The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You

Leading a team for the first time is a daunting new endeavor. Facebook’s Vice President of Product Design Julie Zhuo presents a bold new guide to getting respect—and results—in your new managerial role.

Julie Zhuo remembers the meeting where her manager asked her to become a manager. As in, convince her peers that she deserved to be in charge of all of them. She was 25. She barely had any experience being managed, let along managing others. But hey, what could go wrong?

As it turns out, Julie had a lot to learn. Like most first-time managers, she was thrown straight into the deep end, with little to guide her. What followed was a series of anxiety-inducing firsts, from her first time agonizing over whether an interviewee was a good fit for her team, her first time building trust with a report who was more experienced than she was, and her first time firing someone she liked. In this accessible, friendly guide, she reveals what she learned the hard way:

Why you should stop trying to impress your manager, and start asking for help with your thorniest problems

How to figure out whether a difficult employee is a lost cause or someone worth investing in

Why you shouldn’t deliver critical feedback in a “compliment sandwich”

If you are a new manager, looking to be promoted, or even in your first decade or so of managing, this is a practical guide to navigating the often-choppy waters.