RE: New position - next step

["Nicholas Russon" <nrusson -at- bluecatnetworks -dot- com>]

> What would be the most important piece of advice would you 
> give to those who are just starting a leadership position,
> both from the perspective of having been there, and from
> having trained them up?

The one piece of advice I'd offer to someone stepping into a leadership
position for the first time is "know your role". Unless you're also the
only experienced writer on the team _and_ the closest thing to an
in-team SME, your job is to expedite the work of your team. You get them
the tools and resources to do their jobs, and then you get out of the
way. 

Don't micromanage.

Don't ask for daily status reports.

Don't harass them about administrivia (part of your job is to keep the
administrivia tasks from interrupting them doing their real jobs).

Do try your best to remove roadblocks for them -- but make sure that
they're really blocked before you do. 

Regards,
Nicholas

Nicholas Russon
Manager, Technical Writing
BlueCat Networks 

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