minor HBR
Leadership Review Paper (total 10%): A major theme and component of this course is leadership training. With this in mind, periodically throughout the course you will be assigned to read an article from the Harvard Business Review (HBR) about leadership. With one of these assignments, you will be required to write a 3 page Leadership Review paper about the leadership aspects of the article, what you thought about it, what concepts you agree/disagree with, and how you may use these principles and concepts in your future (or current) professional life (respiratory therapiest). It should be three pages long, double spaced, and APA style.
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A R T I C L E
Becoming the Boss
by
Linda A. Hill
Included with this full-text
Harvard Business Review
article:
The Idea in Brief—the core idea
The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work
1
Article Summary
2
Becoming the Boss
A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further
exploration of the article’s ideas and applications
10
Further Reading
Product 1723
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Becoming the Boss
page 1
The Idea in Brief The Idea in Practice
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Ask new managers about their early days as
bosses, and you’ll hear tales of disorienta-
tion, even despair. As Hill points out, most
novice bosses don’t realize how sharply
management differs from individual work.
Hampered by misconceptions, they fail the
trials involved in this rite of passage. And
when they stumble, they jeopardize their
careers and inflict staggering costs on
their organizations.
How to avoid this scenario? Beware of
common misconceptions about manage-
ment: For example, subordinates don’t
necessarily obey your orders, despite your
formal authority over them. You won’t have
more freedom to make things happen—
instead, you’ll feel constrained by organiza-
tional interdependencies. And you’re re-
sponsible not only for maintaining your
own operations—but also for initiating
positive changes both inside and outside of
your areas of responsibility.
Armed with
realistic
expectations, you’ll
be more likely survive the transition to
management—and generate valuable
results for your organization.
To succeed as a new manager, Hill suggests this approach:
REPLACE MYTHS WITH REALITIES
DON’T GO IT ALONE
•
Recognize that your boss is likely more tol-
erant of your questions and mistakes than
you might expect
•
Help your boss develop you. Instead of ask-
ing your boss to solve your problems,
present ideas for how you would handle a
thorny situation, and solicit his thoughts on
your ideas
•
Find politically safe sources of coaching and
mentoring from peers outside your func-
tion or in another organization
Myth Reality To manage
effectively…
Example
Managers wield
significant
authority and
freedom to make
things happen.
You are enmeshed
in a web of rela-
tionships with
people who make
relentless and
conflicting
demands on you.
Build relationships
with people outside
your group that
your team depends
on to do its work.
A U.S. media-company manag-
er charged with setting up a
new venture in Asia initiated
regular meetings on regional
strategy between executives
from both businesses.
Managers’ power
derives from their
formal position in
the company.
Your power comes
from your ability
to establish
credibility with
employees, peers,
and superiors.
Demonstrate char-
acter (intending to
do the right thing),
managerial compe-
tence (listening
more than talking),
and influence (get-
ting others to do
the right thing).
An investment bank manager
won employees’ respect by
shifting from showing off his
technical competence to ask-
ing them about their knowl-
edge and ideas.
Managers must
control their
direct reports.
Control doesn’t
equal commit-
ment. And
employees don’t
necessarily always
follow orders.
Build commitment
by empowering
employees to
achieve the team’s
goals—not order-
ing them.
Instead of demanding that
people do things her way, a
media manager insisted on
clarity about team goals and
accountability for agreed-upon
objectives.
Managers lead
their team by
building relation-
ships with indi-
vidual members
of the team.
Actions directed
at one subordi-
nate often nega-
tively affect your
other employees’
morale or per-
formance.
Pay attention to
your team’s overall
performance. Use
group-based
forums for problem
solving and diagno-
sis. Treat subordi-
nates in an equi-
table manner.
After granting a special parking
spot to a veteran salesman—
a move that ruffled other sales-
people’s feathers—a new
sales manager began leading
his entire team rather than try-
ing to get along well with each
individual.
Becoming the Boss
by Linda A. Hill
harvard business review • hbr.org • the tests of a leader • january 2007 page 2
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The earliest test of leadership comes with that first assignment to
manage others. Most new managers initially fail this test because of a
set of common misconceptions about what it means to be in charge.
Even for the most gifted individuals, the pro-
cess of becoming a leader is an arduous, albeit
rewarding, journey of continuous learning and
self-development. The initial test along the
path is so fundamental that we often overlook
it: becoming a boss for the first time. That’s a
shame, because the trials involved in this rite
of passage have serious consequences for both
the individual and the organization.
