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

by Julie Zhuo

Good design at its core is about understanding people and their needs in order

This is the crux of management: It is the belief that a team of people can achieve more than a single person going it alone. It is the realization that you don’t have to do everything yourself, be the best at everything yourself, or even know how to do everything yourself.

Whenever a new manager joins my team, my favorite questions to ask a few months in are: “What turned out to be more challenging than you expected, and what was easier than you expected?”

“What do you want to be working toward in a year’s time?” or “What do you consider your strengths?”

What did you and your past manager discuss that was most helpful to you? What are the ways in which you’d like to be supported? How do you like to be recognized for great work? What kind of feedback is most useful for you? Imagine that you and I had an amazing relationship. What would

bottom-up approach where all employees are expected to manage their own time effectively.

Whenever you find yourself deeply disappointed, or disappointing someone else, ask yourself: Where did I miss out on setting clear expectations, and how might I do better in the future?

If I saw every challenge as a test of my worthiness, then I’d constantly worry about where I stood rather than how I could improve.

No matter how good or bad I am at any particular skill, the notion that it’s within my power to improve has allowed me to approach learning with curiosity instead of apprehension.

By feeling guilty about the way you feel, you’re creating even more stress for yourself.

In study after study, high workplace stress has been shown to inhibit creativity, whereas “when people were feeling more positive, they were more likely to be creative,”

hiring is not a problem to be solved but an opportunity to build the future of your organization.

In addition to contributing their talents, our favorite coworkers teach us new things, inspire and support us, and make going to work a whole lot more fun.

Could he walk me

through how he set goals on a particular project? Could he describe the most difficult challenge he’d encountered in his past job and how he tackled it?

What kinds of challenges are interesting to you and why? Can you describe a favorite project?

What do you consider your greatest strengths? What would your peers agree are your areas of growth?

Imagine yourself in three years. What do you hope will be different about you then compared to now?

What was the hardest conflict you’ve had in the

past year? How did it end, and what did you learn from the experience?

What’s something that’s inspired you in your work recently?

Assume you have a magic wand that makes everything your team does go perfectly. What do you hope will be different in two to three years compared to now?