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If you’re about to become a manager for the first time, or just want to get better at management, here’s my honest advice from overseeing 20+ people in the last 4.5 years. Hope you find this thread useful.
Listening is the single greatest skill you can develop as a manager (and as a marketer for that matter). Surround yourself with people you can learn from.
Don’t hire people that fit a limited profile, or are exactly like you. Culture fit is important but someone who can challenge existing ways of thinking and bring new ideas to the table? Invaluable.
Hire people based on passion rather than CV or years of experience. Passion is what makes successful people and successful businesses 
But don’t assume hiring and increasing headcount is always the answer. Success = people, process, technology, data. Not people, people, people, people.
Set clear expectations with your team. They need to understand what they’re doing, why, and how that contributes to the overall objectives. If you don’t do that, don’t be surprised if people don’t meet those expectations. 
Team achievements are infinitely more rewarding than personal achievements. Coaching, developing and educating the people you manage is the absolutely most important thing you can do.
Your first ‘bad hire’ will make you second guess yourself. Don’t. Debrief, learn and move on. Improve the recruitment process next time. Accept that it might happen again.
You’ll take leavers personally, especially if you hired them. That’s okay, it shows you’re invested in your team and your people. But - if you can - find out why they’re leaving and try to fix it. And be supportive of their decisions.
Lead by example. Put in the hours if you need to, do what you say you’re going to do, and set the standard. And no, it’s not ‘hustle porn’, it’s working hard and doing what’s necessary to get the job done.
Manage upwards as well as downwards. Part of your job is to make your manger’s life easier.
Set a clear agenda for meetings. Outline what’s expected of each attendee, expect contributions from every attendee (because you’ve given them time to prep), circulate minutes with clearly outlined actions + timings, follow-up on each action. Make meetings productive.
Planned brainstorming sessions are rarely as productive as you’d like. My best ideas come when I’m out for a walk, in the shower, or just before I go to sleep (thanks brain). Encourage idea sharing across different channels/mediums (Slack, WhatsApp, voice notes, over a
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It’s your job to be the bearer of good news and bad - that’s what you’re paid for. But there’s a right way of delivering bad news.
Not everyone will like or support you - that doesn’t mean you’re wrong or you’re being unfair. People are different, we have different opinions and approaches, and that’s okay.
You’re not going to be perfect at your job on day 1, so give yourself a break. The key is making more right decisions than wrong and continuously trying to better yourself. Be 1% better every day, and one day you’ll be as good as you’d like to be.
