The hardest thing was listening. I'm still working on active listening. That meant shutting up and actually synthesizing what your direct reports are trying t

The hardest thing was listening. I'm still working on active listening. That meant shutting up and actually synthesizing what your direct reports are trying to tell you. I used to always complete other people's sentences and it took an honest friend to tell me that was annoying. The best resource that's helped me for management was a class called Business Management for Electrical Engineer and Computer Scientists (http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee353/ http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee353/) Check it out here if you have the time. All the important business topics like strategy, accounting, pricing, marketing, managing - it's all there condensed in a quarter. Here's what I found surprising: Management allows me to multiply my technical skills with the team's help. You'll find that you can accomplish far more with a solid team than just by yourself. Similar to the other posters, go the extra mile for your direct reports by genuinely caring for them. In a professional manner, ALWAYS set them up to win. Never throw them a project knowing that it's a sinking ship. They'll know. For books, another one that's helped is "How to Win Friends and Influence People." A fun one to read is "The Witch Doctors" by exposing management "gurus". You'll realize management theories change every day and everyone's scrambling to defend or find the next theory that encompasses the essence of management. I find it very similar to programming language worship. That's not entirely a bad thing since that means the field will keep evolving. That also means what works for me might not work exactly for you.