Excerpt from a YouTube conversation where Daisy Chung reflects on her early management experience: she argues that strong performance as an individual contributor does not automatically translate to managerial skill, and emphasizes learning people-management, recognizing different strengths, and adapting coaching approaches. She also explains choosing to become an account executive so she could better prepare and relate to SDRs seeking promotion.
Chapters
All because you're really good at your individual role doesn't mean you're really good at being a manager. Or it could be mean that, but it's a completely different role. You can't. I think a lot of times you think that, oh, I know how to do this role. I'm gonna be a great manager. I'm just gonna teach them exactly what I did, and everyone's gonna crush it. No, that was my first mistake. It's a completely different role. You have to learn how to. How to work with people, how to understand different strengths and skill sets, and know that all because you did it well so does not mean they can just mimic what you did and they're going to do it well as well. So that was my first taste of management. And from there, why I decided to. After. After some time, I raised my hand again. I said, look, I want to be an account executive. Now my reasoning is clear. I'm managing a team of SDRs. Love them, they're great. But all my SDRs want to be account executive, and I've never been one. So how can I be the best manager getting them ready for promotion if I can't even relate or get them there?
