6 Things No One Tells You About Becoming a Boss

It's a more than a title change. A lot more.

One day, you’re a top-performing individual contributor. The next, you’re “the boss.” Suddenly, everything about your job changes. But most new managers are given little to no help in understanding what exactly just happened.

If you want to be effective as a boss, and if your organization wants to grow strong leaders, it’s essential to recognize the fundamental shifts that happen when you step into a management role. Here are six.

1. You are now “they.”

When your team vents about “them,” the people making the decisions, the ones in charge, they mean you.

Even if you started on the factory floor. Even if you came up alongside your team. The moment you became the boss, the dynamic changed. And smart managers internalize that. They understand that people will relate to them differently now and may no longer give them the whole story. (There are ways to fix that, but they require intention.)