Executives are shaped irrevocably by their
first management positions. Decades later, they
recall those first months as transformational
experiences that forged their leadership philos-
ophies and styles in ways that may continue to
haunt and hobble them throughout their ca-
reers. Organizations suffer considerable human
and financial costs when a person who has
been promoted because of strong individual
performance and qualifications fails to adjust
successfully to management responsibilities.
The failures aren’t surprising, given the diffi-
culty of the transition. Ask any new manager
about the early days of being a boss—indeed,
ask any senior executive to recall how he or
she felt as a new manager. If you get an honest
answer, you’ll hear a tale of disorientation and,
for some, overwhelming confusion. The new
role didn’t feel anything like it was supposed
to. It felt too big for any one person to handle.
And whatever its scope, it sure didn’t seem to
have anything to do with leadership.
In the words of one new branch manager at
a securities firm: “Do you know how hard it is
to be the boss when you are so out of control?
It’s hard to verbalize. It’s the feeling you get
when you have a child. On day X minus 1, you
still don’t have a child. On day X, all of a sud-
den you’re a mother or a father and you’re sup-
posed to know everything there is to know
about taking care of a kid.”
Given the significance and difficulty of this
first leadership test, it’s surprising how little at-
tention has been paid to the experiences of
new managers and the challenges they face.
The shelves are lined with books describing ef-
fective and successful leaders. But very few ad-
dress the challenges of learning to lead, espe-
cially for the first-time manager.
http://www.hbr.org
Becoming the Boss
harvard business review • hbr.org • the tests of a leader • january 2007 page 3
For the past 15 years or so, I’ve studied peo-
ple making major career transitions to manage-
ment, focusing in particular on the star per-
former who is promoted to manager. My original
ambition was to provide a forum for new man-
agers to speak in their own words about what
it means to learn to manage. I initially followed
19 new managers over the course of their first
year in an effort to get a rare glimpse into their
subjective experience: What did they find most
difficult? What did they need to learn? How
did they go about learning it? What resources
did they rely upon to ease the transition and
master their new assignments?
Since my original research, which I de-
scribed in the first edition of
Becoming a Man-
ager,
published in 1992, I’ve continued to study
the personal transformation involved when
someone becomes a boss. I’ve written case studies
about new managers in a variety of functions
and industries and have designed and led new-
manager leadership programs for companies
and not-for-profit organizations. As firms have
become leaner and more dynamic—with dif-
ferent units working together to offer inte-
grated products and services and with compa-
nies working with suppliers, customers, and
competitors in an array of strategic alliances—
new managers have described a transition that
gets harder all the time.
Let me emphasize that the struggles these
new managers face represent the norm, not
the exception. These aren’t impaired managers
operating in dysfunctional organizations.
They’re ordinary people facing ordinary ad-
justment problems. The vast majority of them
survive the transition and learn to function in
their new role. But imagine how much more
effective they would be if the transition were
less traumatic.
To help new managers pass this first leader-
ship test, we need to help them understand the
essential nature of their role—what it truly
means to be in charge. Most see themselves as
managers and leaders; they use the rhetoric of
leadership; they certainly feel the burdens of
leadership. But they just don’t get it.
Why Learning to Manage Is So Hard
One of the first things new managers discover is
that their role, by definition a stretch assign-
ment, is even more demanding than they’d an-
ticipated. They are surprised to learn that the
skills and methods required for success as an in-
dividual contributor and those required for suc-
cess as a manager are starkly different—and that
there is a gap between their current capabilities
and the requirements of the new position.
In their prior jobs, success depended prima-
rily on their personal expertise and actions. As
managers, they are responsible for setting and
implementing an agenda for a whole group,
something for which their careers as individual
performers haven’t prepared them.
Take the case of Michael Jones, the new
securities-firm branch manager I just mentioned.
(The identities of individuals cited in this arti-
cle have been disguised.) Michael had been a
broker for 13 years and was a stellar producer,
one of the most aggressive and innovative pro-
fessionals in his region. At his company, new
branch managers were generally promoted from
the ranks on the basis of individual
competence
and achievements, so no one was surprised
when the regional director asked him to con-
sider a management career. Michael was confi-
dent he understood what it took to be an effec-
tive manager. In fact, on numerous occasions
he had commented that if he had been in
charge, he would have been willing and able to
fix things and make life better in the branch.
