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Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership
New managers must learn how to lead others rather than do the work themselves, to win trust and respect, to motivate, and to strike the right balance between delegation and control. It is a transition many fail to make. This book traces the experiences of nineteen new managers over the course of their first year in a managerial capacity. Reveals the complexity of the transition and analyzes the expectations of the managers, their subordinates, and their superiors. New managers describe how they reframed their understanding of their roles and responsibilities, how they learned to build effective work relationships, how and when they used individual and organizational resources, and how they learned to cope with the inevitable stresses of the transformation. They describe what it was like to take on a new identity. Two themes emerge: first the transition from individual contributor to manager is a profound psychological adjustment--a transformation; second, the process of becoming a manager is primarily one of learning from experience. Through trial and error, observation and interpretation, the new managers learned what it took to become effective business leaders.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 31, 1992
130 people are currently reading
945 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
March 23, 2025
Did not finish. Boring AF. Entire book is written like a research paper.
September 20, 2023
Summary:
True to its title, the book describes how new managers handle the challenges of transitioning into their first manager role.
Part 1 highlights how managers gain a better understanding of what the role is about by reconciling their expectations with reality, and the expectations of others.
Part 2 deep-dives into the challenges of managing direct-reports: establishing credibility, building commitment, leading a team, and managing performance.
Part 3 focuses on key learnings new managers have made during their first year in the role.
Part 4 provides insight into challenges related to the transition into the role, and the tools and techniques organisations could use to ease it.
Part 5 addresses the common myths of management.
My opinion:
I did recognise the common pitfalls new managers fall into, and I definitely see it as a good read for all people who consider going into a manager position. Personally, I would prefer if the book was written more as a guidebook as opposed to a study. You can still draw a lot of good advice from the mistakes of others but the tone felt impersonal to me. I would argue that new managers would benefit from more explicit tips. Also, the book seem to focus on account and sales managers, I would prefer a greater diversity or more department-neutral, generic examples.
True to its title, the book describes how new managers handle the challenges of transitioning into their first manager role.
Part 1 highlights how managers gain a better understanding of what the role is about by reconciling their expectations with reality, and the expectations of others.
Part 2 deep-dives into the challenges of managing direct-reports: establishing credibility, building commitment, leading a team, and managing performance.
Part 3 focuses on key learnings new managers have made during their first year in the role.
Part 4 provides insight into challenges related to the transition into the role, and the tools and techniques organisations could use to ease it.
Part 5 addresses the common myths of management.
My opinion:
I did recognise the common pitfalls new managers fall into, and I definitely see it as a good read for all people who consider going into a manager position. Personally, I would prefer if the book was written more as a guidebook as opposed to a study. You can still draw a lot of good advice from the mistakes of others but the tone felt impersonal to me. I would argue that new managers would benefit from more explicit tips. Also, the book seem to focus on account and sales managers, I would prefer a greater diversity or more department-neutral, generic examples.
Want to read
September 20, 2021I got to Page 100, and I gave up-- not because it's a bad book. But at this point, given the stresses of the current job, it is difficult for me to spend even more capacity on work related management improvement. Nevertheless, below are some high-level insights.
The book offered insights particularly in the sales, but still offered some relevance to my work in transport planning. In the early chapters, it identified the need for managers:
TO MANAGE DOWN: To be an industry leader, to be the group's organizer, to be the team leader.
It is easy to fall into individual work contributor tasks, but it's important to come out from there and delegate work.
TO MANAGE UP: To be the nerve centre for the work, and raises expectations, to be the negotiator for the team and looking outward
The book offered insights particularly in the sales, but still offered some relevance to my work in transport planning. In the early chapters, it identified the need for managers:
TO MANAGE DOWN: To be an industry leader, to be the group's organizer, to be the team leader.
It is easy to fall into individual work contributor tasks, but it's important to come out from there and delegate work.
TO MANAGE UP: To be the nerve centre for the work, and raises expectations, to be the negotiator for the team and looking outward
April 18, 2020
I would classify Becoming a Manager as a very long read with some repetitive things in the book. The book for the start focuses too much on people in sales and a lot of parts may not be relevant to everyone who is reading the book!
Nevertheless I enjoyed some parts of the book which talks about what all goes in building one's career in management and how it is a lifetime process. Many things like the effect of having a network of relationships with peers, mentors, direct line managers helps, How taking some stretch assignments help in future projects.
