If you happen to be good at what you do, at some point, someone will want to turn you into a manager/leader/boss (sorry, I don’t make the rules). However, despite the fact that being good at what you do got you into a management role, you’ll need to cultivate an entirely different skillset to succeed at it.

A manager’s job has two parts to it – leadership and management. Unfortunately, leadership isn’t something that I can teach you in one session – that comes with experience, scars, and introspection. There are a few things that I could probably teach you though, so in this talk, we’re going to cover some of the most important skills that go with the role – communication, delegation, stakeholder management, admin, and giving up on trying to be the smartest person in the room.

This talk is inspired by an interaction with a leader on project team that I worked with. The leader came from a technical background – i.e. they were moved into a leadership role because of the fact that they were technically very skilled.

However, one of the biggest challenges on the team was a lack of information flowing to the team members and the team’s stakeholders – the leader’s natural instinct was to get their head down and actually do the work. Unfortunately, while that got them into the role, it was not what they need to do to succeed as leader.

I believe this is a common challenge for new leaders, and that some advice based on my learnings and my growth as a leader can also benefit a larger audience.