A great article for getting at all the unexpected events in a new manager's work life. (There's also all the junk that happens when you take these anomalies home!).

I agree with the posts that suggest this is a "must read" for all new managers. In addition there is all the stuff that you/your new manager didn't fall into yet that's just waiting there to make your life even MORE interesting.

Finally; once you think the "management thing" is coming under control (if ever) then there's "Leadership". Isn't life grand?

Two other thoughts:

a) It seems to be particularly prevalent in the IT world that good "technical" performance is incorrectly assumed to imply good management potential. Accordingly, the new manager's manager needs help.

b) Looking backward in the organizational lifecycle: employees of new managers - who, often, 5 minutes ago were peers - need to read and know this too. Usually, from their perspective, their buddy of 5 minutes ago suddenly just underwent a "management lobotomy" and their former friend and associate has been sucked up into the ether by aliens who inhabit the other boxes in the management org chart.

Code can be cool; humans are just utterly astonishing.

Good one - keep the insights coming!

Paul Reeves