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

by Julie Zhuo

Ask your manager to help you calibrate yourself through the following two questions: What opportunities do you see for me to do more of what I do well? What do you think are the biggest things holding me back from having greater impact? What skills do you think a hypothetical perfect person in my role would have? For each skill, how would you rate me against that ideal on a scale of one to five? Pick three to seven people whom you work closely with and ask if they’d be willing to share some feedback to help you improve. Even if your company already has a process for 360-degree feedback, it helps to be specific about what you want to know and to provide reassurances that you’re looking for honesty, not just pats on the back. Take the example below. Hey, I value your feedback and I’d like to be a more effective team member. Would you be willing to answer the questions below? Please be as honest as you can because that’s what will help me the most—I promise nothing you say will offend me. Feedback is a gift, and I’m grateful for your taking the time. Examples of specific asks: On our last project together, in what ways did you see me having impact? What do you think I could have done to have more impact? With my team, what am I doing well that you’d like to see me do more of? What should I stop doing? One of the things I’m working on is being more decisive. How do you think I’m doing on that? Any suggestions on how I can do better here? Ask for task-specific feedback to calib...