So all in all a good one time read, but as the book says itself management cannot be taught in theory do not expect much from the book
Nevertheless I enjoyed some parts of the book which talks about what all goes in building one's career in management and how it is a lifetime process. Many things like the effect of having a network of relationships with peers, mentors, direct line managers helps, How taking some stretch assignments help in future projects.
So all in all a good one time read, but as the book says itself management cannot be taught in theory do not expect much from the book
December 3, 2020
Kitap belirli bir tema üzerine kendini tekrar etmek üzerine kurulu, Harvard B. serisinin cep mentor kitaplarına sığacak boyutta bir içeriği sündürmüşler. Zaten teknik bir kitap olduğu için okurda saman gibi bir tad bırakıyor. Okuma zevki kısmına hiç değinmeye gerek yok o yüzden. Kısacası yine bir gram bal için bir çeki keçi boynuzu çiğnemiş bulundum.
May 12, 2017
Thought provoking and detailed, was actually a little TOO dense with anecdotes otherwise I'd have five starred it no problem. Found myself wanting to skip later chapters but there was something valuable on every page!
April 14, 2019
This book was Stevo's Business Book of the Week for the week of 4/14, as selected by Stevo's Book Reviews on the Internet. You can find more reviews and recommendations on my Amazon Influencer page: https://www.amazon.com/shop/stevo4747.
November 8, 2020
This book is a logical approach towards understanding nuances of various circumstances & experiences which new managers go through. This is not a how-to or self help kinda book but rather gives perspective on the journey of transition from individual contributor to a manager.
June 12, 2020
Really prophetic book for first time managers. A must read. Just be warned that the first half, in the second edition, is much more impactful than the second half which comes off a bit like filler
August 12, 2023
I do not for the life of me know how this got such good reviews. I guess I'm just not into reading straight research statistics for pages on end. Get to the point and be done already.
March 24, 2025
This is good to read to understand managers and those new to management. It has a lot of research and sales-person focused, so it can be dry. Lots of good information though.
October 28, 2015
Becoming a Manager is an insightful read into what it really means to manage. Here, Hill highlights the misconceptions that many new managers have. Tracking the progress of several newly appointed managers in various companies, Hill distills the insights and lessons they glean as to what management actually entails.
For instance, a new manager might think that with the new role comes greater power, authority and autonomy. In reality, being a manager makes you more dependent on others - you now deliver not through your own efforts, but through those of your team. One's power and influence as a manager derives less from formal and positional authority, then from the credibility they could establish with their subordinates.
Another misconception is that being a stellar individual contributor makes them well placed to move into the management track. While your performance as an individual contributor might have placed you on the management track, your technical expertise and even the character traits that made you such a stellar performer - e.g. aggressiveness, independence - might be derailing factors as a manager. Instead, the "prime qualities ....of managerial character [are] self confidence, willingness to accept responsibility, patience, empathy and the ability to live with [ambiguity and] imperfect solutions".
A third misconception new managers had was that their main priority was managing their relationships with their subordinates, in all their diversity. First, they needed to manage not only their relationships with individual team members, they also had to manage team dynamics. Second, managing is not just about managing the people in the team, it also entails managing the context in which the team operates and managers therefore need to cultivate relationships across the broader organisation, with other functional units, with the bosses, etc.
So what can a new manager and organisations do to help manage the transition/transformation? Hill notes that "it takes time to assemble the managerial building blocks; judgment and skill come gradually through experience...fast tracking of high potential managers can impede sound technical and managerial development. Bonoma and Lawler observed that 'juniors are often their own worst enemies, mistaking the first five years of a career for the career itself, and forgetting that rapidity at some stages may stall a career later on....A successful career in general management is analogous to climbing a ladder - skipped rungs almost always create a safety hazard for the whole crew.'"
The managers Hill spoke to agreed that they learned how to be managers primarily from on the job experience. Formal training was useful in that it provided the managers with insights into corporate culture, better understanding of corporate policies, allowed them to build relationships with peers and sometimes superiors, but in and of itself, did not teach them about being managers per se. Hill argues that management training should be "designed to support the new managers' on the job training, helping them to learn how to learn by experience". It should focus on issues such as how to observe and diagnose interpersonal problems, how to seek information and solve problems in semistructured situations, what it means to be and what it feels like to be a manager, the differences between being an individual contributor and a manager. Rather than using receptive methods such as reading and lecturing, manager training should entail more experiential approaches eg. case studies, role play and simulation exercises.
