If you're thinking about becoming a manager for the first time, you may have some concerns. Concerns that women have shared with me about transitioning to leading a team include things like how do I know I'm going to be a good manager? I've never done that before. How do I know I'm going to like it? I'm going to be affecting other people's careers, what if I'm not great? Or what if I hate it? What if I have an underperformer who's going to totally blow up my experience of being a manager?

Right. All legitimate concerns, because you've never had this experience before and it's different from what you're doing now. Even though the underlying technical capabilities are the same, being a manager of others is very different from being an individual contributor.

In this post, I’ll share five strategies to prepare so that if you become a manager, when you become a manager, you'll have an effective transition process, you'll be at ease, and you'll be able to step into the role with...