> There is very little available advice on starting out in management.
i disagree. there's a shitload: go to any bookstore, real or virtual, and go to the business section. TONS of stuff on being a manager. the trouble is finding USEFUL, WORTHWHILE stuff. most of it - the vast majority of it - is drivel and derivative. find the gems.
myself, when i first became a manager i studied hard, i read tons of material and haven't stopped because it's a constant learning process. i studied three major subjects: managing people, managing projects, and leadership. they're all core skills to being an effective manager. a fourth one - managing yourself - is often overlooked, but don't skimp on it. self discipline and management will help you and the people who report to you immeasurably.
management is not about command but about responsibility: to the organization, to your boss, and to your staff. bdfh42 gets much of that right in his nutshell above. communication is a core concept, learn it and continually work on it. learn to delegate, learn to train, learn to plan, learn to trust - and earn trust. learn to lead.
a lot of my leadership lessons have come from military books lately, and one lesson i learned a long time ago from that field has stayed with me: complaints go up. never let your team hear you complain. you set the tone, you keep a positive attitude about things and people even if you're grinding your teeth when you do. your example reverberates with your team, never forget that. it's part of the responsibility.
harvard business review has a press and they have tons of books on management essentials worth studying. myself, i recommend their "essentials" books. they cherry pick articles from their magazine (which is also worth subscribing to) and put them together in a book. well worth it, and you can often find them cheap and used on amazon. here's one example:
http://hbr.org/product/harvard-managementor-management-essen...
i read a ton of peter drucker - and recommend his books wholeheartedly - and here's his books i suggest:
- The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done - just because you're not (yet) an executive doesn't mean you can't learn how to manage like one. this book taught me tons, and i recommend it to nearly any and all new managers i can.
- Managing Oneself - learn how to manage yourself, your time, your projects and everything else will come naturally.
- Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices - this is a tome but is the premier book of his, well worth the time you spend on it.
as for common pitfalls on being a first time manager they include failure to delegate, being too "hands on", and not setting expectations right. a lot of this is covered in "The Leadership Pipeline" by Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter and James Noel. while a book about big orgs building succession pipelines, for a manager it's really valuable because it teaches you what's expected of you by your superiors, and common pitfalls - and how to avoid them.
one of my favorite early books on leadership was "It's Your Ship" by D. Michael Abrashoff, a former navy captain. tons of great stuff in there that dovetails with the above well.
these are just some of the things i've read and shared with people over the years, and they've been extremely valuable. i spent my own money to read these and hours every night on my own and it has helped me become effective and grow. none of us are born knowing how to manage people, so study it like you would anything else new.
finally: ask for training. if your org has promoted you, ask for management training for yourself and the others around you. a couple of two day seminars will do wonders for your organization. the price is pretty reasonable, too.
> Stand by all of your team
too true: be a shit umbrella, not a shit funnel. when things happen, be the shield between your part of the org and the problem. follow up - with the individual(s), the team, and yourself - to see what went wrong and what you can learn. but never forget you should be a shit umbrella and shield your org from crap above.