After a month in his new role, however, he was
feeling moments of intense panic; it was harder
than he had imagined to get his ideas imple-
mented. He realized he had given up his “secu-
rity blanket” and there was no turning back.
Michael’s reaction, although a shock to him,
isn’t unusual. Learning to lead is a process of
learning by doing. It can’t be taught in a class-
room. It is a craft primarily acquired through
on-the-job experiences—especially adverse ex-
periences in which the new manager, working
beyond his current capabilities, proceeds by
trial and error. Most star individual performers
haven’t made many mistakes, so this is new for
them. Furthermore, few managers are aware,
in the stressful, mistake-making moments, that
they are learning. The learning occurs incre-
mentally and gradually.
As this process slowly progresses—as the
new manager unlearns a mind-set and habits
that have served him over a highly successful
early career—a new professional identity
emerges. He internalizes new ways of thinking
and being and discovers new ways of measur-
ing success and deriving satisfaction from work.
Not surprisingly, this kind of psychological ad-
justment is taxing. As one new manager notes,
Linda A. Hill
is the Wallace Brett Don-
ham Professor of Business Administra-
tion at Harvard Business School in Boston
and the author of
Becoming a Manager:
How New Managers Master the Challeng-
es of Leadership
(Harvard Business
School Press, second edition, 2003).
http://www.hbr.org
Becoming the Boss
harvard business review • hbr.org • the tests of a leader • january 2007 page 4
“I never knew a promotion could be so painful.”
Painful—and stressful. New managers inevi-
tably ponder two questions: “Will I like manage-
ment?” and “Will I be good at management?” Of
course, there are no immediate answers; they
come only with experience. And these two
questions are often accompanied by an even
more unsettling one: “Who am I becoming?”
A New Manager’s Misconceptions
Becoming a boss is difficult, but I don’t want
to paint an unrelentingly bleak picture. What
I have found in my research is that the transi-
tion is often harder than it need be because
of new managers’ misconceptions about
their role. Their ideas about what it means to
be a manager hold some truth. But, because
these notions are simplistic and incomplete,
they create false expectations that individuals
struggle to reconcile with the reality of man-
agerial life. By acknowledging the following
misconceptions—some of which rise almost
to the level of myth in their near-universal
acceptance—new managers have a far greater
chance of success. (For a comparison of the
misconceptions and the reality, see the ex-
hibit “Why New Managers Don’t Get It.”)
Managers wield significant authority.
When asked to describe their role, new manag-
ers typically focus on the rights and privileges
that come with being the boss. They assume
the position will give them more authority and,
with that, more freedom and autonomy to do
what they think is best for the organization. No
longer, in the words of one, will they be “bur-
dened by the unreasonable demands of others.”
New managers nursing this assumption face
a rude awakening. Instead of gaining new au-
thority, those I have studied describe finding
themselves hemmed in by interdependencies.
Instead of feeling free, they feel constrained,
especially if they were accustomed to the rela-
tive independence of a star performer. They
are enmeshed in a web of relationships—
not only with subordinates but also with
bosses, peers, and others inside
and outside
the organization, all of whom make relentless
and often conflicting demands on them. The
resulting daily routine is pressured, hectic,
and fragmented.
“The fact is that you really are not in control
of anything,” says one new manager. “The only
WHY NEW MANAGERS DON’T GET IT
Beginning managers often fail in their new role, at least initially, because they come to it with misconceptions or myths
about what it means to be a boss. These myths, because they are simplistic and incomplete, lead new managers to
neglect key leadership responsibilities.
Defining characteristic
of the new role:
Source of power:
Desired outcome:
Managerial focus:
Key challenge:
Authority
“Now I will have the freedom to implement
my ideas.”
Formal authority
“I will finally be on top of the ladder.”
Control
“I must get compliance from my subordinates.”
Managing one-on-one
“My role is to build relationships with
individual subordinates.”
Keeping the operation in working order
“My job is to make sure the operation runs
smoothly.”
Interdependency
“It’s humbling that someone who works for
me could get me fired.”
“Everything but”
“Folks were wary, and you really had to earn it.”
Commitment
“Compliance does not equal commitment.”
Leading the team
“I need to create a culture that will allow the
group to fulfill its potential.”
Making changes that will make the team
perform better
“I am responsible for initiating changes to
enhance the group’s performance.”
