skills early in his career, but that it took him several years to put it into practice, as he began to adopt a more customer-centric mentality.  “Particularly in technology”, he said, “it’s really a customer service industry.  You can’t argue with users.  You can’t argue with managers of users.  If there was a perceived problem, then, there was a problem.”  He learned that it was necessary for him and his team to listen carefully to the complaint and then demonstrate a solution, being careful to avoid judgments of right or wrong.

Other Lessons, Often Learned the Hard Way

Throughout our conversations, my colleagues shared numerous observations about the lessons they have learned throughout their careers.  Again, some common themes emerged.

Management Style: Don’t be a dictator

When talking about how not to manage, three of the managers specifically used the word “dictator”.  Chris provided a good illustration.  He said a mentor gave him some good advice when he took his first management job.  “The biggest thing was, ‘Don’t let it go to your head, don’t go on a power trip.  You still have to work with these people. It’s not a military situation where you’re the general now’.”   

He said he had seen that happen enough times that it was a constant reminder.  “You know, some people, they get a little bit of responsibility or a little authority, and it goes to their head.  And then they rule like dictators and nobody likes a dictator. Those managers generally don’t last long.” 

Aligning peoples’ skills to the work

Similar to Debbi’s early experience with her intern, several of the managers talked about the benefits of helping their employees get into the right roles. 

Chris said he thinks about how a person will fit in the role and in the team from the outset – during the interview process.  He said he always wants to have “the right person in the right seat” not just for the benefit of the employee, but for the good of the team.  When he conducts an interview, he emphasizes the values of his team and the direction he has set.  He said he spells it out clearly to each candidate, “This is where we’re going.  This is what we’re doing.  This is where we’re headed.  If you’re not on board with that, you’re probably not going to fit in here.”

Chris also includes members of his team in the final round of interviews for any new hire.  Getting their input helps ensure good fit within the team and has helped him maintain a positive team dynamic where people have shared values and a common commitment to the team’s objectives. 

Scott mentioned the challenge of working with highly skilled, highly motivated employees, the people he calls “superstars”.  He recalled one such employee.  “He was pretty young, very, very high energy, and didn’t really fit that well into the corporate culture.  He wanted to go, go, go all the time. He got frustrated really easily with people in the business or other people in IT when he thought they weren’t pulling their weight or moving as fast as he wanted.”  

Scott had to spend a lot of time coaching this employee.  He ultimately determined that the employee would be a better fit in another department and helped him make that move.  (The employee later left the company and became a successful entrepreneur.)  Looking back, Scott said he might have done a better job of leveraging the employee’s talent.  He told me, “You’ve got to learn how to manage the superstars. I think you have to have a few of those superstars to really get big things done.”  He compared the task to that facing coaches in professional basketball who have to channel the ego and energy of players like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant for the benefit of the overall team.  

Sarvant made a similar point about highly skilled employees.  “I always approach it from the perspective that here is someone who has a lot of experience and is probably better than me in so many aspects. Whenever I know there are strengths, there is experience, I put it to use. I let them shine and take the lead.”  But, like any good coach, he said he was also careful to identify where employees needed help and was always ready to support them.

Getting acquainted with a new team

Melanie and Sarvant were the last two people I interviewed.  During our conversation, Melanie mentioned some experiences she had when taking over a new team and later moving to a new company.  This prompted me to ask Sarvant about his experiences.  Here are some of their observations.

One of Melanie’s experiences occurred later in her career when she took a different job within Cummins as Director of IT for the Cummins Turbo Technology business unit.  She was now leading a global team, but the core of her team was located in the UK.  Within the first week of taking the job, she flew there to get acquainted.  

The UK group was a mature team, with many long serving employees.  Melanie did not know them and they did not know her.  She told me that during their initial meetings, members of the team asked very pointed questions about her experience.  She said, “I felt like I had to break out my resume and explain what qualifications I had.”  The interrogation didn’t last long, but afterwards she felt she had to demonstrate her abilities to the team.  One way she did that was by being decisive and communicating her decisions clearly.  She said “I formed opinions, right or wrong, but I know they respected the fact that I had them and shared them. They told me so.” 

The second experience Melanie told me about was when she left Cummins after 20 years to join Allegion.  In a new environment, she could not depend on having a shared understanding of the business, like she had with people in Cummins.  “When I was in Cummins, I could say something about CTT (Cummins Turbo Technologies) and people knew what that was.  Now I show up at Allegion, they don’t know what CTT is, they don’t care what CTT is, they don’t know where I come from.”  

Without the familiar cultural contexts, she often had to explain herself in greater detail.  Similar to her UK experience, she faced detailed questions from her new team.  She found they were curious about how her earlier experience translated into the new environment.  These conversations also gave Melanie a chance to ask questions of her own, which helped her better understand the similarities and differences between her old company and the new one.

