Summary of “The Making of a Manager” by Julie Zhuo

This week, I finished reading an incredible book on management by Julie Zhou (Co-founder at Sundial; Former VP Design at Facebook). Her book is so incredible that I wish every manager (and aspiring manager) would get a copy. As I read the book, I found myself highlighting different parts and taking extensive notes. In an effort to remember what I’m learning, I thought I should write down the high level takeaways (although you should definitely get the book).

Chapter 1: What is Management?

• Management and leadership are not the same thing. Management is a specific job with its set of tasks.
• “Your job, as a manager, is to get better outcomes from a group of people working together”.
• Consider two aspects: the team’s results and the team’s satisfaction (the latter is an indicator for future results).
• To achieve great results, awesome managers should focus on 3 areas: purpose, people, and process (the why, the who, and the how).

Chapter 2: Your First Three Months

• “Manager-report relationship is different from peer relationship. You are now responsible for the outcome of the team”.
• If your team is growing (4–5 people), you should scale back your individual contributor work so you can be a great manager.
• Learn about your reports — what are their strengths? How do they want to be recognized? How do they want to be supported?
• You do not need to jump in and fix things — this is a common mistake. Listen, ask questions and learn.
• Invest in building relationships.
• Play to your strengths — you do not need to someone else to be successful.

Chapter 3: Leading a Small Team

• “The best outcomes come from inspiring people to action, not telling them what to do”
• Aspire to build *trust* with your reports. “You have more impact on their day-to-day than they have on yours. This means that the responsibility of building a trusting relationship lies more with you than with them”.
• To figure out if there is trust, ask yourself if your reports feel comfortable bringing challenges to you early, and are comfortable sharing critical feedback with you. Ask yourself if you feel that your reports would happily choose to work with you again in the future?
• Remember to be human. You do not need to have all the answers. Sometimes validation and support are the most important things a smart person needs.
• “What caring does mean, however, is doing your best to help your report be successful and filled in her work. It means taking the time to learn what she cares about. It means understanding that we are not separate peoples t work and at home.”
• “Your job as a manager is not tot to dole out advice or Save the day — It’s to empower your reports.”
• Invest in helping your reports succeed, and strive to have 1:1s that can be valuable for your report and the team (discuss key priorities, calibrate expectations, share honest feedback, listen)
• Vulnerability is critical. Have the self-awareness and courage to share your own challenges and growth areas, and to be truthful when you do not know the answer.
• Pay attention to your reports’ strengths. Humans are biased to look at the negative, but make sure you recognize people’s strengths.
• Make sure you pay attention to your top performers. Sometimes managers focus too much on reports who need the most support that they forget to pay attention to top performers.
• “If you do not believe someone is set up to succeed in his current role, the kindest thing you can do is to be honest with him and support him in moving on”.

Chapter 4: The Art of Feedback

• Learn to give great feedback — and remember that praise is a form of feedback. There is task specific feedback and behavioral feedback (who the person is perceived to be, what their behavior is like).
• Aim for at least 50% positive feedback so your reports know when they are doing well
• No one likes surprises — you need to set clear expectations, and to communicate regularly and effectively.

Chapter 5: Managing Yourself

• “Being a great manager is a highly personal journey and if you do not have a good handle of yourself, you won’t have a good handle on how to best support your team”
• Play to your strengths
• Ask yourself — what your your key areas of improvements? Do you have enough self-awareness?
• Schedule time for daily prep
• Figure out what triggers you and what helps you do your best work
• Use visualizations to improve you confidence — vividly visualize yourself succeeding
• Celebrate daily little wins
• Establish boundaries
• Get feedback — both task specific and behavior specific
• Treat your manager as a coach, not a judge

Chapter 6: Amazing Meetings

• Ask yourself “What does a great outcome look like” for every meeting? Are you trying to make a decision? to share information? to generate ideas? to strengthen relationships?
• Make sure you invite the right people — and keep it small
• Share agenda ahead of the meeting and give people the opportunity to come prepared
• Send follow ups with clear action items after meetings
• Create an environment where people feel comfortable contributing
• Realize that many meetings may not need you — and that many may not even need to exist. Your time is critical — guard it well.

Chapter 7: Hiring Well

• Hiring is super critical and should be done very well. “As a manager, one of the smartest ways to multiply your team’s impact is to hire the best people and empower them to do more and more until you stretch the limits of their capabilities”
• Plan intentionally and ahead of time — think about your future org chart ahead of time
• Hiring is a manager’s responsibility. Work closely with the recruiting team and build an awesome relationship with them
• Be super clear about what you’re looking for and make sure your recruiting team knows specifically what you’re looking for
• Make sure the interview process is amazing — this shows candidate (future hires) that you care which is critical if you want these candidates to say yes or apply again in the future
• Be aware that interview performance is not correlated with job performance. Try to understand candidates’ past experience especially on similar projects in a similar environment. Ask to see previous sample work/portfolios.
• Having multiple interviewers can help reduce bias
• Hire candidates that the team is excited and passionate about
• Do not rush leadership hires
• Careers are long so think long term when hiring — build great relationships even if the person you want to hire chooses something else now, they are a potential great hire for the future.

Chapter 8: Making Things Happen

• Process is critical. It is not about light bulb moments — it is about trying quickly, being curious and doubling down on what is working.
• You need an ambitious, concrete, and specific vision for your team. If you ask 5 random people who have heard your vision to repeat it, would they be able to?
• “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything” — Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Your strategy should acknowledge your team’s strengths and weaknesses
• Focus on doing few things well — ”the general idea is that the majority of results come from a minority of the causes”
• Prioritization is absolutely critical
• “Effort does not count; results are what matter”
• Ownership needs to be clear
• People are biased to underestimate how long things will take — so buffer accordingly.
• Speed matters — move fast.
• Establish a culture where collective learning and resilience are critical. “At the end of the day, a resilient organization is not one that never makes mistakes but rather one whose mistakes make it stronger over time”.
• Take a portfolio approach — Balance short term need with long term strategies.
• “Describe over and over again the world you’d like to see. Try to connect every task, project, description or goal with the organization’s higher purpose”.
• Codify processes into playbooks to save time — this will also ensure that you’re not a bottleneck when you are on vacation or if/when you leave.