Thoughts and Tools for Your Transition
Congratulations on becoming a manager! This is a time of celebration, excitement and transition. An essential part of that transition needs to be the realisation that your job has changed fundamentally. You may still be in the same organisation, even the same department. But that’s where the similarities stop. Your old and your new job are as different as chalk and cheese. You’ve gone from being a member of the orchestra to becoming a baton-wielding conductor.
Managing is different to excelling at your previous job. You will now be expected to take on a whole rainbow of roles – leader, supervisor, strategist, advocate, HR specialist – as well as managing yourself, sometimes the hardest task new managers face.
Across the world, being promoted to manager is seen as a validation of career success. Professionals who spend all of their college education learning about engineering or accountancy or law have spent their early years applying that learning as an individual contributor and have had little opportunity to study or practice being a manager and leading a team. Whether you work in industry, professional services, the public service, or not-for-profit organisations, the challenge of the transition into a management role cannot be underestimated.
Not satisfied with drawing on his own extensive international experience, Patrick Cunneen has interviewed highly experienced and successful managers in the US, UK, Ireland and Asia, who openly shared their experiences and insights, warts and all!
Part One of this book explores the essential transition that takes place from being an individual contributor and team player to becoming a manager – from being focused on your own work to being focused on the work of others.
Part Two highlights important skills and competencies in managing people, as a ‘tool kit’ to support you on your journey of continuous learning and personal growth.
While the key objective of BECOMING A MANAGER is to help and support managers through their transitions into management, it should also be of interest to HR and Employee Development departments as they seek to attract, develop and retain management talent, and to would-be entrepreneurs, considering starting their own business.
There’s not much theory here. Hopefully in its place, you’ll find an opportunity to reflect on sound practical advice and good common sense.
PATRICK CUNNEEN has over three decades’ experience as a manager, teacher and management coach, across three continents and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.
Following a career with Analog Devices Inc., De Beers, Shannon Development Company, Wyeth Nutritionals and Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies, Pat is now a director of Lighthouse Organisational Consultants Ltd., Castletroy, Limerick, a consultancy firm specialising in organisational development, HR consulting, organisational change and executive coaching.