When Sarvant joined Penske, he had a similar experience.  He told me, “When I was changing roles within Cummins, I was building on my existing network, building on my existing knowledge of the business, the people, and the processes.”   But as he moved to Penske, he realized, “Whatever credibility or credentials you had in the previous organization, they don’t mean much in a new company. So you really have to start from scratch.  You have to build your reputation and convey the strengths you bring to the table, almost from the beginning,” 

One of the first things he did was to conduct a team-building exercise with his employees.  He scheduled one-on-one meetings with each team member and asked them to talk about themselves and their accomplishments during their time at the company.  He said he asked them to “Talk about what makes you proud.  Talk about what makes you tick.  Why do you come to the office every day?”  

Those discussions gave him great insight into the personalities and talents of his team.  He also asked each person to share their story in a team meeting.  

This was followed by a second exercise, based on the book “Strengths Finder 2.0”¹.  He asked each employee to use the book to identify their top five strengths.  Each person then talked about their strengths with the entire team.  Sarvant found two benefits from this exercise.  First, it gave him and the other members of the team a better understanding of their teammates.  Second, it gave him the information he needed to make some reassignments to better align people with work that utilized their strengths. 

Guidance for First-Time Managers

The last question I asked each of the managers was “What advice would you give to a first-time manager today?”  Their answers covered a wide range of topics. In their comments below, you’ll hear some actionable ideas that will benefit anyone considering a management role, as well as those of us already in one. For this section, I’m going to get out of the way and let you hear directly from them.

Scott – You have to like the people part

“I never really thought I wanted to lead or manage people when I was in college, or in the first years of my career.  But then I started to gain an interest in it. It’s not necessarily for everybody, and I had a few people that I worked with in my career who said, ‘Ah, you don’t want to manage people, it’s such a headache.  You know, you’ve got to hire ’em,  You’ve got to fire ’em.  You’ve got to give ’em performance reviews.  You’ve got to do all these things on the people side of it.  It’s just, you know, kind of unpleasant.’  

And a lot of us technical people may not be well suited, or even like that part of their job.  I think if you’re going to be a manager and a leader, and you’re going to grow, you’ve got to realize that’s the core of the job. And you’ve got to like that.  If you’re doing a job you don’t like doing, you’re probably not going to enjoy it.  You’re probably not going to do very well.  And so you really need to understand and like the people part of it, because it is mostly about people. Your reflection in the organization is only as strong and only as positive as the performance of your team.

As managers, we spend a lot of time talking about how do we lead the organization?  How do we build a really strong, high performing team?  How do we lead that team every day?  How do you manage the people and support them and help them grow, help them achieve their desires, and address performance issues when you have them.  You can’t succeed as a leader if your team is not performing.

So it’s all about the people side. If you don’t like to do that sort of thing, then you may not want to go down that path. But if you really like it, or you think you’d like it, give it a shot.  Just be as genuine as you can.  Just be as open as you can.  That’s the part of my job that I really like, and after 20 some years of doing it,  it’s one of the best parts of my job.  I love the interaction every day.  And even on the days when it’s not so much fun, even through the tough discussions and tough parts. You know, you have to have those, but I really enjoy that. And if I wasn’t enjoying it, then I wouldn’t do it.”

Chris – Be nice and grow a thick skin

“Nobody ever calls you to say, ‘Hey, you’re doing awesome’. At least not very often.  I got most of my experiences in technology.  And when you’re working at an execution level, your people are really only talking to you when they have a problem. And then when you become a manager, people are only talking to you when they have a problem with you or anybody that works for you. So now you have, you know, x times the number of people that are unhappy.  And like I said earlier, the customer’s always right, at least in their minds.  So you need thick skin.  

I don’t think I was really prepared for just how pissed off some people can get over the most trivial things. That was a big one, which kind of relates to just being nice.  Again, everything is customer service based first.  

That and treat your people well.  You’re not a dictator, you know.  You want your people to respect you, not just work for you.  I always tried to get people to be invested in what we’re trying to work towards, not just be there to collect a paycheck.  Somebody that has an emotional investment in what you’re doing is going to be much more of a contributor to your team.”

Melanie – Know when to ask for help and be clear about your motivation

“A really important skill to develop early on is asking for help – when to ask for help and how to ask for help. In my early days, probably because of the insecurities. I didn’t ask for help soon enough.  You know, you’re not expected to know everything.  Nothing changes about you overnight.  And that’s okay.  I told my team, ‘I need you.  I need you to help me.’  And that’s okay. 

But then there’s all kinds of dynamics and a ton of history to whatever it is you’re doing.  Being curious about that helped me untangle it, like why might this be the way that it is?  Being a detective, asking lots of questions, and asking for help is definitely advice I would give. 

There’s a lot of things that people don’t say until you ask them.  I just think that people need help in all times, all aspects, and all facets of their careers.  And the more senior you are doesn’t mean you don’t need help any less.  You just might need different kinds of help.  And that’s okay, too.

