What is the most important career lesson you've learnt so far?

I think just taking the time to understand what the people below them actually do … we had so many managers come in and try to change so many things and have no idea what we do …

I definitely second the “friend one minute, tough boss the next” I know one of our managers who is like this and it’s difficult!!

How to be a good manager
One piece of advice is to remember that, although it’s up to you to ensure that problems are solved and work is done, it’s up to the team to actually do those things. Challenge them with coming up with ideas rather than giving them the answer and asking them to implement. They can always come to you if they need further guidance or advice, but will be way more motivated if they are challenged rather than just used as an extra pair of hands.

How to display your soft skills
Sounds like a cliche, but be yourself! Whatever has got you this far in terms of managing relationships, impressing people, sensing things are wrong, or just getting things done, keep building on those things, and get them to the next level. On the cultural point discussed above, I agree this is key, and it’s a huge part of the fun! I am currently working in Spain, and I’ve learned that it is unreasonable to expect everyone to show up to a meeting within half an hour of the start time! I used to get frustrated, but now I just factor it in. The other day, we were out to lunch, and I asked if we should get back for our next meeting in five minutes. They just looked at me and ordered dessert - and I’m glad they did! :shaved_ice::yum:

One thing I wish I’d known
Keep building on your strengths, and use others to develop your weaknesses. If you ask an expert, don’t just listen to the answer, but see how they worked it out. You’ll soon have enough knowledge to talk their language, and they’ll be more interested to help.

Finally, and this isn’t really relevant to your original questions, but I’m sad to see people above who didn’t get much out of their MBA. Like you, I was worried about the academic part, but the experience, personally and professionally, was the best thing I have ever done. I did it full time, and we had twenty six nationalities among seventy students. I was the only European in my group, and created an instant global network off the back of it. I have been to four weddings (no funerals!), and most of those seventy are still only a text away. I regularly use the knowledge I learned (or honed), but I must admit doing it part time sounds awful! The one piece of advice here is to know before you apply why you are going, and what you want from it. Definitely don’t do it for your parents, but if you want the biggest confidence boost ever, go for it!

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This is how I have been managed. Never trusted to just get on with the job, rather just become an extension or assistant to my line manager. It’s deathly depressing.

Be realistic about what you can achieve in your time at work. Manage expectations about how much you can deliver and when; but always work to exceed those expectations if possible.

Its very easy to become the “go to” person in many work environments if you have a reputation for doing a good job. This should be applauded but what so often happens is that you then become overloaded, start to fail to deliver/drop quality or work longer in order to deliver. As a result work-life balance drops, job satisfaction drops, performance (and performance related pay if you’re lucky enough to have it) drops, mental health suffers, relationships with colleagues suffer in some combination; not great for you, not great for the company, not great for your colleagues.

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Agree, there needs to be some balance! I think one of the best soft skills you can develop in the workplace is empathy and tact :+1:

That can turn toxic quite quickly! :pensive:

First of all, thank you so much for all of your wonderful insights! I read this all over my coffee this morning and I feel warmed and energised. Also, this was really lovely to read :heart: I do hear that the network you build in an MBA is the best thing you can get out of it to be fair. Maybe when I’m a little further along in my career!

I think there is something here as well about managing upwards/downwards - expectation management is a huge part of working, and I often think that life would have been easier at the start of my career if I just said “I don’t think I have the time to do this today” or “sorry, I can’t make that meeting.”

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I’m sooooooooooooo late to all of this, but hope one more thought might be helpful.

Echoing everything that’s been said above on how you could be a better manager (and one thing I constantly remind myself is that it’s a journey and you’ll definitely get things wrong half the time - if not more), a great podcast that I listen to regularly which gives tips on how to be a better manager is “Radical candor”.

Warning: it’s an American podcast so as a Brit I take some of the advice with a pinch of salt given the different cultures, but it’s still a good podcast to listen to.

Best of luck on your journey!

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Never been a manager, but something that I wish my current manager would do is trust me and stop with the micro-management.

I know that I am good at my job and I know that I don’t take the biscuit with my time. I have built up a lot of trust between myself and everyone else in the business from other departments (I work in IT)

But I have to run every little decision or every meeting by my boss. I would never dream of making massive changes to our system or implementing a new process without his knowledge or say so, but I have to run every little thing by him which can hold up a lot of work if he is busy. So I guess I would say trust your team as much as you can, you will probably find that the trust and empowerment of responsibility will make them more productive and happier.

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