MYTH REALITY
http://www.hbr.org
Becoming the Boss
harvard business review • hbr.org • the tests of a leader • january 2007 page 5
time I am in control is when I shut my door,
and then I feel I am not doing the job I’m
supposed to be doing, which is being with the
people.” Another new manager observes: “It’s
humbling that someone who works for me
could get me fired.”
The people most likely to make a new man-
ager’s life miserable are those who don’t fall
under her formal authority: outside suppliers,
for example, or managers in another division.
Sally McDonald, a rising star at a chemical
company, stepped into a product development
position with high hopes, impeccable creden-
tials as an individual performer, a deep appre-
ciation for the company’s culture—and even
the supposed wisdom gained in a leadership
development course. Three weeks later, she ob-
served grimly: “Becoming a manager is not
about becoming a boss. It’s about becoming a
hostage. There are many terrorists in this orga-
nization that want to kidnap me.”
Until they give up the myth of authority for
the reality of negotiating interdependencies,
new managers will not be able to lead effec-
tively. As we have seen, this goes beyond manag-
ing the team of direct reports and requires
managing the context within which the team
operates. Unless they identify and build effec-
tive relationships with the key people the team
depends upon, the team will lack the resources
necessary to do its job.
Even if new managers appreciate the impor-
tance of these relationships, they often ignore
or neglect them and focus instead on what
seems like the more immediate task of leading
those closest to them: their subordinates. When
they finally do accept their network-builder
role, they often feel overwhelmed by its de-
mands. Besides, negotiating with these other
parties from a position of relative weakness—
for that’s often the plight of new managers at
the bottom of the hierarchy—gets tiresome.
But the dividends of managing the interde-
pendencies are great. While working in busi-
ness development at a large U.S. media con-
cern, Winona Finch developed a business plan
for launching a Latin American edition of the
company’s U.S. teen magazine. When the
project got tentative approval, Finch asked to
manage it. She and her team faced a number
of obstacles. International projects were not fa-
vored by top management, and before getting
final funding, Finch would need to secure
agreements with regional distributors repre-
senting 20% of the Latin American market—
not an easy task for an untested publication
competing for scarce newsstand space. To con-
trol costs, her venture would have to rely on
the sales staff of the Spanish-language edition
of the company’s flagship women’s magazine,
people who were used to selling a very differ-
ent kind of product.
Winona had served a stint as an acting man-
ager two years before, so despite the morass of
detail she had to deal with in setting up the
new venture, she understood the importance
of devoting time and attention to managing re-
lationships with her superiors and peers. For
example, she compiled biweekly executive
notes from her department heads that she cir-
culated to executives at headquarters. To en-
hance communication with the women’s mag-
azine, she initiated regular Latin American
board meetings at which top worldwide execu-
tives from both the teen and women’s publica-
tions could discuss regional strategy.
Her prior experience notwithstanding, she
faced the typical stresses of a new manager:
“It’s like you are in final exams 365 days a
year,” she says. Still, the new edition was
launched on schedule and exceeded its busi-
ness plan forecasts.
Authority flows from the manager’s posi-
tion.
Don’t get me wrong: Despite the interde-
pendencies that constrain them, new managers
do wield some power. The problem is that most
of them mistakenly believe their power is
based on the formal authority that comes with
their now lofty—well, relatively speaking—
position in the hierarchy. This operating as-
sumption leads many to adopt a hands-on, au-
tocratic approach, not because they are eager
to exercise their new power over people but
because they believe it is the most effective
way to produce results.
New managers soon learn, however, that
when direct reports are told to do something,
they don’t necessarily respond. In fact, the
more talented the subordinate, the less likely
she is to simply follow orders. (Some new man-
agers, when pressed, admit that they didn’t al-
ways listen to their bosses either.)
After a few painful experiences, new manag-
ers come to the unsettling realization that the
source of their power is, according to one, “every-
thing but” formal authority. That is, authority
emerges only as the manager establishes credi-
bility with subordinates, peers, and superiors.
As one disillusioned new
leader puts it, “Becoming
a manager is not about
becoming a boss. It’s
about becoming a
hostage.”
http://www.hbr.org
Becoming the Boss
harvard business review • hbr.org • the tests of a leader • january 2007 page 6
“It took me three months to realize I had no ef-
fect on many of my people,” recalls one manager
I followed. “It was like I was talking to myself.”
Many new managers are surprised by how
difficult it is to earn people’s respect and trust.
