The Making of a Manager

Introduction

Great Managers Are Made, Not Born

I remember the meeting when my manager asked me to become a manager.

It was unexpected, like going for your daily run and tripping over a pirate chest. Oh, I thought, how intriguing.

We were sitting in a ten-person conference room, kitty-corner from each other. Our team is growing, my manager explained. We need another manager, and you get along with everyone. What do you think?

I was twenty-five, working at a start-up. All that I knew of management could be neatly summarized into two words, meetings and PROMOTION. I mean, this was a promotion, wasn t it? Everyone knows this conversation was the equivalent of Harry Potter getting a visit from Hagrid on a dark and stormy night, the first step in an adventurous and fulfilling career. I wasn t about to turn down that kind of invitation.

So I said yes.

It was only later, walking out of the room, that I thought about the details of what she had said. I got along with everyone. Surely there was more to management than that. How much more? I was about to find out.



I remember my first meeting with a direct report.

I arrived five minutes past our scheduled time, in a rush and flustered by my lateness. This is a terrible start, I thought to myself. I could see him through the windowed door of the conference room the same one I had met my manager in previously eyes glued to his phone. Just a day earlier, we had both been designers on the same team, sitting in our adjacent pods, working on our respective projects while lobbing rapid-fire design feedback across the aisle. Then the announcement was made, and now I was his manager.

I m not nervous, I told myself. We re going to have a great conversation. About what, I wasn t entirely sure. I just wanted this meeting to feel normal, like it had yesterday and the day before that. If he didn t love the fact that I was his manager, then at

Julie Zhuo

Rated Amazon's #1 Best Business Book of the Year So Far!

"I've seen so many people thrust into management in high-growth companies with so little guidance. From now on, I will hand them this book. Its practical wisdom is immediately useful for the newly minted manager and us old ones."
Ev Williams, CEO of Medium and co-founder of Twitter

Julie Zhuo had to learn to be a manager fast, as her role kept expanding in the hyper-growth environment of a successful Silicon Valley start-up. In The Making of a Manager, she shares what she learned often, the hard way. She combines cutting-edge analysis of how organizations work with engaging and accessible examples of how theory plays out in real life, with stories of what she did right and wrong.  
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project
 
I wish I'd had this book when I started managing a team at Instagram. Julie covers the full range of becoming a manager, from your first meetings with your team to accomplishing huge goals together.
Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram

"Every business book I read as a consultant and later a CEO was written by a man. Julie brings an entirely fresh perspective on leadership as a brilliant hacker, first-generation American, and young mother. This book is everything Silicon Valley appreciates in Julie: humble, inspiring, and whip-smart." 
Leila Janah, CEO and founder of Samasource and LXMI and author of Give Work

"At startups, individuals asked to manage are rarely set-up for success. Julie Zhuo gives new managers the tools they need to help their people and company win."
Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator and co-chairman of OpenAI

"Are you a new manager? Are you a little scared? Fear not. Julie Zhuo is here to help. She took on a manager position at one of the biggest start-ups of our generation before she felt quite ready, but she grew into