As part of my org’s FHL (fix hack learn) week, I wanted to explore Management training for Non-managers. I found a great learning path on LinkedIn Learning called “Become a Manager“. Here are a few lessons so far from the copious notes I’ve been taking.

• Impact of the team
  • “Make the shift from me to we“
  • Important perspective for managers as well as principal or higher individual contributors (IC)
• Transition plans
  • If you are moving from IC to manager (or between management roles), define transition plans before and during changes
• Communications
  • Communicate more often than you may think you need to.
  • Build relationship with team members (1:1s, recognize wins / failures as a team, etc.)
  • Share constructive feedback in private but in a positive manner
• Delegate tasks / projects
  • Delegate strategically, even if it challenges a person
  • Ensure team has the clarity, training, and support to succeed
• Civility and candor
  • When communicating, have a balance of civility (empathy) and candor (directness)
  • Without candor, communication lacks substance and manager may be seen as just “a nice person”
• Feedback
  • When sharing feedback, avoid generalities (ex. “I know you can be a better salesperson”)
  • Be concrete and give examples (ex. “I’m confident you can increase sales by X% next quarter to show you are improving as a salesperson”)
  • Think SMART goals to create clarity
• Decision making style
  • Share your decision making style ahead of time so team knows what to expect
  • Styles
    • Autocratic – Manager makes decision and informs team
    • Collaborative – Seek input from team then make decision
    • Democratic – Team makes the decision
  • If using Autocratic or Collaborative, explain your decision afterwards (if appropriate) and stick to decision
• Integrity
  • Fairness relates to equal opportunities, not necessarily equal outcomes or distributions
  • Share credit widely as well as pains / failures
• Authenticity
  • Confidence is projected through what you say, body language, etc.
  • Competence is demonstrated through work you produce
  • Being Authentic = open, humble, show humanity, and always “model the way”
  • Promote your employees more than yourself
• Lieutenant / 2nd in command
  • Informal relationship for someone who can be your stand-in when needed
  • Shares feedback, mobilizes support, can take opposing perspective (plays devil’s advocate), and potential candidate for succession plan
  • They are not:
  • A clone of you, a “yes person”, nor an enforcer of manager’s commands
• Resiliency
  • Understand how to get back up when knocked down
    • (I call this “filling your cup up after being drained” or “energizing your batteries”)
  • Diet, exercise, and sleep are basics to take care of yourself
  • Proactively reflect on yourself / team
    • (here is my personal monthly retrospective that I’ve been using for 4+ yrs now: http://aka.ms/btjmonthlyretro)
  • Choose to spend time with other resilient, positive, and successful
• Take notes
  • Easier to refer back to what was discussed / decided
  • Can be shared with others asynchronously

This post is only a partial copy of my notes from ~2hrs of training, but as you can see, writing / recording things helps for re-enforcing concepts but also being able to share afterwards.

I have more courses to complete in the learning path and will try to share out notes in a later post. Feel free to share in the comments other recommended training in the “management for non-managers” space.

-Frog Out