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Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership Hardcover – March 19, 2019

by Linda A. Hill (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 124 ratings
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Making the leap to management and leadership

In your career, or anyone's, there is one transition that stands out as the most crucial—going from individual contributor to competent manager.

New managers have to learn how to lead others rather than do the work themselves, to win trust and respect, to motivate, and to strike the right balance between delegation and control. Many fail to make the transition successfully.

In this timeless, indispensable book, Harvard Business School professor and leadership guru Linda Hill traces the experiences of nineteen new managers over the course of their first year in the role. She reveals the complexity of the transition, highlighting the expectations of these managers, their subordinates, and their superiors. We hear the new managers describe:

  • How they reframed their understanding of their roles and responsibilities
  • How they learned to build effective cross-functional work relationships
  • How and when they used individual and organizational resources
  • And how they learned to cope with the inevitable stresses of leadership

Hill vividly shows that becoming a manager is a profound psychological adjustment—a true transformation—as well as a continuous process of learning from experience.

Becoming a Manager, a veritable treasury of essential leadership wisdom, is a book you will turn to again and again no matter where you are on your career journey.

Previous page
  1. Part of series
    How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership
  2. Print length
    448 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Harvard Business Review Press
  5. Publication date
    March 19, 2019
  6. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1.6 x 9.4 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    1633696960
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1633696969
  9. See all details
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  1. Being the Boss, with a New Preface: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader
  2. HBR's 10 Must Reads for New Managers (with bonus article “How Managers Become Leaders” by Michael D. Watkins) (HBR's 10 Must
  3. The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You
  4. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Third Edition
  5. Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation
  6. The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, Updated and Expanded
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book should be 'must reading' for newly promoted managers." —Edgar H. Schein, MIT Sloan School of Management

"Becoming a Manager contains crucial insights for both new and experienced managers and is also an invaluable resource for those who manage managers." — Ellen Kamp, former Executive Director, Learning and Development, Morgan Stanley

". . . a fascinating inside look at the journey from individual contributor to manager. Capturing the challenge and the fear, the mistakes and the victories, this book will give new managers a crucial perspective on their experience." —Morgan McCall, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

About the Author

Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, the faculty chair of the Leadership Initiative, and coauthor of Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader (with Kent Lineback) as well as Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation (with Greg Brandeau, Emily Truelove, and Kent Lineback).

Author social media/website info: hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=6479; linkedin.com/in/linda-hill-52a661

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard Business Review Press; New edition (March 19, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1633696960
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1633696969
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.53 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.6 x 9.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 124 ratings

About the author

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Linda A. Hill

Linda A. Hill

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Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She is the faculty chair of the Leadership Initiative and has chaired numerous HBS Executive Education programs, including the Young Presidents’ Organization Presidents’ Seminar and the High Potentials Leadership Program.

Hill’s consulting and executive education activities have been in the areas of leadership development, talent management, leading change and innovation, implementing global strategies, and managing cross-organizational relationships. She has worked with organizations worldwide, including General Electric, Reed Elsevier, Accenture, Pfizer, IBM, MasterCard, Mitsubishi, Morgan Stanley, the National Bank of Kuwait, AREVA, and the Economist.

Hill is the coauthor, with Kent Lineback, of Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader, which the Wall Street Journal named one of “Five Best Business Books to Read for Your Career in 2011.” Hill is also the author of Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership (2nd Edition), as well as course modules, award-winning multimedia management development programs, and numerous HBR articles. In 2013 she was named by Thinkers50 as one of the top ten management thinkers in the world.

Hill is currently a member of the boards of State Street Corporation, Eaton Corporation, and Harvard Business Publishing. She is a trustee of The Bridgespan Group and the Art Center College of Design, an advisor for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund USA, and a special representative to the Board of Trustees of Bryn Mawr College. She is also on the advisory board of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program.

Hill holds a PhD in behavioral sciences and an MA in educational psychology, both from the University of Chicago. She received a BA summa cum laude in psychology from Bryn Mawr College.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
124 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Johan Sulaiman
5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful
Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2011
Verified Purchase
Contrary to prior reviews, I find this book a very easy read. The main reason is the immense amount of real-world quotations from the 19 managers being interviewed and tracked over the course of their first year being a manager. The book becomes an engaging account of the travails of these managers with insights to their inner fear and doubts. I find the book even more engaging than many novels!

