Letting go of your programming and technical duties is difficult for new managers, but essential for managing the new demands on your time and responsibilities.

As an individual contributor, you're used to trying to make yourself look good - but as a manager, it's more important for your team to look good. Resist the temptation to take credit for your team's accomplishments.

Remember that as a manager, you are now a role model for your team. They will emulate your good behaviors and the bad - so be conscious of the behavior you exhibit. Don't bad-mouth others or complain; just get stuff done and your team will too.

Managing your time with all the new meetings encroaching on your schedule is a difficult part of the transition to management. Here's my system for inbox management and keeping track of outstanding tasks; it keeps your inbox at zero and minimizes your stress since you don't need to worry about messages you haven't read yet, or losing track of the things you need to get done.

Time management techniques only work if you have the discipline to apply them consistently. Here are a few tips for doing that.

Maintaining focus as a manager is even harder than it was as an engineer. Here are some basic tips for quickly getting things done when you need to produce something, and minimizing distractions while you try to get and stay within "the zone."

You have enough to do without taking on tasks that don't really add value. Learn how to say "no" to assignments that aren't a good use of your time, or delegate assignments to your team when appropriate.

Apply the time management techniques we've discussed to achieve Inbox Zero!

As an engineer, you were all about tactics - how to get things done. But as a manager, you'll need to understand the strategy behind these projects and how they serve the larger company. Tactics flow from strategy, and understanding business strategy is essential to your growth as a manager.

Force yourself to understand the STRATEGY behind the goals your team has. Why are they important to the business?

A common failure mode is taking on more than your team can handle. Learn tips for making realistic estimates for your team's capacity - it's very different from estimating how long it takes you as an individual to do something.

You need to remain aware of your team's status and availability. Here's some advice for staying in the loop in what your team as a whole is doing and the challenges they face. As a new manager, it's tempting to still focus on your own problems - but now you have to focus on your team's problems as well.

Your main job as a manager is to get things done, using the resources of your team. A very effective way to get more things done on time is to avoid overcomplicating them. We'll talk through some examples of designing systems that optimize for simplicity, which maximizes the likelihood of them finishing on time and without unexpected problems. Simplicity also minimizes future maintenance requirements and "technical debt" going forward.

A tool for arriving at simple designs is "working backwards," a technique followed at Amazon to design systems that primarily aim to build a specific customer experience in the most straightforward manner possible. "Working forwards" by starting with a trendy technology you just want to play with often leads to overly complex, sub-optimal solutions to business problems.

Practice working backwards in a case study of a business goal you've been tasked to achieve.

You'll learn some basic techniques for handling difficult, emotionally-charged conversations with individuals on your team, such as active listening or reflective listening.

In this animated scenario, an engineer on your team is angry at a co-worker, and it's your job to defuse the situation and work toward a solution.

Active listening isn't limited to the workplace! Find an opportunity to practice it, perhaps at home. It may feel unnatural at first, but with practice it becomes basic empathy.

There is intense competition for engineering talent; learn some unconventional ideas for sourcing new engineering candidates that will put you ahead in finding new talent before everyone else.

Dealing with performance issues on your team is the most difficult thing a new manager will be asked to do. Understand why it is so important not to shy away from this task.

The first time I had to fire someone, it went horribly. I had never had to do something bad to someone else before. Learn from my mistakes, so you don't learn the hard way (like I did.)

We've seen how NOT to fire someone, so now let's talk about how the process SHOULD go. The good news is, it doesn't always have to end in firing - when done well, the employee will find a role that's a better fit on their own before it comes to that.

Not all separations of employment are done for-cause; sometimes your company decides to scale back in a way that affects your team. This is a very different situation and we'll talk about some ways of handling it.

In this activity, you'll address a performance issue on your team head-on. Draft a performance improvement plan (PIP) and practice setting appropriate goals for one.

The people on your team aren't the only relationships you need to manage; you also need to manage the relationship with your own boss, and above. It really comes down to open communication and understanding the goals of those above you.

In many corporate cultures, it's OK to push back against decisions you don't agree with - but if the final decision is to do it anyway, as a manager you need to get behind it and still motivate your team to do it.

Things don't always go according to plan, and how you handle these situations can affect the morale of yourself and your team. Here are some ways to try and turn bad outcomes into new opportunities.

As an engineer, you probably never thought you'd be in front of the CEO and expected to behave like an executive. Here are the basic rules of upper-level meetings nobody ever told you.

How do you survive being on the hotseat? It comes down to being prepared, and admitting when you don't know something - and quickly following up on the tasks you were given.

Getting behind a decision you didn't agree with is difficult. Practice understanding the strategy behind such a decision in your own company.

You can use tribalism as a force for good! Your team will feel cohesive and productive if they're all in it together to achieve a larger goal - your job as a manager is to communicate that goal and the progress toward it.

Does your team even know what its goals are? It's all too easy as a new manager to take team goals as your own goals, but your team needs to be aware of them too. It helps morale to know they are working together toward something bigger.

Sometimes projects get cancelled, and it can be demoralizing for a team. Here are some tips for getting through it while keeping your team happy and focused on the next project.

This activity is simple: apply what you've learned in this section to your own team.

A lightning round of tips for furthering your own career as a manager: find a mentor, seek to understand the business side of things, learn from the decisions you don't understand, observe upper management and learn from them, and build good relationships outside of your own organization.

As a new manager, a mentor outside your chain of command can provide very helpful advice and perspective. So, find one!