What to do when everyone looks to you

Julie Zhou unexpectedly got into management at the age of 25. She says all she knew about management was best summarized in two words: meetings and promotions. She grew her management skills over time.

Here are my top lessons from her book, The Making of a Manager

A manager’s job is to build a team that works well together, create processes to get work done smoothly, and support members in reaching their career goals. Supporting and caring for someone doesn’t mean always agreeing with them or making excuses for their mistakes. Management means bringing people together to achieve the best outcomes. The best outcomes come from inspiring people to action, not just telling them what to do.

Management starts with managing yourself

No matter the obstacles, you first need to get deep into knowing yourself, your strengths, your values, your comfort zones, your blind spots, and your biases. When you fully understand yourself, you will know how best to support your team. When you invest in personal learning and growth, you’re not just investing in your future but also the future of your team. The better you are, the more you can support others.

Create a concrete vision

Though it’s common to hear words like help, improve, and enhance when talking about goals, they don’t paint a clear picture. An inspiring vision is tangible and bold. You know instantly whether you have hit it or not because it is measurable. Assume you have a magic wand that makes everything your team does go perfectly, what do you hope for two or three years compared to now?

Hiring well

It is a manager’s role to hire. Yet, hiring is not just about filling holes. If you approach it that way, you will not bring in the best people. It’s about figuring out how to make your team and your life much better, and an opportunity to build the future of the organization.

Best feedback meetings

A great feedback meeting gets everyone on the same page about what the success of the project looks like, honestly presents the current status of work, clearly frames open questions, key decisions, or known concerns, and ends with agreed-upon next steps including when the next milestone or check-in will be.

Leading a growing team

I should aim to put myself out of a job: as my team grows in size and abilities, I must grow too to keep pace as its manager. The act of constantly trying to replace myself means that I am creating opportunities to stretch my team and myself.

Never stop talking about what is important

Embrace telling people what you care about. Assume that for the message to stick, it should be heard ten different times and said in ten different ways. The more you can enlist others to help spread your message, the more it is likely to have an impact.