How did you get into 'management'? Were you supported, guided, coached, and given full context on what was expected? A lot of us 'stumble into' management, and it perhaps wasn't a deliberate choice.
Often as an individual contributor (IC) in our field, we progressed through our careers quite successfully, seeing titles like 'senior', 'lead', 'principal' and at some point during that, we seemed to find ourselves 'helping' - organising people and projects. It doesn't take long for it to become 'the job' and you have become a manager by simple time served.
The aim of this guide is to provide a framework for discussion and reflection around management, be it people considering a role, people new to the role, or people seasoned in it. It will then provide a tool to allow an individual to score (ideally with the support of a manager) to understand themselves and their growth areas.
It focusses on a number of areas:
- Self
- Team
- Strategy
- Communications
- Domain Expertise
We will expand upon each of these in this guide, but this should provide a blueprint to help focus discussion in on opportunities for growth within a person when looking at management as a role.
We will talk about how best to evaluate yourself in these areas, but we would encourage this to form the basis of discussion with your current manager, your peers, and perhaps the overall organisational context to really aid the reflection process.