Prvo radno mjesto menadžera sam započeo prije sedam godina. Kao i autorica ove knjige, Julie Zhuo, nisam imao nikakvo formalno obrazovanje za voditi tim ljudi. Učio sam na poslu, najčešće na vlastitim greškama. Na nesreću mojih podređenih. Sorry.
Kao i za svaku novu situaciju u kojoj sam se našao, kupio sam par knjiga i krenuo učiti. Međutim, sve knjige koje sam tada našao su pisali ili menadžeri u velikim korporacijama ili dugogodišnji menadžeri. Teško primjenjivo za nekoga tko je tek započeo svoju menadžersku karijeru.
Za svaku grešku osjećao sam se kao da samo ja radim takve greške. Nisam poznavao druge menadžere u istoj ili sličnoj situaciji da bih imao s kim podijeliti svoje patnje. Da je ova knjiga tada bila dostupna, puno bi toga bolje napravio i proveo. Manje bih se osjećao kao da se to “događa samo meni”.
Međutim, i danas sam puno naučio čitajući ovu knjigu. Preporuka kako za nove menadžere tako i za menadžere s višegodišnjim iskustvom. Ako ništa drugo, kao podsjetnik ili druga perspektiva. Najveća vrijednost ove knjige je u činjenici da je autorica rasla zajedno s tvrtkom – od malog startupa do jedne od najvrjednijih tvrtki na svijetu – Facebook. Iskustvo koje je jako rijetko za steći.
Introduction – Great managers are made, not born
“I believe this as deeply as I believe anything: Great managers are made, not born. It doesn’t matter who you are. If you care enough to be reading this then you care enough to be a great manager”
“This is a book about someone with no formal training learned to become a confident manager”
“This is the book that’s here to tell you that your fears and doubts are normal, and, like me, you’re going to figure it out”
Chapter One – What is management
“My revised answer would look like the following. Managers job is to:
- build a team that works well together
- support members in reaching their career goals
- create processes to get work done smoothly and efficiently”
“The management aspect has nothing to do with employment status and everything to do with the fact that you are no longer trying to get something done by yourself”
“Your job, as a manager, is to get better outcomes from a group of people working together”
“He [Facebook Chief Product Officer – Chris Cox] smiled and said, “My framework [for manager evaluation] is quite simple. Half of what he looked at was my team results – did we achieve our aspirations. The other half was based on the strength and satisfaction of my team…”
“My observations are similar, and I’ve come to thing of multitude of tasks that fill up a managers day as sorting neatly into three buckets: purpose, people and process”
“The purpose is the outcome your team is trying to accomplish, otherwise known as why”
“The first big part of your job as a manager is to ensure that your team knows what success looks like and cares about achieving it”
“The next importan bucket that managers think about is people, otherwise known as the who”
“To manage people well, you must develop trusting relationship with them, understand their strengths and weaknesses (as well as your own), make good decisions about who should do what (including hiring and firing when necessary), and coaching individuals to do their best”
“Finally, the last bucket is process, which describes how your team works together”
“For managers, importan process it master include running effective meetings, future proofing against past mistakes, planning for tomorrow, and nurturing a healthy culture”
“If you wonder whether you can be a great manager, ask yourself these three questions:
- Do I find more motivation to achieve a particular outcome or to play a specific role?
- Do I like talking with people?
- Can I provide stability for an emotionally challenging situation”
Chapter Two – Your first three months
“If you are transitioning as an apprentice [to management] work with your manager on a joint plan for getting started”
“When I started, I found the below challenging, especially with reports whom I considered friends:
- Playing the role of each: Seek to understand what your new reports care about. Give them feedback about what they are doing well and where they might stretch
- Having hard conversations: If something is getting in the way of great work happening, you need to address it swiftly and directly
- Having people treat you differently or share less information with you: over time, however, I recognized that, yes, this was normal”
“Don’t learn this the hard way – at the point in which your team becomes four or five people, you should have a plan for how to scale back you individual contributor responsibilities so that you can be the best manager for your people”
“In your first few one-on-one meetings, ask your reports the following questions to understand what their dream manager looks like:
- What did you and your past manager discuss that was most helpful to you?
- What are the ways in which you’d like to be supported?
- How do you like to be recognized for great work?
- What kind of feedback is most useful for you?
- Imagine that you and I had an amazing relationship. What would that look like?”
“In your first few months, your primary job is to listen, ask questions, and learn”
Chapter Three – Leading a Small Team
“Managing a small team is about mastering a few basic fundamentals: developing a healthy manager-report relationship and creating an environment of support”
“The most precious resource you have is your own time and energy, and when you spend it on your team, it goes a long way toward building healthy relationships”
“Here are some ideas [for one-on-one meetings] to get started:
- Discuss top priorities
- Calibrate what “great” looks like
- Share feedback
- Reflect on how things are going”
“Here are some of my favorite questions [for one-on-one problem discussions]:
- Identify: What’s top of mind for you? What priorities are you thinking about this week? What’s the best use of our time together?
- Understand: What does your ideal outcome looks like? What’s hard for you in getting that outcome? What do you really care about? What do you think is the best course of action? What’s the worst-case scenario you’re worried about?
- Support: How can I help you? What can I do to make you were successful? What was the most useful part of our conversation today?”
