Our 6 Must Reads for First-Time Managers to Hit the Ground Running

Being promoted into your first management role can be abittersweet experience. On one hand, you're likely being rewarded foroutstanding performance in your area of expertise. The powers that be havewatched you and decided, "Yep, that person is darn good at their job, theydeserve to move up!" That's a nice feeling. On the other hand, beinga manager requires a distinct set of skills that might be wholly new anddifferent from whatever it was you were excelling at before. This can bedisorienting and daunting, to say the least.

We've heard from newly-minted engineering leaders who saythey suddenly find themselves rarely dipping into the codebase themselves.Product, marketing and sales leaders we've talked to say it's an adjustment tospend most of their days solving people problems rather than actually executingthe work they're used to. Overnight, their calendars have become stacked withmeetings, and in between, they need to be available to answer questions andtroubleshoot with their teams. In short, life is very different very fast, andwithout proper preparation, this transition can feel like a lonely uphill climbin the dark.

That's why we put together this list. We've combedthrough all the pieces we've written that include advice for new and first-timemanagers, and assembled the 6 most important and impactful articles — fullof advice that we believe can equip you with the tools to lead and keep youmoving up the ladder with confidence and clarity.

 

1. Kim Scott's Management Lessons from Three Failed Startups, Google Apple,Dropbox and Twitter

Before Kim Scott became famous for coining the management term 'Radical Candor' to help people give more and better feedback,she gave First Round a very candid look into her past — and the tactics she tookaway from her storied experience as a leader at some of the industry's biggestnames. Her key takeaway during this time: Good managers give a damn.

That might sound obvious, but it's how you give a damnthat truly matters. In this piece, Scott unpacks the components of what being aconscientious and carng manager actually requires — from deeply understandingyour direct reports' perceptions of both their past and future, to avoidingwhat she calls 'Cruel Empathy' (i.e. not giving much-needed feedback becauseyou're worried about hurting feelings). As she puts it:

Check out Scott's full advice here.

2. JamesEveringham's Principles of Quantum Team Management

Now Head of Engineering atInstagram, James Everingham has been a technical leader for a longtime — he was Director of Engineering for Netscape's browser from 1995 to 1999(to give you a sense). He's seen all manner of management challenges, and hasused this experience to devise a new theory about how to manage teams — drawing on his interest in quantumphysics (sounds complex, but once you learn it, it's easy enough to apply forany type of manager). 

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"It struck me thatinstead of approaching management like being a therapist (only with moreprocess and politics to deal with), I could think of it from a problem-solvingperspective," he says. "I started to design a management system the wayI would design a machine or software system, with few dependencies, singleowners, minimal decision points. Using this model, we immediately saw a jump inproductivity, output, and happiness (at Netscape)."

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In this piece, he explains howto set up your team like you would a machine. The key, however, is accepting how complicated and unpredictablethe people in that machine can be. This is where quantum mechanics (andhis term ‘quantum leadership’) comes into play. As a discipline, it makes theunpredictable understandable. Similarly, by applying these quantum principlesto management, you can find solutions to your team’s seemingly unsolvableproblems.

Everingham walks through howyou can manage your team to accomplish things that might seem impossible orunimaginable to you now (with a pretty great Schrödinger's Cat parable thrownin), how to understand and channel the impact you have on your team's mood andproductivity, and how to create incentives and accountability in a way thatactually works. Definitely worth a read for new managers — not just inengineering, but in any discipline. 

ReadEveringham's full Quantum Leadership theory and how to apply it here.

3. CarlyGuthrie on Why People Leave Your Company (and How to Keep Them)

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The first time we met CarlyGuthrie, we were bowled over by how much advice she had to offer onkeeping employees happy, productive and inspired by their work. As the formerhead of people operations for Thomas Keller Restaurants (think Per Se in NewYork, French Laundry in the Bay) who transitioned into the tech world, Guthriehas been watching employees take and leave jobs for over 15 years. Turns out,the reasons people love and hate their work are largely the same across sectors. A big part of being anew manager is understanding these underlying causes so you retain, engage andgrow the best talent on your team.

