Becoming a Manager

III

Confronting the Personal Side of Management

The new managers were caught off guard by the stark transition from producer to manager, especially the transformation it required. They did not at first appreciate how profound their career choice was. For in accepting promotion to manager, unbeknownst to the new managers, they did more than consent to new job responsibilities. They made an initial commitment to form a new professional and personal identity, oriented toward managing people, not technical tasks. The managers soon discovered that the task learning (acquiring competencies and building key relationships) was only part of the story.¹ The personal learning—that is, adopting attitudes and a psychological perspective consistent with their ...