A little over 2 years ago I applied for a Supervisory position within the company I work at. Prior to that point in my career I had absolutely no intention of being in charge of a team but my Supervisor at the time must have saw something in me and just shoved a job description in front of me and told me to apply. After I was promoted, and before I transitioned into the Supervisory position, I decided to research and read up on how to be a good Supervisor. Up to that point I only knew what I deemed as a "good" Supervisor but what I think makes a "good" Supervisor is much different than what other people expect of their Supervisor. The following 3 books I picked up at different stages in my career and I hope they can be useful to you.
The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter
by Michael D. Watkins
Genre: Business
My rating: ★★★☆☆
The First 90 Days was one of the first books I purchased. I was at Barnes & Noble and I remember the business section was just overwhelming with the selection of books. What do I get? What would be relevant for someone who wants to learn what to do when transitioning into a management role? The blurb on the back of The First 90 Days reads "...the go to resource for anyone being promoted, on-boarding into a new company, or taking on a new professional role." OK! That's me!
I have mixed feelings about this book. The book claims to be relevant for you at any point in your career, from a first timer up to a senior executive. When I got this book home and started diving into it I didn't feel that a majority of the content was digestible to me but would be relevant to the senior executive. One thing I did like is that at least I got an idea of how the leaders of my company would be thinking and possibly how my company operated.
In the introduction I found the tips on avoiding transition traps to be useful insight to keep in mind as I went from being an hourly associate to part of the management team. For myself, the two biggest tips I could have followed were page 5 "Sticking with what you know" and "Falling prey to the action imperative". Don't take action because you think you need to rush in and have THE answers, and don't think the things you did in your previous position will be what you do in your new position. Yes, what you did in your prior position may have been what landed you the role but you now need to learn to delegate those tasks and look at the bigger picture. Page 22 talks a bit on delegating.
Throughout the book Michael D. Watkin's provides short self assessment tests for you, charts, checklists, and much more. Overall, while I did not find this book that relevant 2 years ago I kept it in my bookshelf and skim through it from time to time and I can take away new tips as I grow in my career.
Perfect Phrases for Documenting Employee Performance Problems: Hundreds of Ready-to-Use Phrases for Addressing All Performance Issues
by Anne Bruce
Genre: Business
My rating: ★★★★☆
I own Anne Bruce's Perfect Phrases on my Kindle, as I do with a couple of other "perfect phrases" books by other authors. These books are very handy to have at the swipe of a finger *ba da bum pshhh* when you aren't quite sure what to say or how to document a performance issue with your direct report. If you have an accessible HR department I also highly recommend developing a good relationship with them. That is what they are there for and it's a great way to learn.
Anne Bruce's book is meant to assist you in learning clear-cut ways to document employee performance and it even delves into the background of why and how this process started. I use this book as a reference when I have a problem employee. Some areas covered in the book are communication skills, decision making, empowerment and delegation, people skills and relationship building, and many more topics you will come across when being a Supervisor or Manager in charge of a team. The topics are followed by bullet points of phrases that you can use in your counselings such as the example below.
For the topic Coaching Others two of the bullet points are "Struggles in facilitating the success of others" and "Struggles to involve people at every level". The recommended phrases may be more appropriate than what you first think of when documenting a counseling rather than a phrase like "Sue bossed around Angela during the project" which may seem like an attack on the employee rather than a gentle phrase of the overall situation.
I highly recommend this book as a tool to keep on hand. Face it, you will always have employee problems and YOU are there to manage those situations preferably before they happen but at least when they first start.
It's Okay to Be the Boss: The Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming the Manager Your Employees Need
by Bruce Tulgan
Genre: Business
My rating: ★★★★★
Ok, listen.. I LOVE Bruce Tulgan's book It's Okay to Be the Boss. I cannot say enough good things about this book. I have the book on Kindle with a ton of highlights and notes and then I bought the hardback and read it again and you guessed it.. highlighted it all over again. If you are to pick up only one book on managing employees, this is it! Although, I have heard Bruce Tulgan has another book that people claim is better. Please let me know what books you think are better! For now, this book is my obsession.. I know.. weird.
I'm going to start with my own personal experience in my work life. As you have read, I became a first time Supervisor and I had no idea what the heck I was doing. I am an introvert. If you know about personality types in the Meyers Briggs testing I am an INFJ. The rare unicorn of the Earth. In the DiSC assessment I am a CS. I would rather spend time alone than with people, and I hate confrontation. When I first became a Supervisor I was trying to treat others how I like to be treated but I soon learned that it did not work. Most people want to know their Supervisor is present, paying attention, appreciating them, and surprisingly to take charge.
It's Okay to Be the Boss is just what it says in the title. This book just goes into the basic function of WHY it is okay for you to be the boss and the common reasons why there is an under management epidemic. I found some points in the book easy to relate to and laughed at things that were thoughts I had once had. For example Bruce is explaining on page 13 why managers don't manage their direct reports and he quotes something that perhaps you may believe, "Look I have my own work to do. I don't have time to hold every employee's hand. And I shouldn't have to. I did the job for two years and nobody had to tell me what to do. I just did it. That's how I got to be the manager. I try to be hands-off unless something goes wrong..." and the thought continues and as the reader you're like YES!! YES!! EXACTLY!!
Further on into the book you will learn how what makes a great boss and why. It can be hard to execute sometimes but your hard work will pay off and it will be much smoother in the longrun. Some of the chapters in this book will cover managing daily and how to manage daily, holding people accountable, giving clear directions, delegating tasks, solving small problems before they become big ones, and how to track performance.
Just do yourself a favor and pick up this book. It's a gem!
xx, Julia
by Michael D. Watkins
Genre: Business
My rating: ★★★☆☆
The First 90 Days was one of the first books I purchased. I was at Barnes & Noble and I remember the business section was just overwhelming with the selection of books. What do I get? What would be relevant for someone who wants to learn what to do when transitioning into a management role? The blurb on the back of The First 90 Days reads "...the go to resource for anyone being promoted, on-boarding into a new company, or taking on a new professional role." OK! That's me!
I have mixed feelings about this book. The book claims to be relevant for you at any point in your career, from a first timer up to a senior executive. When I got this book home and started diving into it I didn't feel that a majority of the content was digestible to me but would be relevant to the senior executive. One thing I did like is that at least I got an idea of how the leaders of my company would be thinking and possibly how my company operated.
In the introduction I found the tips on avoiding transition traps to be useful insight to keep in mind as I went from being an hourly associate to part of the management team. For myself, the two biggest tips I could have followed were page 5 "Sticking with what you know" and "Falling prey to the action imperative". Don't take action because you think you need to rush in and have THE answers, and don't think the things you did in your previous position will be what you do in your new position. Yes, what you did in your prior position may have been what landed you the role but you now need to learn to delegate those tasks and look at the bigger picture. Page 22 talks a bit on delegating.
Throughout the book Michael D. Watkin's provides short self assessment tests for you, charts, checklists, and much more. Overall, while I did not find this book that relevant 2 years ago I kept it in my bookshelf and skim through it from time to time and I can take away new tips as I grow in my career.
Perfect Phrases for Documenting Employee Performance Problems: Hundreds of Ready-to-Use Phrases for Addressing All Performance Issues
by Anne Bruce
Genre: Business
My rating: ★★★★☆
I own Anne Bruce's Perfect Phrases on my Kindle, as I do with a couple of other "perfect phrases" books by other authors. These books are very handy to have at the swipe of a finger *ba da bum pshhh* when you aren't quite sure what to say or how to document a performance issue with your direct report. If you have an accessible HR department I also highly recommend developing a good relationship with them. That is what they are there for and it's a great way to learn.
Anne Bruce's book is meant to assist you in learning clear-cut ways to document employee performance and it even delves into the background of why and how this process started. I use this book as a reference when I have a problem employee. Some areas covered in the book are communication skills, decision making, empowerment and delegation, people skills and relationship building, and many more topics you will come across when being a Supervisor or Manager in charge of a team. The topics are followed by bullet points of phrases that you can use in your counselings such as the example below.
For the topic Coaching Others two of the bullet points are "Struggles in facilitating the success of others" and "Struggles to involve people at every level". The recommended phrases may be more appropriate than what you first think of when documenting a counseling rather than a phrase like "Sue bossed around Angela during the project" which may seem like an attack on the employee rather than a gentle phrase of the overall situation.
I highly recommend this book as a tool to keep on hand. Face it, you will always have employee problems and YOU are there to manage those situations preferably before they happen but at least when they first start.
It's Okay to Be the Boss: The Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming the Manager Your Employees Need
by Bruce Tulgan
Genre: Business
My rating: ★★★★★
Ok, listen.. I LOVE Bruce Tulgan's book It's Okay to Be the Boss. I cannot say enough good things about this book. I have the book on Kindle with a ton of highlights and notes and then I bought the hardback and read it again and you guessed it.. highlighted it all over again. If you are to pick up only one book on managing employees, this is it! Although, I have heard Bruce Tulgan has another book that people claim is better. Please let me know what books you think are better! For now, this book is my obsession.. I know.. weird.
I'm going to start with my own personal experience in my work life. As you have read, I became a first time Supervisor and I had no idea what the heck I was doing. I am an introvert. If you know about personality types in the Meyers Briggs testing I am an INFJ. The rare unicorn of the Earth. In the DiSC assessment I am a CS. I would rather spend time alone than with people, and I hate confrontation. When I first became a Supervisor I was trying to treat others how I like to be treated but I soon learned that it did not work. Most people want to know their Supervisor is present, paying attention, appreciating them, and surprisingly to take charge.
It's Okay to Be the Boss is just what it says in the title. This book just goes into the basic function of WHY it is okay for you to be the boss and the common reasons why there is an under management epidemic. I found some points in the book easy to relate to and laughed at things that were thoughts I had once had. For example Bruce is explaining on page 13 why managers don't manage their direct reports and he quotes something that perhaps you may believe, "Look I have my own work to do. I don't have time to hold every employee's hand. And I shouldn't have to. I did the job for two years and nobody had to tell me what to do. I just did it. That's how I got to be the manager. I try to be hands-off unless something goes wrong..." and the thought continues and as the reader you're like YES!! YES!! EXACTLY!!
Further on into the book you will learn how what makes a great boss and why. It can be hard to execute sometimes but your hard work will pay off and it will be much smoother in the longrun. Some of the chapters in this book will cover managing daily and how to manage daily, holding people accountable, giving clear directions, delegating tasks, solving small problems before they become big ones, and how to track performance.
Just do yourself a favor and pick up this book. It's a gem!
Are you a first time Supervisor? Leave a comment with books you recommend for me to read. If you would like me to cover more of the resources I use as a Supervisor please let me know and I would be happy to share in a future blog post.
xx, Julia
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