Becoming a Manager: Linda Hill's Study of New Managers, and What Later Research Adds

What the book argues

Becoming a Manager is by Linda A. Hill, a professor at Harvard Business School (Harvard University, n.d.). It was first published by Harvard Business School Press in 1992 (Open Library, n.d.-a), with a second edition in 2003 that, according to the introduction to an excerpt on Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, added chapters and a more prescriptive style (Hill, 2003). Harvard Business Review Press published the current edition on March 19, 2019 (Harvard Business Review Press, n.d.; Open Library, n.d.-b).

The publisher describes the core of the book as the experiences of nineteen new managers, followed through their first year (Harvard Business Review Press, n.d.). Its argument is that becoming a manager is a profound psychological adjustment, a change in identity as much as in skills, and that it happens through continuous learning from experience. The publisher says the book covers how these managers reframed their understanding of their roles and how they coped with the stresses of leadership, and that many new managers fail to make the transition well (Harvard Business Review Press, n.d.).

In my words: the hardest part of the first year is not learning tasks. It is giving up the identity of the person who does the work well and taking on the identity of the person responsible for other people doing it.

Who it is for

New managers in their first year, and the people who promote and support them. Hill told TD magazine that she began the research in the mid-1980s, when few management books were based on data (Brotherton, 2011). That makes it one of the more research-grounded books for this audience. It is a longer, more reflective read than a handbook.

What the research says

Hill's own study is the book's main evidence, and it is qualitative: it shows how nineteen people experienced the transition, not how often each pattern occurs. Later studies in the evidence I use speak to two of its themes.

The adjustment is real, and it shifts over time. Herzig and Jimmieson (2006) interviewed 40 middle managers in ten Australian organizations about leading change. Before a change, their uncertainty was mostly about why it was happening. During it, the uncertainty was about how to carry it out. Managers named the design of the change, communication up and down, support from senior managers, conflicting role demands and contact with peers as what helped or hindered them. That was a retrospective interview study, so it identifies themes rather than effects, but it echoes Hill's picture of a manager learning a role under pressure.

In one company, the surroundings shaped how new managers settled in. Chen and colleagues (2011) studied newly recruited middle managers in a large Chinese telecom company, in an experiment where they discussed a conflict under different organizational values. According to their abstract, an organization that valued relationships and open discussion of diverse ideas helped new managers settle in and build cooperative goals, compared with one that avoided discussion. One company and a scenario design limit what this can show.

Formal training can add to learning on the job. Hill stresses learning from experience. Trials show that structured training can change behavior too. Jacobsen and colleagues (2022) randomly assigned leaders across 463 public and private organizations, from schools and day care centers to bank units, to leadership training programs or to a control group. According to their abstract, employee responses showed that the training could improve leadership behavior across very different organizations.

Where the evidence is thin

The book's own evidence is one small, qualitative study, deepened by the author's later work. I found no trial that tests whether reading the book, or following its advice, makes the first year go better. The training trials test programs, not books, and they measure how employees rate their managers more often than what teams achieve.

How it maps to the Unfrozen Loop

This mapping is my judgment. Hill's account of a first year full of stress and role conflict is closest to The middle's own weather, the part of the Unfrozen Loop about a manager's own workload, strain and support. Her point that the job is learned on the job fits Review on a rhythm, then hold the pace: short, regular reviews are one way to learn from experience on purpose rather than by accident. For more on why the middle layer carries so much, see middle managers and the Atlas answer on how change affects middle managers.

What I take from it

This is the book I would hand to someone the week they are promoted, because it tells them that the discomfort is normal and has a shape. The research adds two practical points: the organization around a new manager matters, and learning from experience works better when it is deliberate. If you are in your first year, keep a short weekly note of one thing that surprised you, and review the notes with your own manager once a month. For a practical companion, see The Making of a Manager.