While an insightful read, my main issue with Becoming A Manager was that it was quite repetitive at parts. While this has the advantage of ensuring that certain points stick in your head from being hammered in so many times, it did make the book a little didactic. Still, there are plenty of gems scattered throughout the book that makes it a worthwhile endeavour to plough through it.
For instance, a new manager might think that with the new role comes greater power, authority and autonomy. In reality, being a manager makes you more dependent on others - you now deliver not through your own efforts, but through those of your team. One's power and influence as a manager derives less from formal and positional authority, then from the credibility they could establish with their subordinates.
Another misconception is that being a stellar individual contributor makes them well placed to move into the management track. While your performance as an individual contributor might have placed you on the management track, your technical expertise and even the character traits that made you such a stellar performer - e.g. aggressiveness, independence - might be derailing factors as a manager. Instead, the "prime qualities ....of managerial character [are] self confidence, willingness to accept responsibility, patience, empathy and the ability to live with [ambiguity and] imperfect solutions".
A third misconception new managers had was that their main priority was managing their relationships with their subordinates, in all their diversity. First, they needed to manage not only their relationships with individual team members, they also had to manage team dynamics. Second, managing is not just about managing the people in the team, it also entails managing the context in which the team operates and managers therefore need to cultivate relationships across the broader organisation, with other functional units, with the bosses, etc.
So what can a new manager and organisations do to help manage the transition/transformation? Hill notes that "it takes time to assemble the managerial building blocks; judgment and skill come gradually through experience...fast tracking of high potential managers can impede sound technical and managerial development. Bonoma and Lawler observed that 'juniors are often their own worst enemies, mistaking the first five years of a career for the career itself, and forgetting that rapidity at some stages may stall a career later on....A successful career in general management is analogous to climbing a ladder - skipped rungs almost always create a safety hazard for the whole crew.'"
The managers Hill spoke to agreed that they learned how to be managers primarily from on the job experience. Formal training was useful in that it provided the managers with insights into corporate culture, better understanding of corporate policies, allowed them to build relationships with peers and sometimes superiors, but in and of itself, did not teach them about being managers per se. Hill argues that management training should be "designed to support the new managers' on the job training, helping them to learn how to learn by experience". It should focus on issues such as how to observe and diagnose interpersonal problems, how to seek information and solve problems in semistructured situations, what it means to be and what it feels like to be a manager, the differences between being an individual contributor and a manager. Rather than using receptive methods such as reading and lecturing, manager training should entail more experiential approaches eg. case studies, role play and simulation exercises.
While an insightful read, my main issue with Becoming A Manager was that it was quite repetitive at parts. While this has the advantage of ensuring that certain points stick in your head from being hammered in so many times, it did make the book a little didactic. Still, there are plenty of gems scattered throughout the book that makes it a worthwhile endeavour to plough through it.
August 4, 2008
This is the second edition of Becoming a Manager and although only three chapters have been added, their impact is considerable.
The original edition is based on interviews with 19 new managers and their thoughts on becoming a manager. As such, it was an interesting, but somewhat hard going (sentences and paragraphs are wordy), read. Although the 19 managers are all from customer service or sales, their stories translate well to other professions.
This latest edition adds chapters on Exercising Influence Without Formal Authority, Building an Effective Team, and Learning For A Lifetime. I found the chapter on teams a little light in it's description of process management. However, it's these chapters and in particular the one on influence, that makes this book much more useful for the new manager than the first edition. Every manager should use Hill’s description of sources of personal and positional power to improve their influencing.
By Hill’s own admission, she has become far more prescriptive in the latest edition and this is a real benefit for readers. For instance, in the most recent chapters, Hill asks questions that will enable the manager to apply the key concepts being covered. But, these "how to"s are hard to find.
If you are a big picture person, or someone who likes to get plenty of “how to” action type suggestions, then this book is not for you. However, if you are someone who always wants to know the reason “why?” something works or doesn’t work, you will enjoy this book.
The original edition is based on interviews with 19 new managers and their thoughts on becoming a manager. As such, it was an interesting, but somewhat hard going (sentences and paragraphs are wordy), read. Although the 19 managers are all from customer service or sales, their stories translate well to other professions.
