Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership

Second Edition, Expanded to Include Fresh Insights and Practical Tools For New and Experienced Managers

No book has captured the trials and traumas of the transition from star performer to competent manager better than Linda Hill's classic Becoming a Manager. In tracing and analyzing the experiences of nineteen new managers, Hill reveals the profound complexity and difficulty of the process of developing into a manager. In their own distinct voices, these managers describe how they reframed their understanding of their roles and responsibilities and how they coped with the stresses and emotions of the transformation-in essence, how they were able to take on new identities. Now, in a substantially expanded second edition, the author offers concrete advice on the crucial issues of dealing effectively with organizational politics and developing and leading diverse teams in times of change, as well as on how managers can prepare themselves to lead over the course of their careers. In a new epilogue, she explores what organizations can do to help managers in their journey to lead and learn.

It's very well written, even humorous at times, and details the actual statements and insights of these new managers. What an absolutely accurate sanity check!!! These folks really let their hair down and were completely honest about their experiences.

Not only did I dog-ear and underline my book all over the place, I wouldn't hesitate to buy this book for a friend or close colleague who is considering or transitioning to management. It's like being in a roomful of other new/fairly new managers and getting honest feedback on the ups-and-downs, the highlights, and the things you would love to have known before accepting the management position!!

Linda Hill's analysis in the final chapters is the icing on the cake. Based on this study, she offers extremely valuable insights into how corporations need to support and train new managers, and suggests things that potential and new managers need to be aware of and prepare for.


Insightful Book   June 28, 2006
Rachel (Chicago, IL United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I found this book insightful and validating. I transitioned from being a healthcare professional to a manager of a clinic. Despite the difference in practice areas between this book and my own career (sales vs. healthcare), I still found the findings in the book to be important. Whether you're transitioning to manager from a position of top performer in terms of money or in terms of some other measure of achievement (such as quality of patient care or number of new innovations, for example), the lessons of this book still apply. I highly recommend this book to new managers and to THEIR managers.


Accurate description of the transition to manager   November 14, 1998
Elaine May (elaine_may@hp.com) (Santa Rosa, California)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

I've been in management at Hewlett-Packard for 10 years. This book accurately captures my experience and the experience of many of my friends and colleagues who have made the transition from individual contributor to first-level manager. Even though the managers in this study were sales people in financial firms, their experiences mirror those I've seen as a manager of R&D engineers. I highly recommend this book to anyone considering a career in management. It's an accurate description of both the joys and frustrations.