10 Expert Tips for New (and Aspiring) Managers

10 Expert Tips for New (and Aspiring) Managers

A guide for first-time managers: best practices from leaders at Intercom, Unbounce, Square (and more!) on the transition from individual contributor to manager.

There’s no better feeling than the “aha” moment when you realize that you’re ready to step up in your job and take on more of a managerial position. Better than this realization is seeing all of your hard work and perseverance materialize when you become a manager. Making this transition to becoming a manager is definitely exciting but it can also be super daunting… Now that you have this added responsibility, how do you adopt the right management style and skills? 

If you’re on your way to becoming a manager or have just become one (congrats!), you’re in the right place. To support you in your new managerial endeavours we asked a panel of experts for their most valuable advice and tips for new managers. 

Here are ten expert tips from our #ManagerChats on the topic of the transition from individual contributor to manager:

• Act like a leader before you become one
• Learn to delegate
• Adapt your management style to each team member
• Be an active listener
• Stay organized
• Build a culture of feedback
• Schedule regular one-on-one meetings
• Help your direct reports grow
• Communicate goals and expectations 
• Never stop learning 

Full Post https://fellow.app/blog/2020/expert-tips-for-new-managers/

How To Be a Better Manager – An Interview with N. R. Narayana Murthy

Narayana Murthy is one of the giants of India’s IT industry. In 1981, he founded Infosys, a provider of consulting and business process outsourcing services, which is today India’s sixth largest publically traded company. Murthy talked with HBR about the most valuable advice he ever received, the advice he gives young professionals, and how he approaches leadership and management.

NM answers the following questions asked by HBR

What was the best advice you received as a young man, and what advice do you now give to young professionals?

What advice do you, in turn, give to young professionals?

What is the biggest mistake you made earlier in your career, and what did you learn from it?

Who is the best leader or manager you’ve worked with, and what made that person best?

What talents do Indian companies need most right now?

Read the Interview

    

30 Challenges for 30 Days of Growth

Scientists have suggested that, with a little willpower, it takes roughly 30 days for a person to form a new habit. As with mastering anything new, the act of starting and getting beyond the preliminary stage where everything feels awkward is 80% of the battle. This is precisely why it’s important to make small, positive changes every day over the course of at least a 30 day period.

Below you will find 30 challenges to be accomplished over the course of 30 days. If carried out diligently each of them has the potential to create a new positive habit in your life. Yes, there is some slight overlap between a few of them. And no, you don’t have to attempt all at once. Pick 2 to 5 and commit the next 30 days, wholeheartedly, to successfully completing the challenge. Then once you feel comfortable with these habits, challenge yourself with a few more the following month.

Use words that encourage happiness.
Try one new thing every day.
Perform one selfless act every day.
Learn and practice one new skill every day.
Teach someone something new every day.
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10 Painfully Obvious Truths Everyone Forgets Too Soon

You know how you can hear something a hundred times in a hundred different ways before it finally gets through to you? The ten truths listed below fall firmly into that category – life lessons that many of us likely learned years ago, and have been reminded of ever since, but for whatever reason, haven’t fully grasped.

1. The average human life is relatively short.
2. You will only ever live the life you create for yourself.
3. Being busy does NOT mean being productive.
4. Some kind of failure always occurs before success.
5. Thinking and doing are two very different things.
6. You don’t have to wait for an apology to forgive.
7. Some people are simply the wrong match for you.
8. It’s not other people’s job to love you; it’s yours.
9. What you own is not who YOU are.
10. Everything changes, every second.

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12 Lessons You Learn or Regret Forever

Sticking your neck out and taking charge of your career is no trivial matter. Whether that’s switching careers, going back to school, or walking away from a j-o-b to start your own business, it takes a lot of guts.

But guts will only get you so far. Once you build up the nerve and make the leap, you’re no more than 5% of the way there. You still have to succeed in your new endeavor, and trying to succeed is when your worst fears (the ones that made you hesitate in the first place) will come true.

I’m going to assume you’re like me and don’t have a brilliant mentor, a rich uncle, or some other person who is going to show you the ropes and explain each step you need to take to take charge of your career.

You see, it’s been almost 20 years since I last had a boss. I went from working in a surf shop to striking out on my own, eventually starting TalentSmart (with a partner) before I’d finished grad school.

