The transition to a manager is not difficult

"I had no idea what my new job was going to do. I walked in jokingly because I was promoted, and I had no idea what principles and methods should be followed. After the first day I feel like I've hit a stone wall."

This new manager must be familiar to anyone who has been a manager before. In such a state of incompetence, new managers often find that even if they are caught up in trivial matters and cannot rest, they will still attract dissatisfaction from excellent subordinates and dissatisfaction from their superiors, and their performance will also be affected. How miserable and miserable!

Who am I? what should i do?

"First Year in Office" is a book that guides business leaders on how to transform into professional managers, and can successfully answer the above two questions posed by new managers. The author of this book is Linda A. Hill, a professor at Harvard Business School. Hill did extensive research on the experiences of 19 new managers in their first year in office and wrote this book, which, in addition to describing "what can be done" and "what it is like" to be an effective manager, also "How to be a manager like that" gives his own advice. A large number of quotes from the parties and the method of analyzing the problem from multiple angles make this book remarkable in terms of practicality and readability.

Perspective psychology through self-reporting

When the author talks about how to know himself, he directly quotes a story told by a new manager: "Since I was sensible, I have never lost my temper with others like this, even if there are And only to my family. But, in my first month as a manager, I was able to yell louder than anyone else. My reaction was just inexplicable, I couldn't control myself." (p101) By telling the story like this , the new manager's mentality trajectory on the career path is clear at a glance.

There are three advantages to writing this way. The first is to prove the author's research basis and the source of the recommendations, making the book's analysis and conclusions are quite scientific. Secondly, because the fundamental transformation of individual contributors and managers is the transformation from managing affairs to managing people, it is also a process of integrating various skills and knowledge, and constantly experiencing failures and learning. Managers in the book describe their own experiences with their new careers, and in fact reveal to readers that the transition to being a manager is more than just acquiring competencies and building relationships. A successful transition of identity is actually a transition of learning to think, feel and evaluate like a manager. The transition from a good salesman to a competent manager is not only a test, but even a painful experience for many people.

Third, for readers who want to take advice from this book, they can also gain a little "sympathy" from other people's experiences, and their own experiences are by no means special. Such encouragement and support should not be easily obtained from bosses and friends.

Describe the change from multiple perspectives

The readability of "First Year in Office" is on the one hand because there are a lot of psychological narratives from managers in the book, and it tracks and describes his psychology according to the development of time, but also because The book records the thoughts and opinions of his subordinates, supervisors, peers, etc. on him, thus describing the development process of the new manager from different perspectives. If you draw a quadrant diagram, the horizontal axis is time, and the vertical axis is the interpersonal environment of the new manager. This book uses mentality as the content and has made a rich description of the four quadrants.

Let's first look at the changes on the horizontal axis. Over time, the new manager's perception of himself, his job, and the people around him changes. For example, the book compares how managers describe their management roles one month after taking the job and one year later. A month later, managers said, "70% of my job is sales and leading sales. If you said I started management because I was tired of sales, you'd be wrong, I love sales. 10% is Obedience. 50% problem solving. 5% interpersonal and consulting work. 5% administration. And 5% recruiting. Do these add up to 100%?" (p45)

After 15 months, Managers' job descriptions changed to: "Human development is my main task: 50% people development; 30% leading sales; 10% administration; and 10% obedience -- no good Fruit to eat."

As the book says, "the first year of management is a period of profound reflection and rapid personal development" (p4). By doing ongoing interviews with the new manager, his mentality at every moment in the work process is fully revealed. In the process of knowing self-breaking self-recognizing self, readers can easily read the transformation accomplished by the new manager.

Let's look at the vertical axis again. Managing relationships is one of the tasks new managers face. In the book, the author not only devotes an entire chapter to telling managers how to deal with subordinates, but also reminds new managers by interviewing managers' superiors and peers that managing their superiors and peers is equally important. Through multi-angle interviews, new managers need to solve problems in role transition, such as how to gradually change their understanding of their roles and responsibilities, how to learn to establish effective working relationships with subordinates, how to utilize organizational and personal resources, and how to deal with the transition The issues of stress and emotion in the process are thoroughly addressed, and more importantly, they illustrate what it means to start a new identity.

The First Year in Office (United States), by Linda A. Hill, the second printing of the first edition of the Machinery Industry Press, February 2005, 33 yuan.

The author writes and edits for CEConline Magazine.