They are shocked, and even insulted, that
their expertise and track record don’t speak for
themselves. My research shows that many also
aren’t aware of the qualities that contribute
to credibility.
They need to demonstrate their
character
—
the intention to do the right thing. This is of
particular importance to subordinates, who tend
to analyze every statement and nonverbal ges-
ture for signs of the new boss’s motives. Such
scrutiny can be unnerving. “I knew I was a
good guy, and I kind of expected people to ac-
cept me immediately for what I was,” says one
new manager. “But folks were wary, and you
really had to earn it.”
They need to demonstrate their
competence
—
knowing how to do the right thing. This can be
problematic, because new managers initially
feel the need to prove their technical knowl-
edge and prowess, the foundations of their
success as individual performers. But while
evidence of technical competence is important
in gaining subordinates’ respect, it isn’t ulti-
mately the primary area of competence that
direct reports are looking for.
When Peter Isenberg took over the manage-
ment of a trading desk in a global investment
bank, he oversaw a group of seasoned, senior
traders. To establish his credibility, he adopted
a hands-on approach, advising traders to close
down particular positions or try different trad-
ing strategies. The traders pushed back, de-
manding to know the rationale for each direc-
tive. Things got uncomfortable. The traders’
responses to their new boss’s comments be-
came prickly and terse. One day, Isenberg, who
recognized his lack of knowledge about for-
eign markets, asked one of the senior people a
simple question about pricing. The trader
stopped what he was doing for several minutes
to explain the issue and offered to discuss the
matter further at the end of the day. “Once I
stopped talking all the time and began to lis-
ten, people on the desk started to educate me
about the job and, significantly, seemed to
question my calls far less,” Isenberg says.
The new manager’s eagerness to show off
his technical competence had undermined his
credibility as a manager and leader. His eager-
ness to jump in and try to solve problems
raised implicit questions about his managerial
competence. In the traders’ eyes, he was be-
coming a micromanager and a “control freak”
who didn’t deserve their respect.
Finally, new managers need to demonstrate
their
influence
—the ability to deliver and exe-
cute the right thing. There is “nothing worse
than working for a powerless boss,” says a di-
rect report of one new manager I studied.
Gaining and wielding influence within the
organization is particularly difficult because, as
I have noted, new managers are the “little
bosses” of the organization. “I was on top of
the world when I knew I was finally getting
promoted,” one new manager says. “I felt like I
would be on the top of the ladder I had been
climbing for years. But then I suddenly felt like
I was at the bottom again—except this time it’s
not even clear what the rungs are and where I
am climbing to.”
Once again, we see a new manager fall into
the trap of relying too heavily on his formal
authority as his source of influence. Instead,
he needs to build his influence by creating a
web of strong, interdependent relationships,
based on credibility and trust, throughout his
team and the entire organization—one strand
at a time.
Managers must control their direct re-
ports.
Most new managers, in part because of
insecurity in an unfamiliar role, yearn for com-
pliance from their subordinates. They fear
that if they don’t establish this early on, their
direct reports will walk all over them. As a
means of gaining this control, they often rely
too much on their formal authority—a tech-
nique whose effectiveness is, as we have seen,
questionable at best.
But even if they are able to achieve some
measure of control, whether through formal
authority or authority earned over time, they
have achieved a false victory. Compliance does
not equal commitment. If people aren’t com-
mitted, they won’t take the initiative. And if
subordinates aren’t taking the initiative, the
manager can’t delegate effectively. The direct
reports won’t take the calculated risks that
lead to the continuous change and improve-
ment required by today’s turbulent business
environment.
Winona Finch, who led the launch of the
teen magazine in Latin America, knew she
faced a business challenge that would require
http://www.hbr.org
Becoming the Boss
harvard business review • hbr.org • the tests of a leader • january 2007 page 7
her team’s total support. She had in fact been
awarded the job in part because of her per-
sonal style, which her superiors hoped would
compensate for her lack of experience in the
Latin American market and in managing
profit-and-loss responsibilities. In addition to
being known as a clear thinker, she had a
warm and personable way with people. During
the project, she successfully leveraged these
natural abilities in developing her leadership
philosophy and style.
