Thoughts on management: For aspiring, new and continuously growing managers

A common career aspiration that I hear is "I want to be a manager". Management is often viewed as a quick path toward career growth through increased scope and responsibilities. But management is a whole lot more than that. It's about caring for your team, communicating openly, sharing a clear vision, establishing team culture, engaging with partners, and a whole lot more. One leader has summed it up to me as helping your team achieve their maximum potential.

I've broken down this post into 3 sections, for aspiring, new and continuously growing managers:

Aspiring managers

Before you dive into the joys and challenges of management, I recommend trying it out first. Here are some activities you can take on to develop management skills, and gain relevant experience:

• Mentor: Being a mentor is a good way to develop empathy for the various challenges people face and practice coaching.
• Manage a vendor team: Managing vendors provides experience articulating clear requirements, establishing accountability, providing feedback, tracking deliverables and celebrating success.
• Lead a student project: We often host projects with university programs looking to gain enterprise experience. This is another good way to gain experience managing a team project.
• Manage an intern: Managing an intern involves many of the same scenarios that you would face managing a university hire full-time employee. This includes onboarding, defining project scope, communicating expectations, providing feedback, tracking progress, discussing career goals, and celebrating success.
• Interviewing: Interviewing is a great activity to act as a representative of the team, share your passion about the work, provide a positive interview experience, and demonstrate through your evaluation that you understand what it takes to be successful in the team.
• Team culture and process initiatives: Stepping in to lead team initiatives demonstrates that you're invested in making the team a great place to work. Similarly, stepping up and leading improvements to team processes shows the additional value that you'll bring to the leadership team.

Sometimes people find it challenging to fit in these extra activities. However, given that management involves unpredictable demands, it's important to be at a point where you're efficient enough with your work and able to scale as new demands arise.

Through doing these activities, you'll also get a sense for whether you enjoy management, and whether it comes naturally to you. Fortunately companies have been investing further in individual contributor career paths too, so both are viable options.

Choosing managers: As an org leader, choosing who to put into a manager position is a huge decision. A good manager can propel the team to new levels. An ineffective manager can create a situation that gets dicey to unwind. Here are a few things that I consider:

• Does this person act as a role model for how to go about our work, such that they'll be a good example for coaching others to do the same?
• Has this person demonstrated a true interest and passion for helping others and the team (or are they narrowly focused on their own career)? Does the team look up to this person, and come to him/her for help and mentoring?
• Has this person demonstrated good judgment, values, and integrity, such that they can be trusted to do the right thing when new scenarios arise (and when leading 1:1s)?
• Does this person represent the team well outside of the organization, and have the ability to influence other managers when needed to convey their point of view?

Management is an amazing experience, but also requires hard work. Choosing someone who is truly passionate about the role and has natural instincts about how to treat others, can make all the difference.

Here are two common paths to transition into a manager role:

• Peer to manager: Develop from an individual contributor to a manager in your current team
• Manager to a new team: Join a new team as a manager

New managers

Let's say the day comes and you're asked to be a manager. Congratulations! Now, what should you do to set up for success in your new role?

First steps: Whether you're a new manager, or an existing manager starting to lead a new team, you'll want to get off to a good start. The first step is to meet with your team. Meet as a group to introduce yourself and the team charter plans. Meet one-on-one to have a more personalized discussion about what this new structure means for each individual on the team. It's important to have a deep understanding of your team members' passions, career goals, strengths, growth areas, joys, and dislikes, in order to align opportunities appropriately.

Logistics: As you set out with your team, there are a number of logistics you'll want to quickly set up, including team meetings, 1:1s with your directs and skip level reports (if applicable), as well as 1:1s with your manager, peers and key partners. Create a collaborative space for team documents, and establish a place for informal team chats. Choose a team name, email alias and security group, and enlist your team in the process to make it their own. Host team offsites and socials on a cadence that works for your team.

90 day plan: As you come into role, you'll want to put together an onboarding plan. There are a number of 90 day plan templates available online. The exact template isn't as important as the fact that you take the time to think about it, and set some near term goals. One thing I like about the example here is that it describes the first 30 days as being a sponge. It's important for the team to gain the perspectives and ideas from a new leader, however it's also good for the leader to understand why things were done as they were, before changing everything.

Introduce yourself: Include an action item in your onboarding plan to introduce yourself to the team. Here are a couple examples, from Julie Zhuo and Isaac Hepworth. The idea is to help the team get to know you as a person, convey perspectives such as how you measure success, and share expectations including communication style. The larger your team grows, these are key aspects to clearly articulate in order to scale. Communicating these points sets your team up for success in working with you, rather than leaving it to guess work.