“The job of a manager is to turn one person’s particular talent into performance”
Chapter Four – The art of feedback
“For a leader, giving feedback – both when things are going well and when they aren’t – is one of the most fundamental aspects of the job”
“It may seem counterintuitive, but the feedback process should begin before any work does. At that point, you should agree on what success looks like – whether for a given project or for a given time period – get ahead any expected issues, and lay the foundation for productive feedback sessions in the future”
“Task-specific feedback is most effective when the action is performed is still fresh in your report’s memory, so share it as soon as you can”
“When you give behavioral feedback, you are making a statement about how you perceive that person, so your words need to be thoughtfully considered and supported with specific examples to explain why you feel that way”
“The best way to make your feedback heard is to make the listener feel safe, and to show that you are saying it because you care about her and want her to succeed”
“How do you ensure that your feedback can be acted upon? Remember these three tips:
- Make your feedback as specific as possible
- Clarify what success looks and feels like
- Suggest next steps”
“The best way to give critical feedback is to deliver it directly and dispassionately. Plainly say what you perceive the issue to be, what made you feel that way, and how you’d like to work together to resolve the concerns”
“When you give a feedback or make a decision, your report may not agree with it. That’s okay”
Chapter Five – Managing yourself
“But over the years, I have learned a secret that bears repeating: Every manager feels like imposter sometimes”
“The first part is understanding how you lead is to know your strengths – the things you are talented and love to do”
“The second part of getting to an honest reckoning with yourself is knowing your weaknesses and triggers”
“Admitting your struggles and asking for help is the opposite of weakness – in fact, it shows courage and self-awareness”
“Remember to ask for both task-specific and behavioral feedback. The more concrete you are about what you want to know, the better”
“Given what we’ve discussed about the role of manager, your own boss should be one of your best sources of learning”
“When you invest in your personal learning and growth, you’re not just investing in your own future but also the future of your team”
Chapter Six – Amazing meetings
“There are only a handful of reasons for people to get together in person, so being crystal clear about the outcome you’re shooting for is the first step to running great meetings”
“In a decision meeting, you’re framing the different options on the table and asking a decision-maker to make a call”
“Done well, however, there are a few big benefits of informational meetings over other channels like bulleting boards, mailing lists, or group posts”
“Often known as a “review”, the purpose of a feedback meeting is for stakeholders to understand and give input on work in progress”
“You’re more likely to have a great meeting if everyone necessary, and nobody extraneous, is there”
“Sending out an agenda ahead of time shows a level of care and intentionality in helping the group stay focused”
“After the meeting, the follow-ups need to be treated with as much case as the preparation”
“If you want everyone to participate in you meeting, sometimes the easiest tactic is just to say that directly”
Chapter Seven – Hiring well
“The most important thing to remember about hiring is this: hiring is not a problem to be solved but an opportunity to build the future of your organization”
“The best – though still imperfect – predictor for someone will do in the future is to understand how they’ve done in the past on similar projects in similar environments”
“The best practice for interviews is to have the candidate talk to multiple people who know what the role needs, with each interviewer asking different questions so that the group emerges with a well-rounded perspective”
“The best interviews happen when you show up with a clear sense of what you want to learn about the person, This means you should familiarize yourself with their background and have a list of questions prepared”
“But if you’re looking for a starting point on what to ask [on hiring interviews] these are my favorite all-purpose questions:
- What kind of challenges are interesting to you and why? Can you describe a favorite project?
- What do you consider your greatest strengths? What would your peers agree are your areas of growth?
- Imagine yourself in three years. What do you hope will be different about you compared to now?
- What was the hardest conflict you’ve had in the past year? How did it end, and what did you learn from the experience?
- What’s something that’s inspired you in your work recently?”
“The lesson: recruiting top talent is all about relationship you build. That’s why attracting the best people is a long-term investment. Pay attention to the rising stars of your field and get to know them through conferences, mixers, and other events. Continuously build your network”
“Having a great bench is one of the strongest signs of stelar leadership because it means the team you’ve built can steer the ship and thrive, even if you are not at the helm”
Chapter Eight – Making things happen
“As a manager, it’s important to define and share a concrete vision for your team that describes what collectively you are trying to achieve”
“A goo strategy understands the crux of the problem it’s trying to solve. It focuses a team’s unique strengths, resources, and energy on what matters the most in achieving its goals”
“Effort doesn’t count; results are what matters”
“When ownership isn’t clear, things slip through the cracks”
“But if you divide your plan up into smaller chunks and focus on your next milestone – success suddenly seems entirely within your reach”
“Executing well means that you pick a reasonable direction, move quickly to learn what works and what doesn’t, and make adjustments to get to your desired outcome”
“Try to connect every task, project, decision, or goal with the organization’s higher-level purpose”
“One of the most useful tools for improving process is practice of doing debriefs (also called retrospectives or postmortems(”
“At the end of the day, a resilient organization isn’t one that never makes mistakes but rather one whose mistakes make it stronger over time”
Chapter Nine – Leading a growing team
“One of the biggest challenges of managing at scale is finding the right balance between going deep on a problema and stepping back and trusting others to take care of it”
“But I’ve come to accept that there will always be a dozen different issues to work through at any given time – some big, some small, and some unexpected – and as the manager of a large team, you learn to roll with it”
“Beyond people, you and your report should be aligned on why you’re doing what you’re doing and what success looks like”
“Part of delegating well is recognizing that your reports – like you – will make mistakes and doubt themselves, and that often the best thing you can do is to believe in them”
“The best managers I know all agree on one thing: grooming great teams means that you are constantly looking for ways to replace yourself in the job you are currently doing”
Chapter Ten – Nurturing culture
“Culture describes the norms and values that govern how things get done”
“When you value something deeply, don’t shy away from talking about it. Instead, embrace telling people why it’s important to you”
“If you’re not willing to change your behavior for a stated values, then don’t bring it up in the first place”
“If you say something is important to you and you’d like the rest of your team to care about it, be the first person to live that value”
“Pay attention to your own actions – the little things you say and do – as well as what behaviors you are rewarding or discouraging”
Dodatne poveznice
- GoodReads: The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You
- Amazon: The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You
- Book Depository: The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You
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