Issue #1: Managing from the Messy Middle

Appetizer

The skills that got you promoted are rarely the skills that will make you successful in the new job.

Main Course

Middle management is hard. Really hard.

Not in the physical sense of hauling rocks, or the emotional sense of being a caregiver. But in the sense of expectations.

Expectations of performance. Expectations of strategy, and of execution. Expectations of managing staff and managing leaders.

And what happens when you perform well? Congratulations, you now have a title bump, staff to manage, and a companion named Anxiety.

That's the actual reason this exists. There are a lot of great newsletters out there, but nothing for those of us operating in the messy middle. The ones that have an office on the noisy workshop floor with a one-way phone line coming from the strategy floor.

This is for us to reflect, connect, and most importantly, notice the parts of advancement work that don't show up in the campaign numbers: how teams actually function, what culture really means day to day, and where this profession is headed as a community.

Three short pieces a week.

Talent, culture, community. That's it.

Dessert

Write down the one thing you wish someone had told you before you started managing. Then send it to whoever's newest on your team — they're standing exactly where you were.