Got a Promotion? Congrats! Now Learn How to Lead

The worst career mistake you could ever make is failing to learn how to manage others.

Today is my dad’s 75th birthday (Happy Birthday, Buddy!). He’s an entrepreneur who, throughout the majority of my adulthood, ran his own successful textiles company. (I used to describe it as “He sells fabric to fashion designers!” which I’m sure didn’t capture his full operation.) He has been my steady and trusted career mentor my whole life, and on “Take Your Daughter to Work” days, I remember watching him lead his office of three with confidence and compassion. To this day, even though he’s been retired for several years, he’s still in touch with his two longtime employees—exchanging holiday greetings and family news. I think that speaks volumes about the type of leader he was (and, in other ways, still is).

In contrast, throughout my own career, I’ve watched ineffective and unqualified bosses poison the creativity, camaraderie, and humanity of their workplaces. I’ve watched them make terrible, misguided decisions that favor profits over people. I’ve seen them fail to grasp the power of their presence and the ripple effects their actions and words create in their employees’ professional and personal lives.

Just like my dad gave me a crash course on how to lead, these people have shown me exactly how not to lead.

I never set out to be a leader myself. But, that’s what inevitably happens when you’re good at your job. You start getting promotions that hand you more money, more responsibility, and, suddenly, more colleagues to oversee. You’re so happy about the first two parts that you may overlook the last… but, trust me, that’s the biggest career mistake you will ever make.

Unless you’ve studied management and are well-versed in human resources, NO ONE, I repeat, NO ONE is going to teach you how to be a good boss. You need to put in that work yourself, and soon, because here’s just a little preview of what you can expect as soon as you’re in a supervisor role: