MY Reading Journey Part 1 (The Making Of Manager by Julie Zhuo)

I'm excited to share my recent reading journey with you all. As part of my quest to become a better morning person (and let's be honest, a better manager), I've been carving out an hour each morning to delve into the world of self-improvement and leadership books.

This time around, I picked up "The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You" by Julie Zhuo. Let me tell you, about this book!

Why this book?

Well, I've been feeling overwhelmed in my current role as a coordinator. The responsibilities are starting to resemble those of a manager, but on a smaller scale. So, I decided to explore the world of management and stumbled upon a Medium post about someone's journey as a newly appointed manager at a fintech company. Intrigued, I discovered that one of the books they recommended to tackle managerial challenges was this very one!

First Impressions

I was pleasantly surprised by how engaging this book was. Unlike most self-improvement books that put me to sleep with their endless theories, Zhuo's writing is refreshingly conversational and packed with real-world examples. It's like reading a friend's insightful diary about their managerial journey.

(Great Managers Are Made, Not Born)

Key Takeaways

One of the most important things I learned from this book is that management is not about being the boss. It's about building a team that works well together, supporting your team members in reaching their goals, and creating processes that make work flow smoothly and efficiently.

Zhuo breaks down management into three key areas:

Purpose: What are we trying to achieve?
People: Who are the people on our team? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
Process: How do we get work done?
A great manager is constantly asking herself how she can influence these three levers to improve her team's outcomes.

Another important takeaway is that your role as a manager is not to do the work yourself. Even if you're the best person for the job, it's more effective to focus on coaching and developing your team members so they can do their best work.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from chapter one this morning:

"Great managers are made, not born."
"Your job, as a manager, is to get better outcomes from a group of people working together."
"Management is not about being the boss. It's about building a team that works well together, supporting your team members in reaching their goals, and creating processes that make work flow smoothly and efficiently."
"Your role as a manager is not to do the work yourself. Even if you're the best at it, because that will only take you so far. Your role is to improve the purpose, people, and process of your team to get as high a multiplier effect on your collective outcome as you can."

I hope you enjoyed my reading journey! I'll be back soon with another post and If you have any recommendations for management books, please leave a comment below yaa