Making a transition to management requires understanding the basic functions of the manager. This is the manager’s work from seven basic perspectives -the seven management hats :
ADMINISTRATION HAT—managing the nuts and bolts
DIRECTION HAT—teacher, coach, promoter, and innovator
LEADERSHIP HAT—taking the lead
PEOPLE HAT—understanding human behavior
ACTION HAT—the hands-on work
HIGH-ANXIETY HAT—the challenging work
BUSINESS HAT—where it all comes together
Three hats describe the indirect workload and include administration, direction, and leadership.
Four other hats describe the direct workload and include the people hat, the action hat, the high-anxiety hat, and the business hat. On your first day as a manager, you’ll have administrative work that must be completed, youwill provide direction to some of your people, and you will probably be expected to take the lead on some issue. You will have interaction with different kinds of people behaviors, there will be some challenging work, youmay need to resolve a serious conflict, and you may be involved in activities at the organizational level that require putting on the business
hat. This situation will continue as long as you remain in a managing position. As youbecome involved in the managing process you will recognize that youmay change these hats many times during a typical workday. So let’s look at these seven hats that managers wear, the expectations that go with them, how the expectations change as the occasion demands, and how managers develop an appropriate balance.
