Get the Scary Management Playbook

What is Scary Management?
Your success as a new manager depends on how well you manage your resources to deliver the required value to your stakeholders. Your biggest resource is your team. Your people.

Managing people is scary. Interpersonal conflict, emotions, cultural differences, motivation, the scary list goes on. These can be ugly, complex topics that drain your energy. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Do you want your people to give you the bare minimum required? Or, do you want them to give you their absolute best?

What is the playbook about?
This is a story about Thandi’s journey to becoming a team manager for the first time. It is adapted from my own personal experience moving from individual contributor to manager. I drew on knowledge gained from self study, formal education, mentors and of course, my own experiences at multiple different corporates in South Africa with diverse and distributed teams. Hope you find it entertaining and insightful!

What purpose does it serve?
The purpose is to hint at the management knowledge out there, specifically focusing on soft skills. Each chapter contains (hidden) models, theories and frameworks that can help you solve the complex issues that come with managing people and teams. Sometimes it’s very subtle, and sometimes it it will hit you like a sledgehammer. Either way, incorporating this knowledge into your management toolkit will make managing your people an energy source rather than an energy sink. The ultimate goal is to help you create an environment and culture where your team can thrive under your leadership.

The Scary Management Manual - A companion to the Playbook While the Playbook is a short story, the manual expands on Thandi’s story with details of the people management theory that will help you up your game and get the best performance out of your team. We are confident that the soft skills in the Scary Management Manual are your ticket to a successful career in management.

At scarymanagement.com, we are building the materials to help you achieve this. Look out for the Scary Management Manual, which unpacks in detail, how Thandi applied the models hinted at here. (Coming soon)