When I set out on my own, I had all the gumption and appetite for risk that I needed to take charge of my career. At the time I thought that was all I needed to succeed.

It wasn’t. I also needed guidance. Without it, I learned some difficult (and often painful) lessons along the way.

I’d like to share some of my biggest lessons learned with you so that they can help you as you take charge of your career (in whatever form that takes). As I look back on these lessons, I realize that they’re really great reminders for us all.

1. Confidence Must Come First

2. You’re Living The Life That You’ve Created

3. Being Busy Does Not Equal Being Productive

4. You’re Only as Good as Those You Associate With

5. Don’t Say Yes Unless You Really Want To

6. Squash Your Negative Self-Talk

7. Avoid Asking “What If?”

8. Schedule Exercise and Sleep

9. Seek Out Small Victories

10. Don’t Seek Perfection

11. Focus on Solutions

12. Forgive Yourself


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10 Mistakes Smart People Never Make Twice

Everybody makes mistakes -- that's a given -- but not everyone learns from them. Some people make the same mistakes over and over again, fail to make any real progress, and can't figure out why.

"Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them."
--Bruce Lee

When we make mistakes, it can be hard to admit to because doing so feels like an attack on our self-worth. This tendency poses a huge problem because new research proves something that commonsense has told us for a very long time -- fully acknowledging and embracing errors is the only way to avoid repeating them.

Yet, many of us still struggle with this.

Researchers from the Clinical Psychophysiology Lab at Michigan State University found that people fall into one of two camps when it comes to mistakes: those who have a fixed mind-set ("Forget this; I'll never be good at it") and those who have agrowth mind-set ("What a wake-up call! Let's see what I did wrong so I won't do it again").

"By paying attention to mistakes, we invest more time and effort to correct them," says study author Jason Moser. "The result is that you make the mistake work for you."

Those with a growth mind-set land on their feet because they acknowledge their mistakes and use them to get better. Those with a fixed mind-set are bound to repeat their mistakes because they try their best to ignore them.

Smart, successful people are by no means immune to making mistakes; they simply have the tools in place to learn from their errors. In other words, they recognize the roots of their mix-ups quickly and never make the same mistake twice.

"When you repeat a mistake, it is not a mistake anymore: it is a decision."
--Paulo Coelho

Some mistakes are so tempting that we all make them at one point or another. Here are 10 mistakes almost all of us make, but smart people make only once.

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10 Times You Should Definitely Say ‘No’ And Do Your Own Thing

There are a number of silly, destructive and persistent social norms or status quos that say we should put up with a lot of things that we really shouldn’t put up with. Under the guise that “life is hard,” people often want you to just buck up and be happy, when, really, you should change the things that aren’t making you happy.

Saying “no” can be really hard if you’re a go-getter or you don’t like giving up, but here are 10 times you should say “no” and do your own thing. Because that silly cliche about putting you first is actually something you should put up with.

1. Say “No” To Friends Who Bring You Down
2. Say “No” To A Doing Things Without A Reason
3. Say “No” To Any Job That Doesn’t Fulfill You
4. Say “No” To Overworking Yourself
5. Say “No” To Meeting Other People’s Expectations
6. Say “No” To Trying To Control Everything
7. Say “No” To A Relationship That Isn’t Working
8. Say “No” To Crazy Diets
9. Say “No” To Judgement
10. Say “No” To Hate And Negativity

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6 wisdom picks from around the World

The highly interconnected world of our times provides valuable opportunities to absorb the best from every part of the world. However, this can happen only when one has an open mind.

The process of opening up our mind to the vastness and diversity of the world is what I call spirituality. The openness to see and understand that the whole world belongs to us, and have a sense of ownership of that which is good and the willingness to take responsibility for correcting what’s not right. Such an outlook makes one a global citizen, who can adopt and imbibe the best from every corner of the world and blossom into a complete personality.

We should learn team work from Japan, value of time from Germany, etiquette from Britain, marketing from America and humanity from India.

Teamwork from Japanese
Precision and punctuality from Germans
Negotiation & marketing from Americans
Etiquette from British
Happiness from Bhutan
Human Values from Indians

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12 Ways to Make a Great Impression at Work

It takes more than technical wizardry to emerge as a standout success at work. Unfortunately, many professionals lack the soft skills—including dedication, leadership, motivation, team spirit, etc.—that are essential to get ahead. Indeed, nearly one-fifth of managers cite a lack of these skills as a key reason for not hiring job candidates.