If you're new to management, I recommend finding a current manager to be your mentor. There are a lot of new scenarios that you'll face, and a seasoned manager can help you through the pros and cons of various approaches, so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel.

If you're an existing manager starting to lead a new team, I recommend identifying an onboarding buddy. This is someone who can help you quickly learn who the decision makers are, share context, and bring you into key conversations. The meetings can be informal, over lunch - whatever works best.

Current managers

Inspire a shared vision: Another key aspect for onboarding (and beyond) is clearly articulating the team vision. Painting a picture of what success looks like is an important activity to help the team come together to achieve it. Athletes and business professionals who practice visualization techniques are more likely to achieve their goals, and the same is true for teams. When doing so, make it clear how each individual's work accrues to the team goals, as well as how your team connects with the broader organization. This way, each team member has a strong sense of their alignment. OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are an established approach to drive this alignment through data-driven goals. Consider how your team can best contribute to the company's objectives.

Leadership practices: One of my favorite leadership trainings over the years was the Leadership Challenge. I really identify with the five practices from their framework, which are simple concepts, yet good reminders to check back over time and ensure you're investing in each of these areas:

Situational leadership: You'll often hear that you should adapt for leadership style for each individual on your team. Situational Leadership II offers a useful framework with a couple of dimensions to consider, so you can vary your style appropriately. The overall idea is that depending upon each individual's skills and experience for a current project, he/she may want more or less direction. For example, a college hire starting his/her first project will want a clear checklist about how to get started and be successful along the way. On the other hand, if you give a checklist to a more experienced member of your team, they may find it demotivating to be "micro managed" with such specific steps. For the experienced team member, you'll want to provide context for why the project is important, ensure they have the resources to lead it successfully, help remove any roadblocks, and then give them the autonomy to come up with a great solution.

In Drive, Daniel Pink explains that autonomy, mastery and purpose are the three elements of true motivation. Sharing a vision, and providing the appropriate level of supportive (vs directive) leadership are two things that managers can do to foster this kind of environment.

Coaching: As a manager, at some point you will learn the technique of coaching. It's amazing how you can help lead someone to solve their own challenges, by asking the right questions. I do find this to be a useful practice, and apply it in mentoring. However, at times it can also be frustrating to have your manager ask rather than tell, when they have a specific approach in mind, but give vague guidance. Some team members would prefer their manager to "lead in front" and be more specific about what they would like to see. In this case, I prefer to say "here's one approach we could take", but still give the team the opportunity to come up with their own solution. It's exciting to see what new ideas team members find.

Hiring: Hiring is probably worthy of it's own post, but suffice it to say that who you choose to bring on to the team is high on the list of important activities, right up there with who you decide to make a manager. Who you have on the team today may not represent who you should hire tomorrow, since you'll want to consider how each new hire can complement the current team and allow you to achieve more together. At the same time, it's good to be aware of the qualities of your most successful team members, to help foster a high performing squad. In the interview, you should have a combination of questions, evaluating how the individual would perform in the current environment, as well as learning about what they've done in the past.

Delegation: Rationally, it seems obvious that as a manager of a team, you're not expected to do all the work yourself, but rather to divide it amongst the team. At the same time, you might feel bad asking others to take on work. Turn this upside down and think about how you can use delegation to create opportunities and recognition for your team members. Align tasks with individuals' career goals and interests. Finally, if you're going to delegate something, do it quickly so that your team member has the maximum time to respond. Make sure the goals and expectations are clear so that the individual will be set up for success, and be able to deliver efficiently.

Role model: Actions are much stronger than words. If you're trying to create a culture in your team, make sure to live it yourself and lead by example, rather than just preaching the concepts. This shows you truly believe in it. Similarly, if you're going to ask everyone on your team to follow certain practices (training, work item tracking, publishing, etc), make sure to do them yourself. This is important, from an integrity standpoint, and will also help you understand at a deeper level what you're asking of them.

Caring for your team: Each team member should feel valued, respected, seen and heard by their team and manager, as both an employee and a person. This creates a safe and supportive environment where everyone belongs and can do their best work. When a team member shares that something is on their mind, treat it with the utmost priority. When the team reaches a milestone or a team member experiences a life event, take the opportunity to celebrate and bring the team together.

Retrospectives: Maintain self awareness for how things are going in the team. Ask what's working, what's not, and how things can improve going forward. (Or, use the "I like, I wish, I wonder" framework.) Quickly act on any issues or blockers that are getting in your team's way.

