| Whenever this topic comes up or managing generally, I point to this Ask HN on the same topic from the end of 2011. I think it's gold and has served me well in my career: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3407643 Especially jbob24's comment: Forget about all that "leadership" and "management" bullshit. Seriously. When you have direct reports your primary function is to serve them. I'm not kidding - I know it sounds all squishy and kumbaya-ish but if you think about what it means to serve somebody else you'll have a really good compass to guide you through your day. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3408082 I would also add to this: do 1-on-1's and do them well. I recommend reading through this post: https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32765/what-is-... For me, a lot of what I have seen as failures of management (and organizations more broadly) seemed to boil down to manager insecurity and posturing. A manager thinking, "I have to look like a leader right now even though I'm not really sure at the moment what the right move is here," when they should be saying, "Hey, team, how can we solve this problem? What can I do to help you?" P.S. It would be interesting to learn how things turned out for endymi0n all these years later and whether that post was helpful. |