With that in mind, we present the following 12 ways to make a great impression. They were adapted from the recent book, You Did What?! The Biggest Mistakes Professionals Make (Career Press/available now). In the book, authors Kim Zoller and Kerry Preston cover everything from written and verbal communications to networking etiquette to meeting decorum to handshakes.

Taken individually, you may conclude that these practices aren't really a big deal. However, when you incorporate each one into your routine, you elevate your professional presence and position yourself for career advancement.

Zoller is president and founder of Image Dynamics, a professional development consultancy. Preston is a leadership, communications, strategic planning and time management consultant.

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13 Habits of Exceptionally Likable People

Too many people succumb to the mistaken belief that being likable comes from natural, unteachable traits that belong only to a lucky few—the good looking, the fiercely social, and the incredibly talented. It’s easy to fall prey to this misconception. In reality, being likable is under your control, and it’s a matter of emotional intelligence (EQ).

In a study conducted at UCLA, subjects rated over 500 adjectives based on their perceived significance to likeability. The top-rated adjectives had nothing to do with being gregarious, intelligent, or attractive (innate characteristics). Instead, the top adjectives were sincerity, transparency, and capacity for understanding (another person).

These adjectives, and others like them, describe people who are skilled in the social side of emotional intelligence. TalentSmart research data from more than a million people shows that people who possess these skills aren’t just highly likable, they outperform those who don’t by a large margin.

We did some digging to uncover the key behaviors that emotionally intelligent people engage in that make them so likable. Here are 13 of the best:

1. They Ask Questions
2. They Put Away Their Phones
3. They Are Genuine
4. They Don’t Pass Judgment
5. They Don’t Seek Attention
6. They Are Consistent
7. They Use Positive Body Language
8. They Leave a Strong First Impression
9. They Greet People by Name
10. They Smile
11. They Know When To Open Up
12. They Know Who To Touch (and They Touch Them)
13. They Balance Passion and Fun


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differencebetween.com

Life is full of choices to make, so are the differences. Differences are the identity of a person or any item.

Throughout our life we have to make number of choices. To make the right choice we need to know what makes one different from the other.

We know that making the right choice is the hardest task we face in our life and we will never be satisfied with what we chose, we tend to think the other one would have been better. We spend a lot of time on making decision between A and B.

And the information that guide us to make the right choice should be unbiased, easily accessible, freely available, no hidden agendas and have to be simple and self explanatory, while adequately informative. Information is everything in decision making. That’s where differencebetween.com  comes in. We make your life easy by guiding you to distinguish the differences between anything and everything, so that you can make the right choices.

Whatever the differences you want to know, be it about two people, two places, two items, two concepts, two technologies or whatever it is, we have the answer. We have not confined ourselves in to limits. We have a very wide collection of information, that are diverse, unbiased and freely available. In our analysis we try to cover all the areas such as what is the difference, why the difference and how the difference affect.

What we do at DifferenceBetween.com, We team up with selected academics, subject matter experts and script writers across the world to give you the best possible information in differentiating any two items.

Easy Search: We have added search engine for viewers to go direct to the topic they are searching for, without browsing page by page.

Visit the website

16 lessons from the book "The Effective Executive" by Peter Drucker

1) Effectiveness can be learned -

2) You have to manage yourself

3) Manage your time

4) Focus on results

5) Build on strengths

6) Ask what needs to be done

7) Write an action plan

8) Put first things first

9) Delegate to compensate for your weakness

10) Make jobs challenging for others

11) Take responsibility for communicating

12) Focus on opportunities

13) Make meetings productive

14) Think and say ‘We’

15) Demand more of yourself

16) Be open to disagreement

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14 lessons from the book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

1) Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain -

2) Become genuinely interested in other people

3) Talk in terms of the other person’s interests

4) The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it

5) Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”

6) If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically

7) Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately

8) Let the other person do most of the talking

9) Let the other person feel that the idea is his or her’s

10) Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view

11) Appeal to the nobler motives

12) Throw down a challenge

13) Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person

14) Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to

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Short inspirational Parable Of The Pencil - Pencil story

The Pencil Maker took the pencil aside, just before putting him into the box.

"There are 5 things you need to know," he told the pencil, "Before I send you out into the world. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best pencil you can be."