Step one to retention: Understandingwhy and how it fails. In this exclusive interview, Guthrie shared what she’slearned about why people quit, and what you can do after an employee’s firstday to make sure they stay happy, engaged in their work, and committed to yourteam (and to deleting every email they are most certainly receiving fromrecruiters).

Reading this piece, you can learn:

·      What it really means and looks liketo respect people's time, and make sure they're holisticallyhappy in their lives so that they can bring their best selves to work. 

·      How to build a team that feels like acommunity with purpose. You want to generate as much of a "we're all inthis together" vibe as possible. Guthrie provides instructions.

·      How to forge mentorship relationshipswith your reports that feels organic, and is directed by your reports'interests and and growth.

There's much more in thispiece that can help new leaders orient themselves around inspiring happiness,not just productivity. It's the former that will lead to long-term success. Readthe rest from Guthrie here.

4. FidjiSimo, Facebook VP of Product, on How to Create Conditions for Focus andIntentional Work

FidjiSimo is a primeexample of someone who has catapulted up her particular career ladder. Today,she's VP of Product for all of Facebook's video, news and advertising efforts —managing an organization of 400 PMs. When she joined the company six years ago,she was a product marketing manager. What accounts for her swift rise? Her employees will tellyou it's her uncanny ability to focus.

Focus is a critical skill forany new manager to have. It's what will allow you to handle a flurry ofcompeting and evolving priorities on top of constant and unpredictablepeople-related issues. Being able to focus is something you should try to naildown now. But 'focus' can feel like a nebulous term — or an ability that you'reeither born with or not. This isn't so, says Simo, who has very deliberatelycreated systems and mental models to make sure she's always payingattention to what's most important at any given time.

In this piece, she shares thosesystems and models, including the list of questions she asks before initiating anyproject on her team — these queries make sure all subsequent decisions willmatch and feed into that project's goal: 

·      What is the main problem this productis solving?

·      Who are the people we are solvingthis problem for?

·      What is the emotion/feeling that wewant our product to create or evoke?

·      Is this particular implementationaligned with the problem we're solving for?

·      Is this the product/feature mostlikely to successfully solve that problem?

She also talks about how she usesincremental changes to make sure her work stays focused on a moving target —and how she uses very intentional alone-time to create clarity andintentionality in her own work. Simo blocks off between 30 and 60 minutes on her calendarevery Monday morning to ensure that her actions are aligned with and supportingher intentions.

These weekly clarity meetings have a set agenda:

·      List the broader team ororganization’s top priorities.

·      Check that your personal prioritiesfor the week still align with those priorities.

·      Check for any new information or datathat requires a shift in priorities.

·      Check priorities against your timeallocation, meetings and commitments that week.

·      Make any adjustments to your calendarto better reflect your priorities.

·      Note any priority adjustments thatimpact or need to be communicated to your team.

“I also look at the bigmeetings that I have during the week, and for each of these meetings, I set aclear agenda of what I'm trying to achieve in that meeting, personally and forthe group,” Simo says. “That way when I go from meeting to meeting during theweek it's less jarring because I already know what my goals are.”

Having this clarity onupcoming meetings — literally a checklist of what she wants to walk out with — and an understanding of her personalpriorities ensures that her team’s actions and priorities stay aligned.

In this piece, she also goesinto depth on how she creates the ideal conditions for focus, including theactual language she uses to delegate and deprioritize work so she can hone inon what's really important, how she avoids distractions, and how shepurposefully builds buffer time into her schedule. 

Readall of this advice and more from Simo here.

