The making of a manager (Julie Zhuo)- Book Summary

Thanks to Julie Zhuo for the book “The making of a manager”, It is one of the best books to read if you are starting your manager career or in your early or mid-manager career. There are many misconceptions about management for aspiring engineers who’d like to take the management path. This is a great book to add to your list.

I will here share a summary of the notes that I’ve taken while reading this book.

In this book, Julie shares her experiences and learnings regarding her transition from IC (Individual contributor) to becoming a manager. The book will guide you to understand good ways to manage/lead a team without the need for formal training. It is a must-read for aspiring managers.

Julie thought initially managers job was about:

• Have meetings with reports to help them solve their problems
• Share feedback — both positive and improvements
• Identify who should be promoted and who should be fired.

Later realized that manager's job is to:

• Build a team that works well together
• Support team members in reaching their career goals
• Create processes & practices to get work done smoothly and efficiently

The first step to being a good manager is understanding what management means

A manager is someone

• who realizes and believes a team of people will achieve more than a single person.
• Doesn’t believe in executing all by him/herself
• Believes in achieving greater results from everyone working together
• Creates the right conditions for their teams to be successful

Management is about 3 things

• Purpose (Why): The purpose is the outcome the team is trying to achieve, otherwise known as the “Why”. The role of a manager is to ensure that team knows “what success looks like” and cares about achieving it.
• People (Who): Are the members of your team set up for success? Do they have the right skills? Are they motivated to do great work? You must develop trust with the team, understand your & team's strengths and weaknesses, and make decisions about who should do what!
• Process (How): A process is not a bunch of wiki documentation or stacks of paperwork, but it is enabling teams to make decisions and work together effectively.

Your first 3 months on the management team are critical to your success

Julie mentions that there are 4 ways you become a manager and in each way your first 3 months is critical

1. Associate: Managing a small part of your supervisor's team, is the easiest way to become familiar with the team and get guidance and support to learn the ropes to managing directly.
2. Pioneer: You are one of the founding members of the new group, now responsible for its growth. You need to develop values and share them with the team, you may not have support directly, in this case, try to get support from leadership or around the area of expertise externally.
3. New boss: Replaces an outgoing manager, manages an already established team, need to have management experience. It certainly takes 3 months to get settled in for the team to study your methods.
4. The successor: Takes on the entire team, skilled as their predecessor, this will be a change in relationship with your team as you may be an IC (individual contributor) and suddenly you become a manager for your team.

I’ve taken the management path as “the successor” :) — I had a great manager, mentor, and amazing team!

Managing a team involves many honest conversations

Managing a team involves you playing the role of a coach, and meeting with each team member once a week (1–1s). Initially ask these questions to get a pulse of

• What does the team member want to be working toward in a year’s time?
• What are the strengths?
• What are the ways the team member would like to be supported?
• How does the team member like to be recognized for great work?
• What kind of feedback is useful for the team member?

What gets in the way of good work?

1. People don’t know how to do good work?
2. they know how, but they’re not motivated to do it.

Why are team members not motivated to do great work?

• They don’t have a clear picture of what great work looks like.
• The role doesn’t speak to their aspirations
• They think nothing will change if they put in more effort.

In a survey of 182 managers, 72 managers found meetings unproductive

To run amazing meetings: Julie recommends distinguishing decision-making meetings and informational meetings. She explains how being clear about meeting objectives and structuring the meeting can lead to more effective meetings.

A great Decision-making meeting:

• Objective: To get the decision made
• Includes the team members most directly affected by the decision and has a clear decision-maker.
• Present all credible options with relevant background information, and include recommendations.
• Giving time for opinions, makes team members feel that they were heard.

A great Informational meeting:

• Enables the team to feel they learned something valuable
• Convey key messages clearly
• Keep audience attention (through storytelling, and interactivity)
• Evokes and intended emotion — through inspiration, trust, pride, courage, empathy, etc.

Feedback is important because it offers suggestions for improvement

Managers and direct reports need to be able to give each other feedback regularly and constructively without it being taken personally. There are 4 steps to take for a clear feedback process

1. Set clear expectations at the beginning: Sit down and discuss the goals, begin feedback before beginning tasks, and define what success looks like.
2. Give feedback specific to the task: Don’t delay feedback, as and when you find the task is not going well, provide feedback immediately, and be detailed and straight to the point.
3. Share regular and thoughtful behavioral feedback: Generally, behaviors are not tasks, however, behaviors affect results. It is necessary to give behavioral feedback as it is deeper and more personal than task-specific feedback.
4. 360 Feedback: Get multiple perspectives at least once a year, gather feedback from staff and other managers to determine feedback, and share it with the team member.

Managing yourself — Imposter syndrome shows up sometimes, and every manager should know how to handle it

Sometimes you doubt your accomplishments and worry about small things such as checking your email response many times before sending it.

Why imposter syndrome hits managers?

1. Managers are the first point of call if something goes wrong or are often looked to for answers.
2. Managers are constantly put in the position where they’re put in the position of doing things they haven’t done before.

A good way to handle imposter syndrome is to identify your own strengths and weaknesses and be brutally honest with yourself, you need to know which environments you are confident in and which will require time to respond.

The hiring process lays a foundation for future work processes

Plan ahead to create a better team. Ask yourself in January about the next 12 months.

• How many new people you can hire?
• What skills are needed?
• What skills exist in the team?
• What personalities and experiences strengthen your team?

Every hiring manager should have a close relationship with recruiting team. Even when you don’t hire a candidate, give the best interview experience to the candidate as you represent your organization and the candidate may be your future hire.

My major takeaways

• Build trust — Invest time in building trust and encourage the team to build and maintain trust with you and connections. Julie mentions that with trust, people feel they can share mistakes, challenges, and fears with the manager.
• Giving and receiving feedback is critical to your and your team's success. Be honest and transparent about your direct’s performance.
• If you have 3 goals to achieve for your team, forced them to answer “If you could achieve one goal, which one would it be”?
• If you have five open roles to hire, pour your energy into filling the most important or critical one.
• Admit your mistakes and growth areas — Julie uses these examples: “I don’t know the answer. what do you think”, “I want to come clean and apologize for what I said the other day”, “One of my personal growth areas is…”, “I’m afraid I don’t know enough to help you with the problem. Here’s someone you should talk to instead…”
• Thrive to set up amazing meetings — with objective, context, and productivity.