FirstDayAsManager

Do you remember your first day in a management role?

I was promoted from within the group I'd been working in for two years. Most of the group didn't display any particular reaction. But one guy did. He was older than I, had been in the group longer, and (in his opinion, at least) had better technical skills.

I needed to cross the office on some trivial errand... This guy stood up and glared at me as I walked from one end of the office to the other. It was a long walk.

It made it real clear to me that I wasn't one of the group anymore, and that not all the folks who had been my pals on Monday were going offer any support on Tuesday.

EstherDerby 02/26/02

Wow, do I remember my first day - my former boss & mentor had left for a software start-up, and my peer had been promoted to head the DBA unit that we had jointly run. I guess they felt I couldn't work under him, so they made me a supervisor of 3 people and asked me to convert our custom TCAM teleprocessing network to VTAM. I couldn't see why they hadn't picked one of the experienced T/P folk who knew the system and its performance curves, nor could I see why none of the folk in that system were asked to report to me in this role. I was a database person, with 3 DBA technical folks asked to gut the networking of the biggest breadwinner in the department. Go figure. I put up with it for 2 months, but the politics were rediculous - whose turf is this, anyway? I left to spend 9 1/2 years back as a developer/advisor [non-supervisory] in the software start-up my former boss had gone to. I guess when you've succeeded repeatedly for 4 years, they expect you to pass the walk-on-water exam with your eyes closed.
BobLee 02/26/02

Bob - That's a great story! I like that you saw that you had a choice and exercised it. Sometimes I meet people who feel trapped once they've been annointed into a management role: they feel like if they go back to doing the technical work they love, it will be perceived as a failure. So they stay in management roles where they are unhappy (and probably inadventently causing unhappiness for others). EstherDerby 02/27/02

I love Bob's walking on water metaphor. If we walked on water once or twice, people expect a repeat performance. Like Michelle Kwan expected to win olympic gold in women's figure skating, we may excel in one situation or on one day, and we may fall short in another situation or on another day.

Like Esther, I experienced not "one of the group anymore". In 1985 I went from independent consultant (DBA - doing business as myself) to incorporating. I literally made no change other than legal status, yet certain fellow consultants treated me differently. My sense at the time was feeling like a faceless "enemy".

I expanded my company in 1988 to include employees. By 1994 we had grown to a point where younger employees saw me as "The President", as opposed to Becky. This may be okay, but not useful when you REALLY want honest feedback or contributions from people. It becomes apparent who is feeding your ego versus feeding new ideas.

- BeckyWinant 2/27/02

I too vividly remember my first day. I worked for an aerospace company and was promoted to manage a programming group that supported manufacturing. The first morning there was a major problem with one of the batch systems that ran the night before. The business user supervisor called me on the phone and blamed my group, cursing me out for the problems. I was stunned. I didn't really respond but told him I'd get back to him. I went into my bosses office, told him what happened and asked his advice. He said "Find out the facts and then call him back." I found out that my person had indeed contributed to the problem by following his person's instructions to "sort the master file" (a mortal sin in programming terms). I called the supervisor back later that day and explained what had happened. Then I said to him "You know, I really do want to give you good service and you don't need to talk to me that way (cursing) to get it." Fortunately, he never did. I felt like he was giving me a test. For these manufacturing folks back in the 1970's, the louder you yelled at a person, the higher the person was suppose to jump. This person in particular already had a nickname "Screaming Charlie". It felt like if I let him get away with it on the first day, my life would be hell the rest of the supervisory time. Any one else given tests by their customers? - EileenStrider 3/4/2002

Eileen -- Sounds like you handled the situation well and were successful in teaching your customer that it wasn't ok to abuse you.

I didn't get the challenge on my first day, but it was common in my company for certain customers to try to "push" each new person.

One customer, Ruth, would call the newest programmer (if she/he showed signs of competence) and ask them to do various little fixes and enhancements, bypassing the usualy trouble report and prioritization process.

Sometimes it worked... a less experienced person would be eager to show their "customer services ethic," and do these "little" favors. Of course the team lead would find out when the new programmer turned the code over for test, and Ruth would be stymied.

EstherDerby 03/06/02

I remembered another part of my first day as a manager: I was promoted into a spot that opened because *my* manager had been promoted. I made an appointment to meet with him to get a briefing as I stepped into the role he had been in for several years. I hoped to fill in the blanks in my understanding of who was working on what, what the priorities were, etc. (I was hoping for a clue.)

I showed up for the meeting, set some context and asked for help. His response was "I ran the unit by the seat of my pants."

I had hoped for a little more guidance. But on reflection it was pretty obvious that "seat of the pants" was his management model.

EstherDerby 041402

A friend of mine told me about his first management experience. After introductions and meeting with some of his staff, he received a note from the director asking him to stop by. He did, and the director proceded to tell him everything his predecessor did wrong with advice to "change things around here".

- BeckyWinant 4-25-2002

Updated: Thursday, April 25, 2002