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Oooh love this, thanks for suggesting! We are already planning a more structured "first 90 days". We should also do a "Negative first 90 days" or something like

Oooh love this, thanks for suggesting! We are already planning a more structured "first 90 days". We should also do a "Negative first 90 days" or something like that. For now though there is a bit of stuff in https://www.getkata.com/handbook/first-time-direct-managers https://www.getkata.com/handbook/first-time-direct-managers but not as structured as you're suggesting. Completely agree on the "Now what". Such a harsh surprise more often than not...

chiefalchemist 3y ago
You wanna have an impact? Do a minus 90 weeks, or similar. Some sort of "program" that someone can volunteer for and follow as a "side project". Maybe it's a book one week. A YT video the next. A series of blog articles. And so on. I don't feel it needs to all original content. There's plenty of content. The problem is, "What's good? And Where TF do I start?" I suppose it could be crash-course'ed but a good manager / leader has a plan ;) If nothing else, it could help those decide if they really want to be managers. Obviously the pay is better, but that doesn't mean it's worth it.
- brentbarkman 3y ago
  Agree in spirit but I think the magnitude (and meaning) of that can only be done on the job, not academically. And of course herein is the problem. It's company by company but what we built at my last one is built a hybrid role that allowed people to "try" being a manager without negatively affecting their own career timeline, or others. We defined the role as one where you were effectively a manager, but had clear oversight from your manager (who had to agree to this to start). You can figure out all of those definitions easily enough, the big one was in the promotion/leveling guides it didn't penalize you for going down this road and switching back to being an IC. I think that's actually one of the biggest gotcha's is that it is perceived as either an ego or career hit (or worse both) to flip back that no one does and people try to grit it out. And no one wins. It has to be company specific implemented but I think we should all be advocating for "interim" types of this role for 1st time managers.

chiefalchemist 3y ago

You wanna have an impact? Do a minus 90 weeks, or similar. Some sort of "program" that someone can volunteer for and follow as a "side project". Maybe it's a book one week. A YT video the next. A series of blog articles. And so on. I don't feel it needs to all original content. There's plenty of content. The problem is, "What's good? And Where TF do I start?" I suppose it could be crash-course'ed but a good manager / leader has a plan ;) If nothing else, it could help those decide if they really want to be managers. Obviously the pay is better, but that doesn't mean it's worth it.

brentbarkman 3y ago
Agree in spirit but I think the magnitude (and meaning) of that can only be done on the job, not academically. And of course herein is the problem. It's company by company but what we built at my last one is built a hybrid role that allowed people to "try" being a manager without negatively affecting their own career timeline, or others. We defined the role as one where you were effectively a manager, but had clear oversight from your manager (who had to agree to this to start). You can figure out all of those definitions easily enough, the big one was in the promotion/leveling guides it didn't penalize you for going down this road and switching back to being an IC. I think that's actually one of the biggest gotcha's is that it is perceived as either an ego or career hit (or worse both) to flip back that no one does and people try to grit it out. And no one wins. It has to be company specific implemented but I think we should all be advocating for "interim" types of this role for 1st time managers.