"One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in Someone's hand."

"Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you'll need it to become a better pencil."

"Three: You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make."

"Four: The most important part of you will always be what's inside."

"And Five: On every surface you are used on, you must leave your mark. No matter what the condition, you must continue to write."

The pencil understood and promised to remember, and went into the box with purpose in its heart.


Now replacing the place of the pencil with you. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best person you can be.

One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in God's hand. And allow other human beings to access you for the many gifts you possess.

Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, by going through various problems in life, but you'll need it to become a stronger person.

Three: You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.

Four: The most important part of you will always be what's on the inside.

And Five: On every surface you walk through, you must leave your mark. No matter what the situation, you must continue to do your duties.


Allow this parable on the pencil to encourage you to know that you are a special person and only you can fulfill the purpose to which you were born to accomplish.

Never allow yourself to get discouraged and think that your life is insignificant and cannot make a change.

Best Business Books 2014: Executive Self-Improvement

Big data went mainstream in 2014. At the start of the year, a study by IDG found that 70 percent of large organizations had deployed or were soon to deploy big data–related projects, at an average investment of US$8 million. And analytics enthusiasts were full of sweeping predictions: Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla rankled a crowd of doctors at Stanford Medical School by declaring that data crunching could and should eliminate many of their jobs. “We are guided too much by opinions,” he said, “not by statistical science.”

Big data is touted as the holy grail of all manner of business needs: eliminating human error and wasted time in decision making; identifying prospective winners and losers long before executives can; minimizing costly hiring mistakes; and even sussing out investment opportunities, competitive advantage, and future strategy. From this perspective, big data not only can predict the future—it is the future.

Not so fast, say the authors of this year’s three best business books on honing your executive chops. The science of big data does indeed hold the potential to catalytically improve many areas of business, but they argue that the human factor still makes the difference between good and great corporate performance in the long run. The key, these authors suggest in three different ways, is understanding and harnessing the power of our own minds—in conjunction with having the right analytical data and decision-making frameworks.

Phil Rosenzweig
Left Brain, Right Stuff: How Leaders Make Winning Decisions
(PublicAffairs, 2014)

Christian Madsbjerg and Mikkel B. Rasmussen
The Moment of Clarity: Using the Human Sciences to Solve Your Toughest Business Problems
(Harvard Business Review Press, 2014)

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz
It’s Not the How or the What but the Who: Succeed by Surrounding Yourself with the Best
(Harvard Business Review Press, 2014)

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Video: 7 Skills students need for their future

Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard's Change Leadership Group has identified what he calls a "global achievement gap," which is the leap between what even our best schools are teaching, and the must-have skills of the future: * Critical thinking and problem-solving * Collaboration across networks and leading by influence * Agility and adaptability * Initiative and entrepreneurialism * Effective oral and written communication * Accessing and analyzing information * Curiosity and imagination.

Watch this 29 min video

How to advance your IT career in one simple step

Want to know the single most important thing you can do to advance your IT career? This brief, brought to you by Citrix GoToAssist, explores how thinking less about yourself and more about the people around you is the most important thing you can do to advance your IT career. Download the brief to learn: - How to become everyone’s go-to techie - Why focusing on others is good for your career - Three career suggestions to flat out ignore - And more…

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8 Things You Should Not Do Every Day

It's for your own good. Cut these things out of your day and you'll see gains in productivity--not to mention happiness.

If you get decent value from making to-do lists, you'll get huge returns--in productivity, in improved relationships, and in your personal well-being--from adding these items to your not to-do list:

Every day, make the commitment not to:

1. Check my phone while I'm talking to someone.

2. Multitask during a meeting.

3. Think about people who don't make any difference in my life.

4. Use multiple notifications.

5. Let the past dictate the future.

6. Wait until I'm sure I will succeed.

7. Talk behind someone's back.

8. Say "yes" when I really mean "no."

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9 Habits of People Who Build Extraordinary Relationships

The most extraordinary professional relationships are built by ordinary actions like these.

1. Take the hit.

2. Step in without being asked.

3. Answer the question that is not asked. 4. Know when to dial it back.

5. Prove they think of others.

6. Realize when they have acted poorly.

7. Give consistently, receive occasionally.

8. Value the message by always valuing the messenger.

9. Start small... and are happy to stay small.

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