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So you want to become a people manager? Make sure you know or are prepared to learn how to: (a thread)
1) Talk to people. Like, talk a lot. TALK A LOT.
2) Listen to people. Like, listen a lot. LISTEN A LOT.
3) Organize effective meetings only when it should be a meeting. https://shoulditbeameeting.com
4) Work with numerous spreadsheets, that are all over the place. The rate of spreadsheet creation is going to be exponential.
5) Create and track OKRs, KPIs, Goals, Metrics, you name it. All of the buzzwords and abbreviations.
6) Use email effectively. Like, a lot.
7) Track the performance of your team.
8) Write performance reviews for your team.
9) Deliver performance reviews to your directs.
10) Give feedback, both positive and negative.
11) Manage 360 feedback.
12) Deal with people's issues.
13) Coach folks.
14) Help them find a mentor.
15) Be a mentor.
16) Help them grow and help them with their career path.
17) Communicate effectively through different channels.
18) Adjust the same message for many different audiences, up, down and over.
19) Repeat things many times until everyone has actually heard it. Like, many times.
20) Delegate the work and stop doing it yourself.
21) Prepare interview questions, do interviews, and hire people.
22) Design performance improvement plans and track them.
23) Fire people.
24) Hire people.
25) Do weekly one on ones with your directs.
26) Work closely with your peers.
27) Deal with push-back.
28) Deal with poor performance.
29) Deal with sexual harassment.
30) Know when to get HR involved.
31) Use the right communication channel for the right purpose.
32) Make & communicate decisions, not always based on consensus.
33) Inspire and motivate.
34) Plan meet-ups for your remote teams.
35) Be present to accommodate your distributed team members. Across many timezones.
36) Write job descriptions.
37) Write expectations.
38) Deal with conflicts.
39) Admit you are wrong.
40) Accept feedback.
41) Manage up, down, and over.
42) Avoid gossip.
43) Find a balance between what the company wants and what your directs want.
44) Support your team.
45) Advocate for your team.
That's it for now. There are more things one should know/like, but that's a good starting point. If you don't like most of the things above, you may want to stick to what you are doing or find something else. There's nothing wrong being an individual contributor forever.