Instead of relying on formal authority to get
what she wanted from her team, she exercised
influence by creating a culture of inquiry. The
result was an organization in which people felt
empowered, committed, and accountable for
fulfilling the company’s vision. “Winona was
easygoing and fun,” a subordinate says. “But she
would ask and ask and ask to get to the bottom
of something. You would say something to her,
she would say it back to you, and that way ev-
eryone was 100% clear on what we were talk-
ing about. Once she got the information and
knew what you were doing, you had to be con-
sistent. She would say, ‘You told me X; why are
you doing Y? I’m confused.’” Although she was
demanding, she didn’t demand that people do
things her way. Her subordinates were com-
mitted to the team’s goals because they were
empowered, not ordered, to achieve them.
The more power managers are willing to
share with subordinates in this way, the more
influence they tend to command. When they
lead in a manner that allows their people to
take the initiative, they build their own credi-
bility as managers.
Managers must focus on forging good in-
dividual relationships.
Managing interdepen-
dencies and exercising informal authority de-
rived from personal credibility require new
managers to build trust, influence, and mutual
expectations with a wide array of people. This
is often achieved by establishing productive
personal relationships. Ultimately, however,
the new manager must figure out how to har-
ness the power of a team. Simply focusing on
one-on-one relationships with members of the
team can undermine that process.
During their first year on the job, many new
managers fail to recognize, much less address,
their team-building responsibilities. Instead, they
conceive of their people-management role as
building the most effective relationships they
can with each individual subordinate, errone-
ously equating the management of their team
with managing the individuals on the team.
They attend primarily to individual perfor-
mance and pay little or no attention to team
culture and performance. They hardly ever
rely on group forums for identifying and solv-
ing problems. Some spend too much time with
a small number of trusted subordinates, often
those who seem most supportive. New manag-
ers tend to handle issues, even those with
teamwide implications, one-on-one. This leads
them to make decisions based on unneces-
sarily limited information.
In his first week as a sales manager at a Texas
software company, Roger Collins was asked by
a subordinate for an assigned parking spot that
had just become available. The salesman had
been at the company for years, and Collins,
wanting to get off to a good start with this vet-
eran, said, “Sure, why not?” Within the hour,
another salesman, a big moneymaker, stormed
into Collins’s office threatening to quit. It
seems the shaded parking spot was coveted for
pragmatic and symbolic reasons, and the bene-
ficiary of Collins’s casual gesture was widely
viewed as incompetent. The manager’s deci-
sion was unfathomable to the star.
Collins eventually solved what he regarded
as a trivial management problem—“This is not
the sort of thing I’m supposed to be worrying
about,” he said—but he began to recognize
that every decision about individuals affected
the team. He had been working on the as-
sumption that if he could establish a good rela-
tionship with each person who reported to
him, his whole team would function smoothly.
What he learned was that supervising each in-
dividual was not the same as leading the team.
In my research, I repeatedly hear new manag-
ers describe situations in which they made an
exception for one subordinate—usually with
the aim of creating a positive relationship with
that person—but ended up regretting the ac-
tion’s unexpected negative consequences for
the team. Grasping this notion can be especially
difficult for up-and-comers who have been
able to accomplish a great deal on their own.
When new managers focus solely on one-
on-one relationships, they neglect a fundamen-
tal aspect of effective leadership: harnessing
the collective power of the group to improve in-
dividual performance and commitment. By
shaping team culture—the group’s norms
and values—a leader can unleash the problem-
I repeatedly hear new
managers describe
situations in which they
made an exception for
one subordinate but
ended up regretting the
action’s unexpected
negative consequences
for the team.
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Becoming the Boss
harvard business review • hbr.org • the tests of a leader • january 2007 page 8
solving prowess of the diverse talents that
make up the team.
Managers must ensure that things run
smoothly.
Like many managerial myths, this
one is partly true but is misleading because it
tells only some of the story. Making sure an op-
eration is operating smoothly is an incredibly
difficult task, requiring a manager to keep count-
less balls in the air at all times. Indeed, the com-
plexity of maintaining the status quo can ab-
sorb all of a junior manager’s time and energy.
But new managers also need to realize they
are responsible for recommending and initiat-
ing changes that will enhance their groups’
performance. Often—and it comes as a sur-
prise to most—this means challenging organi-
zational processes or structures that exist
above and beyond their area of formal author-
ity. Only when they understand this part of the
job will they begin to address seriously their
leadership responsibilities. (See the sidebar
“Oh, One More Thing: Create the Conditions
for Your Success.”)
