Management Business Leadership

The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You (Summary)

by Julie Zhuo

At 25, Julie Zhuo was handed the keys to a fast-growing design team at Facebook. Her reaction wasn't excitement, but quiet panic. She'd been a great designer, but she had no idea how to be a manager. Her first one-on-one with a direct report was an awkward disaster where she mostly just asked, 'How's it going?' and got a 'Fine.' This is the moment every new manager dreads—the realization that the skills that got you promoted are now the ones you must learn to let go of.

Your Job Is Not to Do the Work

The biggest mistake new managers make is continuing to act like an individual contributor. Your role is no longer to be the best designer or coder; it's to be a multiplier, getting great outcomes from your team by coaching, unblocking, and empowering them.

Zhuo tells the story of a manager who kept 'fixing' his team's designs himself because it was faster. The result? The team's skills stagnated, they felt micromanaged, and the manager became a bottleneck, ultimately hurting the team's overall output far more than he helped.

Feedback is a Gift, Not a Confrontation

Delivering feedback, especially criticism, is one of the most dreaded tasks for managers. The key is to reframe it as a tool for growth, delivered with care, specificity, and the clear intention of helping the other person succeed.

Instead of saying 'Your presentation was confusing,' which is vague and demoralizing, Zhuo advises a specific, task-oriented approach: 'In the first half of the presentation, the data on slide 3 didn't seem to support the conclusion on slide 5. Could you walk me through your thinking there so we can make the connection clearer?'

Your First Three Months are for Learning, Not Proving

A new manager's first 90 days are a crucial 'bootstrapping' period. Instead of trying to prove yourself by making big changes, you should focus on understanding the People (the team), the Process (how work gets done), and the Purpose (the mission).

Zhuo recommends scheduling one-on-ones with every team member in the first few weeks with a specific set of questions: 'What do you love about your job? What's not so great? If you were me, what would you focus on?' This approach quickly builds trust and provides a map of the team's challenges and opportunities from their perspective.

Run Meetings People Don't Hate

Meetings are a manager's primary tool for communication and decision-making, but most are ineffective. A great meeting has a clear purpose, a defined agenda with desired outcomes, and ends with concrete next steps.

Zhuo suggests a simple rule: no agenda, no meeting. Before scheduling, the organizer must clearly state the purpose (why are we meeting?) and the desired outcome (what does a successful meeting look like?). For a weekly sync, the purpose might be 'alignment' and the outcome 'everyone is clear on top priorities and blockers.'

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