Prioritization: Engage in periodic planning to determine the "big rocks" you and the team will pursue. Clarify what success looks like at the end of the period. Leverage end-of-sprint reviews and user stories to stay on track. Help say "no" to other asks that come up, which deter from the team's focus areas.

Partnerships: Determine who the key partners are to achieve your team's goals. Establish relationships, rhythms and shared priorities with the corresponding leaders.

Team member career development

One of the great responsibilities as a manager is ensuring the career development for your employees. At Microsoft, impact is evaluated based on performance relative to opportunities, and managers can play a key role in enabling those opportunities, especially at the earlier levels. It's important to have a clear vision of what the career path looks like for each member of your team, based on their goals, interests, strengths and growth areas. Leverage 1:1s to stay in sync with team members on their paths, and then write it out at the appropriate cadence as part of the talent cycle. Dedicating time for this topic at 1:1s (and ad hoc) is important to have timely conversations throughout the year, however there's an additional impact that occurs from writing it down.

Giving feedback: Feedback is a key activity to help your team members grow. Many managers shy away from providing feedback because it's uncomfortable - essentially, they feel "rude" doing so. However, I would propose that it's rude to hold the feedback in and *not* share it. By staying in sync with team members throughout the year, there should be no surprises at end-of-year career and rewards conversations. Timely feedback also gives the employee the maximum amount of time to address it and move it. If you're coming from a place of trust, where your team member knows and feels how invested you are in their success, feedback will simply come across simply as "tips" and "advice" to help the individual achieve their best. Ensuring that you're recognizing all the amazing contributions throughout the year is a good way to establish this healthy foundation. The ideal ratio for praise to criticism is 5.6 to 1 (that is, 5-6 positive comments for each constructive comment). The book Thanks for the Feedback provides frameworks and techniques to have meaningful feedback conversations. This includes letting the other person know you'd like to give feedback, being clear (rather than "wishy washy"), and ensuring that the other person has an opportunity to respond. First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently is another good resource on this topic. It advocates for growing employees by capitalizing on their strengths, rather than over-focusing on filling in their growth areas.

Performance reviews: Promotions and rewards are an important way to recognize employee contributions. People discussions provide a forum to share the career paths for your team members, gather feedback, and gain support from others for future opportunities. They're also a good opportunity to clarify what contributions the organization values, and share that information as broadly as possible within the organization. In order to have a productive people discussion, create a common template to discuss the performance of people across the division, clarify in advance who and what will be discussed, and ensure that all managers have clear pre-work to prepare for the meeting. At the start of the meeting, remind everyone of the ground rules for the discussion, and then stay accountable during the discussion. For example, below are biases that we remind ourselves to avoid:

Management in Tech

Here are a few corporate frameworks to consider, from Microsoft, Google and Amazon, regarding what makes a good manager. Many of these concepts were covered above, however it can be helpful to see them summarized in this format:

Microsoft

Manager responsibilities:

• Modeling: Live the culture, values, and leadership principles. Share your management philosophy with your team and make it real through your words and actions.
• Coaching: Enable others’ performance. Build management skills by completing your learning path and development opportunities.
• Caring: Empower others to discover, connect, and grow. Have healthy, candid conversations (Connects, Perspectives, 1:1)

Leadership principles: Create clarity, generate energy, deliver success

Company values: Integrity, Respect, Accountability

Google

Google's "project Oxygen" researched the characteristics of great managers, and used the results to establish this guide:

Amazon

Another good reference is Amazon's 14 leadership principles: Customer Obsession, Ownership, Invent and Simplify, Are Right A Lot, Learn and Be Curious, Hire and Develop the Best, Insist on the Highest Standards, Think Big, Bias for Action, Frugality, Earn Trust, Dive Deep, Have Backbone - Disagree and Commit, Deliver Results.

Additional resources

Here are some great books on management. I strongly recommend these for any current or aspiring manager, to reflect on your current approaches, from time to time.

• The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
• The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You
• Leaders Eat Last and Start with Why
• Drive
• Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
• First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
• Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High

While I haven't personally taken these, LinkedIn and edX have some relevant courses as well: Aspiring Manager, People Management & Coaching and Developing Employees.

Conclusion

In this post, we've covered a number of scenarios and approaches to consider as part of management. There are probably more that I will remember to share in the future, and others that I will continue to learn over time. Every manager ultimately develops his or her personal leadership style. This will vary leader to leader, but will always feel "right" to your authentic self. In the end, if you stick to what's right for your team and what's best for the customer, you can't go wrong. I wish you the best on your leadership journey, wherever it may take you!