In fact, most new managers see themselves
as targets of organizational change initiatives,
implementing with their groups the changes
ordered from above. They don’t see themselves
as change agents. Hierarchical thinking and
their fixation on the authority that comes with
being the boss lead them to define their re-
sponsibilities too narrowly. Consequently, they
tend to blame flawed systems, and the superi-
ors directly responsible for those systems, for
their teams’ setbacks—and they tend to wait
for other people to fix the problems.
But this represents a fundamental misunder-
standing of their role within the organization.
New managers need to generate changes, both
within
and outside
their areas of responsibility,
to ensure that their teams can succeed. They
need to work to change the context in which
their teams operate, ignoring their lack of for-
mal authority.
This broader view benefits the organization
as well as the new manager. Organizations
must continually revitalize and transform them-
selves. They can meet these challenges only if
they have cadres of effective leaders capable of
both managing the complexity of the status
quo and initiating change.
New Managers Aren’t Alone
As they go through the daunting process of be-
coming a boss, new managers can gain a tre-
mendous advantage by learning to recognize
the misconceptions I’ve just outlined. But
given the multilayered nature of their new re-
sponsibilities, they are still going to make mis-
takes as they try to put together the manage-
rial puzzle—and making mistakes, no matter
how important to the learning process, is no
fun. They are going to feel pain as their profes-
sional identities are stretched and reshaped.
As they struggle to learn a new role, they will
often feel isolated.
Unfortunately, my research has shown that
few new managers ask for help. This is in part
the outcome of yet another misconception:
The boss is supposed to have all the answers, so
seeking help is a sure sign that a new manager
is a “promotion mistake.” Of course, seasoned
managers know that no one has all the an-
swers. The insights a manager does possess
come over time, through experience. And, as
countless studies show, it is easier to learn on
the job if you can draw on the support and as-
sistance of peers and superiors.
Another reason new managers don’t seek
help is that they perceive the dangers (some-
times more imagined than real) of forging de-
velopmental relationships. When you share
Oh, One More Thing: Create the Conditions
for Your Success
New managers often discover, belat-
edly, that they are expected to do more
than just make sure their groups func-
tion smoothly today. They must also
recommend and initiate changes that
will help their groups do even better in
the future.
A new marketing manager at a tele-
communications company whom I’ll call
John Delhorne discovered that his pre-
decessor had failed to make critical in-
vestments, so he tried on numerous oc-
casions to convince his immediate
superior to increase the marketing bud-
get. He also presented a proposal to ac-
quire a new information system that
could allow his team to optimize its mar-
keting initiatives. When he could not
persuade his boss to release more
money, he hunkered down and focused
on changes within his team that would
make it as productive as possible under
the circumstances. This course seemed
prudent, especially because his relation-
ship with his boss, who was taking
longer and longer to answer Delhorne’s
e-mails, was becoming strained.
When the service failed to meet certain
targets, the CEO unceremoniously fired
Delhorne because, Delhorne was told, he
hadn’t been proactive. The CEO chastised
Delhorne for “sitting back and not asking
for his help” in securing the funds
needed to succeed in a critical new mar-
ket. Delhorne, shocked and hurt, thought
the CEO was being grossly unfair. Del-
horne contended it wasn’t his fault that
the company’s strategic-planning and
budgeting procedures were flawed. The
CEO’s response: It was Delhorne’s re-
sponsibility to create the conditions for
his success.
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Becoming the Boss
harvard business review • hbr.org • the tests of a leader • january 2007 page 9
your anxieties, mistakes, and shortcomings
with peers in your part of the organization,
there’s a risk that the individuals will use that
information against you. The same goes for
sharing your problems with your superior. The
inherent conflict between the roles of evalua-
tor and developer is an age-old dilemma. So
new managers need to be creative in finding
support. For instance, they might seek out
peers who are outside their region or function
or in another organization altogether. The
problem with bosses, while difficult to solve
neatly, can be alleviated. And herein lies a les-
son not only for new managers but for experi-
enced bosses, as well.
The new manager avoids turning to her im-
mediate superior for advice because she sees
that person as a threat to, rather than an ally
in, her development. Because she fears punish-
ment for missteps and failures, she resists seek-
ing the help that might prevent such mistakes,
even when she’s desperate for it. As one new
manager reports:
“I know on one level that I should deal more
with my manager because that is what he is
there for. He’s got the experience, and I proba-
bly owe it to him to go to him and tell him
what’s up. He would probably have some good
advice. But it’s not safe to share with him. He’s
an unknown quantity. If you ask too many
questions, he may lose confidence in you and
think things aren’t going very well. He may see
that you are a little bit out of control, and then
you really have a tough job. Because he’ll be
down there lickety-split, asking lots of ques-
tions about what you are doing, and before
you know it, he’ll be involved right in the mid-
dle of it. That’s a really uncomfortable situa-
tion. He’s the last place I’d go for help.”
