Having experienced managers work closely with first-time managers is very helpful. Throwing first time managers into the position and hoping they figure it out is dreadful.
The actual training material available for EMs is not great. There are a couple decent books that will run someone through the basics of doing 1:1s, communicating with the team and upper management, and doing other basic manager stuff. Unfortunately the more expensive and longer form trainings are just versions of this same basic material stretched out into a slog of slides and quizzes you have to click through.
This void has also created a weird class of managers who have read every businesses book and trending LinkedIn post. This gives a false confidence that their book knowledge solves everything and makes them superior to “untrained” managers who haven’t read all the trendy business books. When someone can barely make it through a meeting without a “Have you read ____? It has something to say about this” flex then I start to suspect that they’ve let their book-based confidence take precedence over experience.
The trend is bad enough that I’ve had several peers or managers in recent years who almost couldn’t parse a situation without mapping it back to a book they had read. I lost a lot of time trying to explain to people that I have also read “The Phoenix Project” or “Turn the Ship Around” or other trendy books but the problem I’m describing is something else that can’t be solved by re-reading your book recommendations.
I was that manager for a bit. I think it’s a phase some of us go through because we are excited about what we learn just like an early mid-level would get excited about a new framework.
It takes a while until we get to “okay, I’ve read enough that this all rhymes.” I still pull out a “have you read” occasionally, though, because it is the easiest way to communicate a thought and I can’t assume a basic curriculum that all EMs share. It’s as if you couldn’t assume your peers had ever heard about microservices. It doesn’t mean that everyone needs to use one or that it’s always the right pattern, but it facilitates conversation and conveys an idea.
The actual training material available for EMs is not great. There are a couple decent books that will run someone through the basics of doing 1:1s, communicating with the team and upper management, and doing other basic manager stuff. Unfortunately the more expensive and longer form trainings are just versions of this same basic material stretched out into a slog of slides and quizzes you have to click through.
This void has also created a weird class of managers who have read every businesses book and trending LinkedIn post. This gives a false confidence that their book knowledge solves everything and makes them superior to “untrained” managers who haven’t read all the trendy business books. When someone can barely make it through a meeting without a “Have you read ____? It has something to say about this” flex then I start to suspect that they’ve let their book-based confidence take precedence over experience.
The trend is bad enough that I’ve had several peers or managers in recent years who almost couldn’t parse a situation without mapping it back to a book they had read. I lost a lot of time trying to explain to people that I have also read “The Phoenix Project” or “Turn the Ship Around” or other trendy books but the problem I’m describing is something else that can’t be solved by re-reading your book recommendations.