[Book] The making of a manager
The first time is always hard. It’s funny how so many great lessons from books suddenly seem to vanish when you’re faced with the realities of the real world. Challenges have a way of being unique to who you are and where you’re at in life, and being a first-time manager is probably no exception. All those best-selling books about great managers may not always help much, because it’s almost as if they were written by authors who had already achieved great success, far from the days when they themselves were first-time managers.
Julie Zhuo, the author of “The Making of a Manager” says she wrote the book for beginners like me. This book has full of personal stories from her own journey as a junior manager at Facebook. She didn’t shy away from sharing her mistakes and the lessons she learned from them. Although I hadn’t taken on the role of 100% people manager, I am grateful that I met this book now.
Lesson 1: Getting a better outcome from a group of people working together
Julie boils down the manager’s role to this central idea. There are countless ways to describe a manager’s responsibilities — including building a team that works together, reaching the team and supporting their career goals, and creating efficient processes. But, according to Julie, these descriptions don’t quite capture the essence of a manager’s ultimate role.
At the heart of it all lies the pursuit of a better outcome. In practice, it’s probably about setting a clear goal and adapting your tasks and methods to the specific needs of your team and the situation at hand.
Lesson 2: You must trust people, or life becomes impossible.
Trust is undoubtedly crucial, but how does one balance trust with achieving a better outcome? Is micromanagement always detrimental? Drawing from my own experience, I’ve found that while trusting your team and their output is essential, being aware of the details is also necessary. For instance, when working with team members who may lack experience within the organization or the project domain, close and frequent communication is often needed to ensure their efforts align with the overall goal.
According to Julie, the key to successful people management is being a leader who can trust, share problems with, and seek help from. Julie shared her self test for assessing the level of trust within her team: A few weeks of “everything is just fine” may be a sign that trust-building efforts are needed.
Lesson 3: Hiring is a long-term process.
According to Julie, hiring a great leader is fundamentally about building and maintaining relationships. This means continuously cultivating your network to ensure you have access to the best talent. This concept of prioritizing relationships over immediate problem-solving is echoed in other books I’ve read. For example, one of my favorite reads from last year, “The Trusted Advisor,” emphasized the significance of relationships in achieving success. I’m struck by the importance of investing time and effort in nurturing relationships with others. Not only does it contribute to successful hiring, but it also fosters a strong foundation for other roles in collaboration.
Lesson 4: Reference checks matter the most.
There are three primary sources of information about candidates: resumes, interviews, and reference checks. She asserts that reference checks hold the most value in determining the suitability of a candidate for the position. When conducting reference checks, she recommends seeking honest feedback and paying close attention to whether the reference would be willing to work with the candidate again — a positive indicator of the candidate’s potential.
Reflecting on my own experiences, I’ve noticed that negative references are rare. While some references may share areas for improvement or weakness, these don’t always raise red flags. It makes me wonder how others handle the reference check process and what techniques they use to uncover valuable insights about candidates.
