The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You

Running a team is hard because it ultimately boils down to people, and all of us are multifaceted and complex beings. Just like how there is no one way to go about being a person, there is no one way to go about managing a group of people. And yet, working together in teams is how the world moves forward. We can create things far grander and more a

The purpose is the outcome your team is trying to accomplish, otherwise known as the why. Why do you wake up and choose to do this thing instead of the thousands of other things you could be doing? Why pour your time and energy into this particular goal with this particular group of people? What would be different about the world if your team were

Nobody likes these tough situations, but some people are better than others at remaining steady and providing care and support through the bumps and dips of life. If you’re the friend whom others lean on in difficult times, who might be described as empathetic and undramatic, who can be counted on to defuse rather than escalate tensions, then you’l

What gets in the way of good work? There are only two possibilities. The first is that people don’t know how to do good work. The second is that they know how, but they aren’t motivated.

My own observations are similar, and I’ve come to think of the multitude of tasks that fill up a manager’s day as sorting neatly into three buckets: purpose, people, and process.

Can I Provide Stability for an Emotionally Challenging Situation?

Do I Find It More Motivating to Achieve a Particular Outcome or to Play a Specific Role?

support members in reaching their career goals, and create processes to get work done smoothly and efficiently.

A MANAGER’S JOB IS TO . . . build a team that works well together,

Being awesome at the job means playing the long game and building a reputation for excellence.