The First-time Manager Quotes

“When you do a job because it aligns with your self-interest, your motivation is self-perpetuating. You don’t have to be forced into doing it. One of the primary responsibilities of a manager is to change the feelings of team members from “have to” to “want to.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“Explain in a professional and diplomatic manner how her behaviors, policies, or actions are having a bottom-line business impact. Make it about the organization, not the person. Start the discussion with a constructive, nonjudgmental statement such as, “We may be missing some opportunities to be more effective.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“It is impossible to be involved in every facet of the work of thirty-five people, so begin now to distance yourself from the details of each task and concentrate on the overall project.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“These chief responsibilities include hiring, communicating, planning, organizing, training, monitoring, evaluating, and firing.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“These chief responsibilities include hiring, communicating, planning, organizing, training”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“What enables you and your employees to succeed in the long run, however, is helping your employees to become self-directed. This means that you must get their support and commitment, share power with them, and remove as many obstacles to their success as possible.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“What enables you and your employees to succeed in the long run, however, is helping your employees to become self-directed. This means that you must get their support and commitment, share power with them, and remove as many obstacles to their success as possible. THE”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“As a manager you need to play many roles—coach, standard setter, performance appraiser, teacher, motivator, visionary, and so forth.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“At first, you may consider this type of behavior to be role-playing. But after a while you’ll be unable to tell when the role-playing has stopped and it’s actually you: After practicing these new listening habits, you become very comfortable with them and they become part of your regular behavior.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“When an employee or colleague comes into your office who you know in advance is not going to pick up any of your signals, you can announce at the beginning that you have only a limited amount of time and if that is not enough, then the two of you will need to schedule a time to meet later. You will find this strategy works quite well.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“The verbal conversational terminators are known to just about anyone who has held a job: ■ “I appreciate your coming in.” ■ “It was nice talking to you.” ■ “You have given me a lot to think about.” ■ “Let me think about that a while and get back to you.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“Once a manager achieves a reputation for being an outstanding listener, the staff lines up to discuss many matters.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“That means that the words you use, your facial expressions, and your tone of voice all give the same meaning.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“Let me see if I understand what you are saying,” then provide your version of what you think you just heard. Once stated, you then ask the person you’re listening to if you got it right. By doing this, you are sending a clear message that you are placing value on what the person is saying.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“Be careful in your mentor’s role that you do not mistake it for being a best friend. While it is certainly good to have a positive relationship with the people you lead, you are not their best buddy.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“Sometime during the first sixty days in your new management position, you should plan on having a personal conversation with each of the people in your area of responsibility.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“The newly appointed manager who starts acting like “the boss” by issuing orders and other directives is off to a bad start.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“One of your first decisions should be to refrain from immediately instituting changes in the method of operation.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“A leader is a person others look to for direction, someone whose judgment is respected because it is usually sound. As you exercise your judgment and develop the capacity to make sound decisions, it becomes a self-perpetuating characteristic. Your faith in your own decisionmaking power is fortified. That feeds your self-confidence, and with more self-confidence, you become less reluctant to make difficult decisions.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“business life. Believe it or not, they’re more important to your future than the president of your company. This bit of knowledge has always seemed obvious, yet many new managers spend almost all their time planning their upward communication and give only a passing glance to the people who really control their future.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“Leaders can also set aside matters of personality and make decisions based on fact.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“The advice in this book centers around two overarching messages: Be thoughtful in your actions and always conduct yourself with class. You will never regret either.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“When you create a setting where your people see that their efforts are contributing to a positive outcome well beyond what they could achieve individually, they will be more motivated and find greater meaning in what they do.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“Why do you want to work here?” ▪​“What makes you think you’re qualified for this job?” ▪​“Are you interested in this job because of the salary?” Dumb questions like these will make you a rotten interviewer. You must strive to put the prospect at ease so that you can carry on a conversation.”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“Almost without exception, managers say the most important ingredients in hiring a new employee are experience, qualifications, and education. They rarely come up with the missing ingredient: attitude. You can hire an employee with all the experience, education, and qualifications you could hope for, but if the person has a bad attitude, you have just hired a problem employee. On the other hand, you can hire a person with less experience, education, and”
― Jim McCormick, The First-Time Manager

“but if you enjoy their company and respect their feelings, you’ll be much more effective in your job”
― Loren B. Belker, The First-Time Manager

“Far too many people accept management promotions because they feel (often rightly so) that they will be dead-ended if they reject the promotion.”
― Loren B. Belker, The First-Time Manager

“Managers need to focus on people, not just tasks. They need to rely on others, not just be self-reliant. Managers are also team-oriented and have a broad focus, whereas nonmanagers succeed by having a narrow focus and being detail-oriented.”
― Loren B. Belker, The First-Time Manager

“Management isn’t doing—it’s seeing that it gets done. Following”
― Loren B. Belker, The First-Time Manager

“People working for the autocrat believe they are working for someone. Those reporting to the diplomat believe they are working zoit/i someone.”
― Loren B. Belker, The First-Time Manager