Becoming a Manager

They grappled with three critical sets of problems: (1) how to reconcile their initial expectations of management with the realities of a manager’s daily life; (2) how to handle the numerous conflicts with their subordinates; and (3) how to make sense of and meet their superiors’ ambitious demands.

Managers, on the other hand, must see themselves as responsible for setting and implementing an agenda for a whole group.

In short, becoming a manager demands that individuals engage in each of the three fundamental kinds of learning: learning something new, changing one’s mind, and changing oneself.

The critical difference between exceptional and average managers—the exceptional managers motivate, develop, and lead people even though they’ve got to drive the business.

Not only do managers need to develop the personal capacity to manage, but they also must be able to create a context in which others are willing to learn and change so their organizations can continually adapt and innovate.

To implement their emerging agendas, managers must establish cooperative relationships with and among people in their networks.

Financial success may have been their primary drive, but the subordinates also valued three other types of success: recognition, both formal and informal; career development; and psychological well-being:

The subordinates were most concerned that the managers not encroach on their territory and autonomy, and provide the context and resources the subordinates needed to derive success and satisfaction from their work.

As an outgrowth of taking action, they mastered four tasks of transformation: • Learning what it means to be a manager • Developing interpersonal judgment • Gaining self-knowledge • Coping with stress and emotion