How to fail as a new engineering manager
When offered to 'move up' into  a Manager's role - the first thing is to understand what has changed in the Team or Company.<p>If the position has been vacated by someone who just left, you may see what expectations on the role have stayed in the Company. These may be 'projected' on the new Manager (no matter what the job description says). This would impact the ability to meet your own vision of success in that role.<p>If this is a new position, created just for you - again, there might be some unexpressed reasons based on what has led to that decision. If one knows the history and the decision makers, one could measure degree of freedom to have any impact in that role.<p>As others here pointed out, it's a move from a Senior Dev to a Junior Mgr. As such you are Junior on someone's Team, with all the baggage that comes with this.<p>Politics does not begin at Manager's level, but failing to see how the politics works there is what effectively dooms a new Manager.<p>Article lists many practical points that are team-facing. My personal favortite is #4 (express your expectations).  Equally crucial should be the management-facing points.<p>I find that for someone with a strong technical background one of the hardest management side to adopt may be a _negotiation ability_ and a capacity for compromise, especially with the very little leverage as a Junior Mgr usually has at her disposal.