How Did I Not See This Coming - 9781562867867
Pricing
Format Member Nonmember
$15.95 $17.95
$15.95 $17.95
Please see the terms of sale for important information about the use of PDFs.
Read More Read Less

Julie’s having a very bad day. She’s a new manager, and her top performer has resigned to escape her, and her own manager is looking on with a skeptical eye. . . . This is the story of her turnaround.

Being a first-time manager is a tough job. If you were Julie, what would you do? Wouldn’t anyone, given the choice of taking on a leadership role (with a raise), or staying put, have done the same? But no one prepared her for developing co-workers, her former peers, while producing as before and leading the team. Now she’s in over her head.

Author Katy Tynan understands. In her new book, How Did I Not See This Coming? A Manager’s Guide to Avoiding Total Disaster, Tynan unlocks the truths about management, showing that first-time managers are basically on a journey without a map. It’s not that employers aren’t investing in their new managers, she says, or that the people in leadership don’t care, but they are no longer close to the raw experience of being a new manager. What’s more, most management books are written by experts who lack the memory of first-time failure.

In How Did I Not See This Coming?, Tynan tells the fictional story of Julie, a onetime star producer, to illustrate how a new manager can successfully make the shift from a role without leadership responsibilities to one with them. Along the way, Tynan offers the five basic truths about management—starting with recognizing team values and strengths—truths that can be learned by anyone. You, too, can be the manager everyone’s talking about—in a good way—because you’re the one who figured it out.

Book Details
ISBN: 9781562867867
Pages: 120
Publication Date:
Formats: Paperback, PDF
Product Code: 111713
About the Author
See All
Praise for This Book
Co-Author, The New One Minute Manager and One Minute Mentoring
Katy Tynan knows the challenges of being a first-time manager. So she wrote How Did I Not See This Coming?, a parable for new managers. Readers will follow Julie, a newly promoted manager, as she learns and practices the five essential truths of management. Every manager will be able to relate to this delightful little book.
President, Lundberg Media; Former Editor in Chief, CIO Magazine
How Did I Not See This Coming? is a fresh and engaging approach to the fundamentals of leadership. New managers will find it easy to identify with the protagonist’s situation and apply the lessons she learns to their own challenges. This book should be a part of every new manager’s orientation pack.
Author, Leadership Freak Blog
Putting on your first management hat won’t magically prepare you for the challenges ahead. How Did I Not See This Coming? demonstrates how good management advice comes from unlikely places. Every new manager and many experienced managers need to read this book.
Professor of Management, Michigan Ross School of Business
What lessons does a new manager need to learn to lead her team effectively? Katy Tynan shares the story of a young leader gaining insights through her own experiences and those of her colleagues.
CEO, KnowledgeStar
Katy Tynan’s How Did I Not See This Coming? fulfills the promise of providing a useful—and entertaining—management book that tells the story about what managers need to learn and do to be great.
The Learning Coach blog
It’s not easy to make the transition from individual contributor to manager and leader. In How Did I Not See This Coming, Katy Tynan captures these difficulties and their resolution in the form of a novel. Readers will relate to protagonist Julie Long as she evolves from a weak and confused manager to a strong leader with her own unique style.

By wrapping the fundamental truths of becoming an effective leader into a story, Tynan provides insight into why each leadership principle works. Through Julie Long’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences, you learn the importance and meaning of being a compassionate and strategic thinker and leader.
1 Comment
Sign In to Post a Comment
Happy book birthday to Katy! I look forward to keeping this conversation for new managers (and those coaching new managers) going here on the ATD site and beyond.
Sorry! Something went wrong on our end. Please try again later.
Sorry! Something went wrong on our end. Please try again later.