The Making of a Manager

What to Do When Everyone Looks to You

By: Julie Zhuo

Narrated by: Karissa Vackers

Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's Summary

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo.

No idea what you're doing? No problem. Good managers are made, not born.

Facebook VP Julie Zhuo remembers the moment when she was asked to lead a team. She felt like she’d won the golden ticket - until reality came crashing in. She was just 25 and had barely any experience being managed, let alone managing others. 

Her coworkers became her employees overnight, and she faced a series of anxiety-inducing firsts, including agonising over whether to hire an interviewee, seeking the respect of reports who were cleverer than her and having to fire someone she liked. Like most first-time managers, she wasn’t given any formal training and had no resources to turn to for help. It took her years to find her way, but now she’s offering you the shortcut to success.

This is the audiobook she wishes she'd had on day one. Here, she offers practical, accessible advice like:

• Don’t hide thorny problems from your own manager; you’re better off seeking help quickly and honestly.
• Before you fire someone for failure to collaborate, figure out if the problem is temperamental or just a lack of training or coaching.
• Don’t offer critical feedback in a ‘compliment sandwich’ - there’s a better way!

If you’re looking to be promoted or in your first decade of management, this is your go-to guide.

©2019 Julie Zhuo (P)2019 Random House Audiobooks

Excellent tool for people managers

Regardless your experience in managing a team, this is a playbook of sorts to remind us of some important values in the art of management.

Content is quite straight to the point. No jargon, no technicalities. Just a very humanistic approach in story telling and bringing across key points that matter.

Every manager should read this!

Whether you agree with the ideas in here or not, it’s a great perspective on management and the scenarios that can arise. It offers wisdom from years of experience. Highly worth reading for new managers!

Perfect

Very great book for new managers - great examples, simple explanations. I especially loved stories about 1 to 1 meetings.

Thoughtful & entertaining

I'm not a manager, I'd though that maybe one day I would want to be. But listening to this book is the first step I've taken towards considering it for my career. This book has cause me to pause and really consider it.

As a non manager, it has been eye opening and revealed a lot into how my manager sees me. Hopefully the takeaways I've gotten from this book will help me in my day to day whether I want to be a manger or not.

👍 I'll probably read this again.

good and practical book on management

I related to Julie's stories a lot and took lots of great tips. Definitely worth reading/listening to

Great for anyone looking to boost skills

It took me a chapter to really get into it but I got hooked and found it is an excellent listen with great advice. would highly recommend to anyone looking to boost their managerial skills or for someone looking to step up their career.

Simple to understand and actionable

Great advice and knowledge shared from Julie as always. Highly recommend if you are a manager by job title or not.

Just fantastic

Thoroughly enjoyed this listen.
Wonderfully read (I listen on x2 and still sounded great) and truly great insights that seemed to arrive in the right order.
Recommend wholeheartedly

Excellent insights

The narrator is clear and easy to listen to. The context is excellent, a must for your management bookshelf. Skewed towards new managers, but of some use to existing managers.

learnt Loads about management

very good book I'm glad I've got started on this learning about management path as there's so much to discover

not for me

struggled to stay with it, constantly referred to other managers as her/she and it become irritating, there are some great points and views...I think the writer tried too hard to make it a story.

A manager's guide with empathy

I enjoyed the narration, felt like I was listening to an experienced friend.
The scenarios were relatable and I thought the writer showed alot of empathy in creating multiple scenarios, I didn't feel lost at any point in time.
I recommend this book to anyone leading a team or aspiring to!

One person's story of how she became a manager

This is somewhere between a blog of how Julie found becoming a manager and some patronising advice on what to do if you find yourself becoming a manager. I've been a manager for a few years and found the advice a bit basic. Much you could work out for yourself.