Such fears are often justified. Many a new
manager has regretted trying to establish a
mentoring relationship with his boss. “I don’t
dare even ask a question that could be per-
ceived as naive or stupid,” says one. “Once I
asked him a question and he made me feel
like I was a kindergartner in the business. It
was as if he had said, ‘That was the dumbest
thing I’ve ever seen. What on earth did you
have in mind?’”
This is a tragically lost opportunity for the
new manager, the boss, and the organization
as a whole. It means that the new manager’s
boss loses a chance to influence the manager’s
initial conceptions and misconceptions of her
new position and how she should approach it.
The new manager loses the chance to draw on
organizational assets—from financial resources
to information about senior management’s
priorities—that the superior could best provide.
When a new manager can develop a good
relationship with his boss, it can make all the
difference in the world—though not necessar-
ily in ways the new manager expects. My re-
search suggests that eventually about half of
new managers turn to their bosses for assis-
tance, often because of a looming crisis. Many
are relieved to find their superiors more toler-
ant of their questions and mistakes than they
had expected. “He recognized that I was still
in the learning mode and was more than will-
ing to help in any way he could,” recalls one
new manager.
Sometimes, the most expert mentors can
seem deceptively hands-off. One manager re-
ports how she learned from an immediate su-
perior: “She is demanding, but she enjoys a
reputation for growing people and helping
them, not throwing them to the wolves. I
wasn’t sure after the first 60 days, though. Ev-
erything was so hard and I was so frustrated,
but she didn’t offer to help. It was driving me
nuts. When I asked her a question, she asked
me a question. I got no answers. Then I saw
what she wanted. I had to come in with some
ideas about how I would handle the situation,
and then she would talk about them with me.
She would spend all the time in the world
with me.”
His experience vividly highlights why it’s
important for the bosses of new managers to
understand—or simply recall—how difficult it
is to step into a management role for the first
time. Helping a new manager succeed doesn’t
benefit only that individual. Ensuring the new
manager’s success is also crucially important to
the success of the entire organization.
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About half of new
managers turn to their
bosses for assistance.
Many are relieved to find
their superiors more
tolerant of their
questions and mistakes
than they had expected.
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Becoming the Boss
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page 10
Further Reading
A R T I C L E S
Rescue Your Rookie Managers
by Kerry A. Bunker, Kathy E. Kram,
Sharon Ting, Carol A. Walker, and
Gordon Adler
Harvard Business Review
OnPoint Collection
December 2002
Product no. 2292
This
Harvard Business Review
OnPoint collec-
tion shows how supervisors can help newly
promoted managers transition into the role. In
“The Young and the Clueless,” Kerry A. Bunker,
Kathy E. Kram, and Sharon Ting recommend
building novice managers’ awareness of their
strengths and weaknesses by providing broad
and deep 360-degree feedback. Expose them
to diverse leadership styles through mentor-
ing relationships outside the usual hierarchy.
And give them assignments where they have
to master negotiating and influencing—
rather than pulling rank.
In “Saving Your Rookie Managers from
Themselves,” Carol A. Walker offers sugges-
tions for strengthening especially crucial
managerial skills—such as delegating, pro-
jecting confidence, and focusing on the big
picture. For instance, to encourage delegat-
ing, send a clear message that developing
staff is just as essential as achieving financial
objectives. To encourage big-picture think-
ing, ask rookies strategic questions, such as
“What marketplace trends could affect your
unit in six months?”
In “When a New Manager Stumbles, Who’s at
Fault?” Gordon Adler provides a fictional case
study of a novice boss in trouble. Six com-
mentators provide insights into how to help
new managers survive and thrive. Advice in-
cludes clearly communicating your com-
pany’s goals and expectations, including
long-term strategy and values, to new man-
agers. How? Explain what behaviors they’d
demonstrate if their performance were out-
standing. Build a near-term, concrete perfor-
mance plan based on clear, easy-to-measure
behaviors—then lay out the actions required
to execute it. And commend or correct be-
haviors in real time, rather than waiting for
formal performance reviews.
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