My Challenges As A New IT Manager And Ways I Coped Up From It

I am a new IT Manager. My previous position is a full-stack developer. To others, this is a nice promotion, indeed it is. But, I must admit, the change is not easy, it is accompanied by birth pains -- birthing of a new manager.

In this article, I want to share with you the challenges I am facing as I traverse the shift from being a developer to a people/system manager and how I win (maybe) over them.

1. I am not a natural people person. Yes, I wrote that right. And I am quite hesitant to admit it but I know the truth will set me free. I accepted this promotion even though I knew I will need to know "people person" skills which I am not quite fond of. I spend most of my time concentrating alone whenever I code and I'd love to be left at peace when Im coding. But now, my whole day is filled with meetings and endless updates that don't make any sense sometimes. So Imagine some culture shock right there.

2. The zero inbox hoax. So I enrolled in this Udemy class (currently ongoing as of this writing), and the instructor says something about "zero inbox". The zero inbox thing is staying on top of your emails and other communication medium, meaning you have to leave no unread/unanswered/unreviewed messages. At first, I was like, okay I wanna try but the group chats keep on growing with so many stakeholders and spectators to manage.

3. Lesser time flexibility. During my dev days, once Im done on my target tasks for the day, I can either call it a day or I can continue advancing work or I can use the extra time to learn other stuff. Since I became a manager, this is probably the reason why I am disheartened as a new IT Manager, it took away my freedom. I am not a bad developer I can assure you that. I am a team player. My last year's KPI performance rendered out Strong, thus making me eligible for the promotion. This new position feels suffocating for some reason.

4. The never-ending meetings. Who even likes it? There are meetings worth attending but there are meetings where they can just forward the MoM to you with the action items afterwards. Today, I would look at my calendar and already get tired of the overlapping meetings.

5. The pressure. As a developer, my only accountability is to deliver the task at hand. I am not obliged to do any other extra unless I am consulted which makes me earn the extra points to be recognized as a team player. As a manager, my new norm is to be consulted, which brings me to the question, how am I supposed to answer you if I don't even know what it is? This question cuts across to all the systems I am handling. They are expecting me to be the go-to person on this, but I'm still learning. The pressure to keep up with all the information to provide is pressing me down.

I know it sounds like ranting, but that is where I am coming from. I talk about this a lot to my trusted colleagues and they are guiding me through my journey on this. I pick up their tips and sometimes their style and disposition as a leader, which somehow made me go through my first quarter as a new manager.

1. I am not a natural people person -- talk to them. Just talk. Just chat. Make them feel you are reachable and you can give them solutions. Make them feel that when they think of you, you can help them go to the next step. Easier said than done, this one takes time. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it won't and that's okay.

2. The zero inbox hoax -- there is no such thing as this. And if there is, then good for you. It means your job enables you to be on top of everything. I have colleagues who fell ill because they tried to keep up with tons of telegram messages in each group chat even though the context is not directed to them. The consumption of information alone is already stressful, let alone doing it religiously on a daily basis. I learned that if a particular issue concerns you, they will tag you. You will surely know about it one way or another. The only thing you need to do is to stand your ground, not lose composure and focus on the solution, not on how others perceive you. So I did not dwell on the zero inbox thing. I have a telegram group chat that reaches 500+ messages gone unread. Maybe I should leave that gc. lol.

3. Lesser time flexibility -- the sooner you master your ground, the more time flexibility you can have. I am now a manager, I no longer work alone. I have a team to work with/for. If I can learn these systems, I can duplicate myself through them. Or, I can do it this way. If I can't learn everything yet, I can depend on them. Or I can duplicate them. These are options. I am no longer limited to just "me".

4. The never-ending meetings -- know the agenda. I find it hard to stay focused in a Google Meet where I don't have anything to stand by for, so I made it a habit to ask the creator, before the meeting, for the agenda of that particular meeting. From there, I try to bargain my time as I am saving my sanity every day from these endless meetings but still I don't want the flow of information to get cut off just because I didn't want to attend that meeting. As much as possible, I will assess before it so I would know if I still need to be in it or if my presence is no longer needed in the meeting. Exceptions of these are the higher-ups or those in the leadership team.

5. The pressure -- it's inevitable. It will always be hard. Nothing comes easy in this IT world but you can always enjoy the process, and do your best. But if you think it's too much that it costs you your mental health, talk to your immediate supervisor. They need to know how you feel about your role. I did that and we devised a program to help me emerge alive (lol) in this role, I will give it time and I will give myself time to improve on this. If in the end I won't make it, my next step would be to ask them to move me back as an individual contributor, and that's okay.