Congratulations! Since you're reading this, it's likely that you're either a new manager, an experienced manager looking to learn more, or an aspiring manager reaching for the next rung on the corporate ladder. In any case, welcome!
Odds are, you became (or will become) a Manager by being really good at the job you had before it. Very few companies pick out the team screw-up and decide to promote him to a place where he can do less damage (although that *could* happen). The result is you have an excellent welder/ lawyer/ coder/ mechanic/ phlebotomist who finds herself doing a completely new job, managing, instead of the work she has shown she does well.
This can cause two problems: 1- The company is losing the new manager's former contributions as a [insert job here], and 2- If the new manager doesn't manage well, the new team is badly led and becomes less effective overall. In the very worst cases, the new manager is considered to have "failed" and finds himself let go. This is a well-known phenomena - it even has its own name "The Peter Principle".
Companies can address this in a few ways:
1 - Bring managers in from the outside. This is sometimes a good idea, but tends to demoralize the team members who are looking for promotion (either now or in the future).
2 - Train the new managers on the new skills needed. Smart companies do this and smart managers take advantage of this training, and find their own on top of that.
What does this mean to you?
Realize that management is a skill like any other, and work to develop that skill. I'll link to my favorite resources as I go, but here's my all time favorite to start with:
Manager Tools (you're welcome)
Best of luck and I hope you'll check back often!
