The very first discovery of a manager

Many articles have been written on the topic of how the mind of a specialist breaks down when he becomes a manager. He has to do other tasks, a different level of responsibility falls on his head, completely different areas of the brain are involved.

This short article will focus on one discovery that I made shortly after I began to lead the team. And also about how I came to this discovery.

The evolution of a specialist into a manager


First you need to understand how the consciousness of a specialist who has chosen the path of management is changing. He began to move along this path as a result of some events that occurred with or without his participation. Somewhere he took the initiative, somewhere in time he turned out, somewhere he made the right decision. Each time he became closer to the goal, he saw it more clearly. It’s rare for someone to be appointed as a manager comes as a surprise. A person usually understands what led to this. No revolutions, continuous evolution.

Therefore, I believe that there are no sharp needs to change your mind when moving from a specialist to a manager. Everything happens gradually. And when some gradual changes occur in our head, that is, extended in time, we also gradually forget our initial state. In this case, this is the state when we have not thought about management yet and were ordinary developers / testers.

Bitter truth


What turns out? When we become managers, we already think differently than most of our colleagues. Today we come to work to lead those who we ourselves were yesterday. We count on dedication, responsibility, dedication and independence of our subordinates. That is, we are waiting for all that we ourselves have awarded our manager.

And then the truth pops up. Yesterday, as an ordinary member of the team, you really were no longer one of them. You were a mature manager (albeit a junior manager). You just had to hatch from an egg and take its place in the world. And you have long forgotten how people who come to work to “pedal” and get paid for it, or those who are much more interested in the technical side of the issue, think that way.

This truth is doing bitter this: it turns out that your subordinates do not care much. What will happen to the project. that the deadlines are running, that if someone goes on vacation now. then we won’t be able to take on the fact that if we don’t stop at work today, the client will think that we are irresponsible and will not give us a new part of his business. In general, everything that goes beyond the zone of their interests.

You have not been like this for a long time (at least professionally). And it will hurt when you understand it. But this pain has a plus. Now you know exactly what you, as a manager, will have to do most of the time.

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