This latest edition adds chapters on Exercising Influence Without Formal Authority, Building an Effective Team, and Learning For A Lifetime. I found the chapter on teams a little light in it's description of process management. However, it's these chapters and in particular the one on influence, that makes this book much more useful for the new manager than the first edition. Every manager should use Hill’s description of sources of personal and positional power to improve their influencing.
By Hill’s own admission, she has become far more prescriptive in the latest edition and this is a real benefit for readers. For instance, in the most recent chapters, Hill asks questions that will enable the manager to apply the key concepts being covered. But, these "how to"s are hard to find.
If you are a big picture person, or someone who likes to get plenty of “how to” action type suggestions, then this book is not for you. However, if you are someone who always wants to know the reason “why?” something works or doesn’t work, you will enjoy this book.
January 27, 2015
It was difficult to read because it's such a comprehensive and deep research but with a qualitative approach that it took me several sittings to digest the content. Much like the managers in this study, it took me months to deeply appreciate and understand this book. What it did give me was the awareness that I'm not alone in my trials and errors.
This book is something I would really recommend for people who would like to take their development as managers seriously. However it is not an easy read. It is very verbose and written quite like a dissertation. It is very formal which belies its scientific purpose.
That being said, I feel like this book is a very well done research into the experience of first time managers, especially managers of the same situation as myself.
Overall the content on it's own deserves five stars, but because it's such a voluminous book, I give it three stars.
This book is something I would really recommend for people who would like to take their development as managers seriously. However it is not an easy read. It is very verbose and written quite like a dissertation. It is very formal which belies its scientific purpose.
That being said, I feel like this book is a very well done research into the experience of first time managers, especially managers of the same situation as myself.
Overall the content on it's own deserves five stars, but because it's such a voluminous book, I give it three stars.
March 22, 2011
Contrary to prior reviews, I find this book a very easy read. The main reason is the immense amount of real-world quotations from the 19 managers being interviewed and tracked over the course of their first year being a manager. The book becomes an engaging account of the travails of these managers with insights to their inner fear and doubts. I find the book even more engaging than many novels!
It helps to put on the context hat while reading this. Get into the role of a first line manager or an aspiring one, or if not imagine reading this book as your boss. The second approach will invoke deep thoughts on how things are looking from your boss' side. I can almost guarantee you will not treat him the same after reading. Highly recommended work by Linda Hill, along with her next book, "Being the Boss".
It helps to put on the context hat while reading this. Get into the role of a first line manager or an aspiring one, or if not imagine reading this book as your boss. The second approach will invoke deep thoughts on how things are looking from your boss' side. I can almost guarantee you will not treat him the same after reading. Highly recommended work by Linda Hill, along with her next book, "Being the Boss".
February 22, 2013
I read this book when I first became a manager. Whenever someone comes into my office and says "I would like to be a manager" I ask them why and have they really thought about the transition? (Too many people want to become a manager because they think they "need" to as part of career progression).
It gives insight into what you are about to enter into and hopefully helps you bypass the most common of mistakes that I see happening with new managers every day.
It gives insight into what you are about to enter into and hopefully helps you bypass the most common of mistakes that I see happening with new managers every day.
October 11, 2008
A dense but rewarding book. Harvard professor Linda Hill studied 19 new managers in the first year of their managerial careers, and discovered some interesting things about how managers coped with the challenges of their new positions.
Recommended for anyone thinking about getting into management, new to management, or just interested in how management works.
Recommended for anyone thinking about getting into management, new to management, or just interested in how management works.
September 25, 2012
Good book for up coming, new and experience managers who need the basic foundation of being a manager. I like the section on power and influence. It is very important to learn how to survive and be effective when you do not have alot of positional power and yet have to deliver results in a dynamic, challenging, global and changing economy.
December 14, 2016
Lessons learned from following 19 managers in their first year on the job. The book is full with practical examples and scenarios to either consider before becoming a manager or situations that you might face during being a manager. Overall good read for people who are considering going into management.
July 17, 2018
Great book to read as a group. It provides a lot of assurance while going through the process of becoming a manager (phew, I'm not the only one that has experienced that!), but doesn't provide many tools to cope or grow past any of the problems discussed. Reading this in a group of peers and experienced managers was helpful to generate meaningful discussions.
July 27, 2011
A whole new perspective on what is expected of a new manager
November 21, 2011
An amazing book very useful for all new managers
July 27, 2017
Just reread this and I'm upgrading it from 3 stars to 4.
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May 22, 2015658.409 H6469 2003
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