5. This Is What Impactful Engineering Leadership Looks Like with JessicaMcKellar

Five years ago, Jessica McKellar anda group of friends from MIT started stealthy chat startup Zulip. Less than twoyears later, it was acquired by Dropbox. And this wasn't an anomaly. They'ddone it once before, selling Ksplice to Oracle just as fast. Today, she's CTOand Founder of a new stealth startup. This wild ride has given McKellar a morediverse set of management opportunities than the average engineer ever sees —she's been a team lead, a founder, a technical leader at a massive corporation,and manager of dozens at a rapidly growing global startup.

She also gave us one of the best interviews we've everdone on how engineers can make the sometimes rocky transition into management.In it, she walks through the components of how to be truly supportive to a teamof people: "When you're a technical manager, your job is mostly abouthumans,” McKellar says. “There are two things you should always be thinkingabout: People's day-to-day and their year-to-year.” You should imagineevery individual is traveling on both of these tracks at the same time. And asa leader, you can shape their experience on both to help them find a trajectorythat meets their goals and your needs.

McKellar talks about how she's set up focused time to helppeople think through and be intentional about their careers, which in turn haskept them more engaged and happy in their current work. She also describesthebest way to get a sense of your reports' capacity, and how as a manager, youcan evaluate the way people are working to spot possible efficiencies andtweaks that can help them accomplish even more. One of these tweaks is helpingpeople develop into local experts on particular problems or features sothat they can answers others' questions while increasing their visibility inthe organization. Others have to do with the environment you create for peopleto work in, understanding what specifically motivates each team member, anddesigning check-ins that will accelerate mutual understanding and make peoplefeel safe. 

But, perhaps most importantly, McKellar supplies a lot ofempathy for new engineering managers who might feel out of their element. Readthis story if you're feeling particularly alone in your experience. It'll help.As she says: 

There's an inflection point when someone moves fromengineer to manager, and it can feel very uncomfortable — like you're only inmeetings and not getting anything done.

Get all of McKellar's wisdom about making the jump from engineer tomanager here.

 

6. Dave Loftesness' 90-Day Plan for TurningEngineers into Remarkable Managers

 

David Loftesness, Twitter’s former Directorof Engineering (and author of Scaling Teams), has been the first engineerpromoted into management at a startup many times over two decades and sixtechnology companies, including Xmarks and Geoworks. After steering his waythrough multiple engineer-to-manager transitions, he's now doing his part toshepherd developers into their first leadership positions. He's collected thisknowledge into a 90-day plan so that others can follow his lead — learning toset their priorities, gain their footing, and assess their own performance sothey can grow fast and start empowering others.

 

Here's a brief overview that doesn't do hisplan justice:

 

Day 0: Realizing the inevitable truths youneed to accept upfront (he inventories them here, including saying goodbye tocoding, that your growth now requires other people's growth, and that you haveto trust people in order for them to trust you, etc.).

Days 1-30: Owning your own education andgoing after what you don't know (blocking off time to study, creating asyllabus of the best books on the topic, seeking out a management mentor,making it clear you're learning too).

Days 31-60: Finding your own rhythm(canceling meetings when they aren't useful or necessary, calendaringdefensively to hold on to uninterrupted time, and building yourself an eventloop to make sure you're doing what's needed every day, month, quarter, etc.). Examplebelow.

 

Days 61-89: Assessing yourself and decidingwhether you really want to be a manager at all (determining whether your teamis producing the results you want and if you're nurturing everyone's uniquetalents, tallying the number of evening and weekend hours you're working to seeif it's sustainable, and identifying where you're adding the most value ornot).

Day 90: Resolve to step up or step aside(accepting there's no shame in deciding that being a manager isn't for you andthat it's not a step down to admit it — or, alternatively, embracing this newrole, how much you have left to learn, and how you can enhance your strengthsand minimize your weaknesses going forward).

Much more detail on Loftesness' plan andhow to apply it in your own life and career here.

 

These are just six of many articles onFirst Round Review that contain advice relevant to new and first-time managers.Stay tuned for more from top industry leaders who very generously share theirexperiences with us so you don't have to make their same mistakes.

 

Photography by Bonnie Rae Mills.