Becoming a Manager: Mastery of a New Identity

by Linda A. Hill

The transition from star performer to a competent manager can be trying for many--even traumatic. The skills that led to success as a salesperson, for example, are very different from those needed to manage a sales force. New managers must learn how to lead others, to win trust and respect, to motivate, and to strike the right balance between delegation and control. It is a transition many new managers fail to make.
In BECOMING A MANAGER, Linda Hill traces the experiences of 19 new managers over the course of their first year in a managerial capacity. Through personal interviews she reveals the complexity of the process and examines the expectations of the managers, their subordinates, and their superiors. In their own words the managers describe how they reframed their understanding of their roles and responsibilities, how they learned to build effective work relationships with subordinates, how and when they used individual and organizational resources, and how they learned to cope with the stresses and emotions of the transformation. Above all, they describe what it meant to take on a new identity.
Two themes emerge from this fascinating book. First, the transition from individual contributor to manager represented a profound psychological adjustment--a transformation--as the managers tried to contend with their new responsibilities. 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 an effective business leader.
The human and financial costs associated with the transition to manager can be considerable. Descriptions of bad judgment, burnout, and incompetence abound in these pages. But there are steps companies can take to improve the odds for first-time managers. Linda Hill gives concrete, practical suggestions that any company can use to help managers survive their first year and become effective contributors to the organization.
BECOMING A MANAGER provides valuable insight into the challenges that new managers face. It is must reading for human resource professionals and others responsible for management development, as well as for the manager struggling to make the difficult transition to a new identity.

Genres: Management, Leadership

331 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1992

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

It did have some helpful advice about the transition from individual contributor to manager, but much of it was (naturally) more relevant to people in/managing sales teams, and there was a lot of repetition in some chapters. I found myself skimming most of them, looking for those nuggets. If you do the same, be sure to read the last chapter - it's a good recap, and you can always go back to reread other chapters if needed.

[Neil R. Coulter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Becoming a Manager is the most useful, encouraging book on leadership and management that I've read since moving into administration a little over a year ago. Hill followed 19 just-promoted managers over the course of their first year in the new role, interviewing them and also interviewing their subordinates and superiors. As she let the new managers speak in their own words throughout the book, I was astounded by how much their feelings matched mine. Here I thought I must be really lame, or that my organization must be uniquely bizarre; but now I see that my first-year administrative experiences are exactly what other new managers in very different industries go through.

Hill helped me see that transitioning into management is not simply the acquisition of new skills on top of the professional skills I've already mastered. Instead, becoming a manager is a total reconfiguration of who I am as a person. It means leaving my former professional identity behind (to some extent, at least) and growing into a new identity and way of looking at work and the world. I wish I had had that perspective earlier on in the job, but I'm grateful to have a look at my first year in hindsight, with some additional clarity on what has been happening to me.

Especially encouraging for me were comments about the conflicting expectations and the ambiguity that the new managers felt. Here's what one of the new managers said:

     At any point in my day, I could calculate just how much money I had made. How much I made was mostly under my control; if I worked hard and worked smart, I got more dollars. There was a direct connection.
     Before it was all objective. You brought in this amount of dollars, you get this percentage. Now, it's all subjective. They [senior managers] can't even communicate to you so that you can understand exactly what standards you'll be measured against.
     You can just say “I had a small degree of positive influence” sometimes. You never really feel like you have accomplished anything tangible. Before I could break my work down into parts, there was a beginning and end. At the end of the day, I could see what I had done. Now, I never seem to get any closure. (163)

Though I work in a non-profit organization and the money-making doesn't apply so directly to me, I totally relate to those feelings of having lost all the tangible standards by which my work is judged. A point that Hill emphasizes throughout the book is that management success is based on how your team of subordinates performs, not how well you do a specialist job. It feels riskier, more subjective, more ambiguous, and sometimes less rewarding. I've found all of that to be true.

Hill writes with a gentle, encouraging voice that I appreciated. There is some repetition through the book, but I found it appropriate and worthwhile in strengthening the main points. Becoming a Manager is a book I would recommend as required reading for new managers at some point in their first 18 months on the job. While I wished I'd read it sooner, it's likely that I gained more from it after completing my first year.

[Ali Sirri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not a self-development guide. This is a book about new managers, their feelings, fears, etc. If you are new promoted employee or if you take some responsibilities and if you have some doubts about your managent skilla you should read this book. You will feel happy after you saw that almost every new manager has same fears as yours.
This book does not include practices, tips or to do list. At the end of the book there is a section for companies about education / developing the management skills of colleagues.

[Berry Boen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first management book that I read in college. Excellent advice on how to manage teams successfully (hint: empowering them). This shaped my management style early on and helped me attain goals with seemingly less efforts.

[Aimé Corona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro me está ayudando muchísimo para la maestría. Creo que lo estaré consultando constantemente.