It helps to put on the context hat while reading this. Get into the role of a first line manager or an aspiring one, or if not imagine reading this book as your boss. The second approach will invoke deep thoughts on how things are looking from your boss' side. I can almost guarantee you will not treat him the same after reading. Highly recommended work by Linda Hill, along with her next book, "Being the Boss".
6 people found this helpful
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Amanda S. Williamson
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Brilliant / Incredibly Important
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2016
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As a new manager who's just completed her first year on the job, I found this book to be irreplaceable. All of the emotional strain and micro-regrets that I've strained to glean the most important insights from now feel like a collective experience. Thank you, Linda Hill, for putting this book out there into the world--it's been a balm to my psychological well-being and has allowed me to comprehend my role with greater conviction. Only now am I beginning to take on a more reflective (and effective) approach to the many paradoxes and interpersonal situations that managers must learn to cope with and reason through effectively.
10 people found this helpful
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Laxoman
4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, but overdone
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2019
Verified Purchase
I've taken away many useful lessons from this book, and it sparked many more conversations.

However, I agree with other reviewers that there is a lot of repetition, and that it almost feels like the author was struggling to fill a page minimum. I even noticed a quote used twice.

I'd like to see more of the interviews and case studies, and less of the unnecessarily long winded analysis.

Nevertheless, a worthwhile read and I will recommend it to others.
2 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars 🤷‍♂️
Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2021
Verified Purchase
Not what i was looking for. Only talking about the experience of others. Not necessarily your experience. Like if you read the bible. Something that happens to other people but not necessarily will happen to you.
One person found this helpful
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S. Berg
5.0 out of 5 stars Related to the experiences in this book
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2016
Verified Purchase
As a new manager, I very much related to the experiences depicted in the book. I'd recommend this to anyone who is new or newish to a people-leader position.
One person found this helpful
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czamboni
2.0 out of 5 stars Reads more like a thesis or scientific paper than like a book
Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2018
Verified Purchase
The book contains interesting information, but it reads more like a thesis or scientific paper than like a book. I had hoped to recommend this to a couple of my employees that are struggling with understanding the necessary leadership transition away from individual contribution and toward getting work done through others. However, I feel like the key messages I want them to hear are too buried in the data and are not straightforward enough for them to pick up on. I decided to search for other resources for them instead and only made it half-way through the book myself. It was a bit too dry for my taste.
2 people found this helpful
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MtnMamma
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2017
Verified Purchase
This is written like a thesis. Could have been reduced in size and been just as effective
One person found this helpful
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Bryce M. Mitchell
5.0 out of 5 stars perfect condition
Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2011
Verified Purchase
I bought this book immediately following finals last semester and got an AMAZING deal on this book!! Not a single pen or pencil mark, scratch, tear, or highlight!! JUST as advertised!! I can't wait to read it!!!
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Top reviews from other countries

gufranuddin
5.0 out of 5 stars Marketing manager
Reviewed in India on October 9, 2019
Verified Purchase
Good for sales professional
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Booky
5.0 out of 5 stars the book is so easy to read through and has such valuable tips from ...
Reviewed in Canada on July 11, 2015
Verified Purchase
Written by a renowned Harvard professor, on a rather difficult and opaque topic, this book may seem intimidating at first. (it's a fair size book). Nonetheless, the book is so easy to read through and has such valuable tips from real people who went through the transition to management.

I can't say enough good things about this book as it really helped me during my current transition into a supervisor of accounting role at a large company. There is so much valuable insight to gain with this book, and the study participants articulate their experiences quite well. Reading this book is like having the luxury of having a 1 on 1 sit down with countless professionals who just finished their first year as a manager.

This is a definite must read for any new or aspiring manager. You won't regret this one.
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MT
4.0 out of 5 stars Wish you a good reading
Reviewed in Italy on December 15, 2013
Verified Purchase
A soon as you start to read it, you notice this book has an insight about the managerial life that you've never thought about, specially if you're just entering to that world, thinking of it, or just preparing yourself to undergo that path... So far, I've enjoyed it, and it has helped me to enlarge my vision of what to be a manager means.
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S. F.
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 7, 2007
Verified Purchase
This book really shows that you can't just give formal orientation (basic management skills and knowledge, policies and procedures)that first time managers need.

You have to take first time managers through some fundamental basics - their new personal identity (the period of growth in their first 12 months and the stresses/emotions of it all) and the weight of expectations from everywhere, examining the key management competencies and finally how to understand about the art of managing people and building relationships.

This information will help them in the transition or transformation (like a caterpillar to a butterfly!).

A really great book adding a new dimension to anyone interested in (first time) management development.
3 people found this helpful
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Tarun
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on July 17, 2016
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Highly recommended
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