I think people want to know what your motivations are.  I’ve learned you have to be explicit about what makes you you, what you value, and what you think success looks like.  Because, absent that, people fill it in themselves. 

And sometimes that’s not so great because of different experiences they’ve had. It’s not about you, but they’re filling in the blanks, because of maybe bad experiences they’ve had in the past, or they’re biased about certain things.  So I found that it’s important to be deliberate and explicit about what you look for, your expectations, what motivates you, and how we’re going to win together. The earlier you do that, the better.

And then sometimes that can show up in a negative way, and you think it’s about you. And it’s not about you. It’s about the fact that maybe they’ve had really terrible experiences prior to you, and they think you’re going to come in and do the same thing. That’s all they know, you know?  They’re filling it in and they don’t know any different until you tell them. You have to tell them.  That, to me, is an interesting dynamic of being a manager.”

Debbi – Set expectations, communicate clearly, and develop your people

“As a formal coach, I get this question a lot.  I have coached individuals who have a lot of experience as well as also those who are new to managing others. Just this year, one of our more experienced team members was trying to coach somebody who had a performance problem.  The manager was challenged because his coachee wasn’t doing what he considered were fundamentals. 

My advice was to make sure the coachee understood what those fundamentals were.  In other words, you need to set expectations.  You need to discuss and negotiate what the outcomes should be, what is acceptable in getting the job done. There are some guideposts that, no matter what, you have to follow.  These should be established for clarity.  There are other things where you can be more flexible.  The important thing is to find how you can measure the value of what the employee is doing.  The ‘how’ doesn’t always matter as much as the outcome.

In this particular situation, a lot of the discussion was trying to separate what was an alternate path that got you to the same or a better end versus what was something that’s just simply not acceptable behavior.  Trying to help the manager have those conversations and making sure they had a cadence where they were getting the checkpoints, getting the feedback, and keeping the communication lines open. I think that’s most important – having them set the expectations, communicate consistently, and follow up.

You can always tell the managers who helped their people grow, because they’re the ones that people want to work for.  And the people that dictate, like ‘my way or the highway’, are typically people that no one wants to work for.

Once you become a manager, you have to understand how to develop other people.  It’s not just managing, you can call it leading.  But it’s truly trying to figure out how I can help make somebody who might be very different than I am, who might have very different career aspirations than I do, and even very different likes, how do I make them successful?  I think that’s a struggle for managers at any level.  But it’s especially true in consulting, where you want the client to only see the best of your people.  But you have to give your people the chance to gain experience as well. So you need the client to see the best people, but you also need the people that you are managing to grow. You have to put them in situations where they’re stretched. And that is really, really hard for managers in consulting to figure out.

 Sarvant – Manage stress and know you make an impact

“The first advice would be just breathe. I mean, a new management job can come with a lot of stress. And I believe that a lot of people, particularly new managers, need a good coping mechanism.  That could a mentor that they can talk with.  It could be an activity which really energizes them and gives them time to think through things.  That’s extremely important. 

I know it may be surprising that I’m talking about coping with stress as the number one thing.  But I really believe that the stress in corporate America is a real issue.  There has been some focus of late, which is a welcome change.  But there is still a lot more to be done.  People shouldn’t have to make a choice between good health and a good career. You can achieve both.

One last comment.  You don’t have to be part of Doctors Without Borders, or other organizations like that, to make an impact. You are part of corporate America and you can be successful and impactful on other people right here. As a manager, you can not only impact the people you are leading in a positive way, but you can also impact their families. 

So my advice would be to not think about your role in a minimalist way.  I believe the impact your role can have is huge.  And it’s going to stay.  The experiences other people are going to have with you, as the manager, will remain with them for the rest of their lives.  I connect it to the living in the moment concept – ‘manage in the moment’.  Try to make this moment the best moment possible for you and your team. 

Conclusion

I want to thank Scott, Chris, Melanie, Sarvant, and Debbi for sharing their knowledge and experience with us. Taken together, their comments are a master class in the practice of managing people.

If you are considering a first-time manager role or if you’re early in your management career, I hope you found some encouragement and inspiration here.

As my colleagues noted, there are many challenges to be faced, but also tremendous opportunities to build relationships and have a positive impact on people. You will be continuously learning – yes, sometimes from your mistakes. But a career in management offers ample rewards, both professional and personal.

If you are an experienced manager, you may have been nodding in agreement – “Yes, been there, done that!” But I hope you also learned something new that you can apply in your own practice. I know I did.

I hope you’ll express your appreciation to our guests by leaving a comment below.

This is the last article I’ll publish in 2020. I appreciate you following along. I’ll be back in early January with some new material and more actionable ideas to help you be successful.

For now, I wish you Happy Holidays, wherever and however you celebrate them. Be safe and well.

To your success,

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Footnotes

¹  This link is direct to Amazon.com. At the time of this writing (December, 2020), I receive no affiliate payment if you buy a copy. If that changes in the future, I’ll let you know.

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