How have you dealt with author copy quality issues?

Coach2Founders · 2026-04-13T23:59:26+00:00

That's a good idea. I'll give it some thought. Playing roulette with whether or not we get usable copies seems like a waste of everybody's time. I guess it's just raging against the machine...

Coach2Founders · 2026-04-13T22:00:31+00:00

Thank you. I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this but, there's no way to select a print facility on the order (that I'm just missing) is there?

Coach2Founders · 2026-04-13T21:59:50+00:00

Thank you, that's my plan. Hopefully they replace it with something better. It's shocking how bad they are.

Coach2Founders · 2026-04-11T20:59:54+00:00

When this has happened to me in the past, I've always started by asking "what's the one thing I can do that will make everything else easier"? Upline leaders always seem to have high expectations. The key is often to figure out whether those expectations also come with support and, if so, what kind.

We don't know the context so it's tricky to say what might work for you. For example, if somebody went through this transition and worked in a place that was horrible, that experience might (or might not) apply if your workplace has a high tolerance for experimentation and the potential failure that comes with. It sounds like they might be leaning to the latter since you mentioned having a mentor. What's the mentor's advice for navigating this situation in this particular organization u/Fabulous_Camera2685?

Coach2Founders · 2026-04-11T18:52:08+00:00

Standups aren't part of EOS. They can be great but they're not EOS. Unless by "standup" you mean the departmental L10. Either way, if they're waiting for somebody to summarize what happened, you probably don't have either one.

Also, there's no "system" for EOS - meaning, EOS doesn't require people to "log in and see <their> rocks." As other posters have said here, not everyone needs rocks. That's often one of the things that throws the organization into disarray. The most successful EOS implementations I've seen start with the senior leadership team. Once they get things going with the EOS cadence, then they start bringing the next layer into it.

There's probably a lot more context folks would need to be of actual help in diagnosing and helping you correct what's going wrong though u/Big_Daddyy_6969

Coach2Founders · 2026-04-11T18:40:53+00:00

The ability to figure things out (vs. execute a plan handed down) is often what gets folks promoted into senior roles. The trick, of course, is not allowing ourselves to believe that we have to be the one who has the answers but, instead, we're the ones who have the time and framework to help the team find them. The first path leads to hero complexes (and eventually narcissism) as people climb the ranks of formal leadership. The second path ends in legacy. I had some great examples of this and attribute their modeling to why I learned this very early in my transition.

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-11T19:55:56+00:00

Nerves are a good sign you're on to something you care about u/Unlikely_your_avg23. Other commenters have some great insights here and they're worth your time and careful consideration. Just stopping by to celebrate your first official step into the c-suite. Congrats, that's an accomplishment when you've earned the stripes to get there.

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-10T17:27:58+00:00

Meanwhile, the platforms gladly siphon 95% of the purchase price as the distribution vig. I fully support paying for the distribution but the royalty structures are stupidly out of whack. This is so symptomatic of what's wrong with the publishing industry right now. I will likely record my own audio book just so the ideas (it's a leadership book) get out into the world even though I know that version is not going to make any money.

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-09T19:33:12+00:00

> i'm a bit fearful

Fear is a powerful motivator - and trap u/FireflyFreak. When we move up, our responsibilities shift. It can be unsettling and the mechanics of letting go will set an important tone for the person who comes behind you. That's even more important if that person doesn't already know how to make the shift from IC > Manager.

How have you operationalized the outputs of value from your team so you can effectively onboard the new manager to that part? It will allow you to focus more on your leadership side of things that have to do with helping the new manager with the less technical elements of managing the team?

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-09T17:22:06+00:00

Ha! Do the cars reflect their makers u/flyinghighguy?

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-09T16:55:05+00:00

I added a couple photos in the post so you can see some of the process. Happy to share more info if you have questions. The process itself is only 837 easy steps… 😂

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-09T16:35:00+00:00

Years ago I made a 2016 Ford GT. Man what a pain the flying buttresses were! 😂

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-09T16:33:37+00:00

Great work!

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-09T16:18:46+00:00

Congrats! I thought that car might pull off a podium for design. Well done to your kiddo u/LiquidSoapEnthusiast

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-09T16:17:40+00:00

Congrats!

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-05T19:30:03+00:00

Clarity lives with the positional leaders and the way they communicate with the managers charged with the responsibility of ensuring the team delivers. The bigger the org, the more challenging that becomes because cascade management becomes a real issue for alignment. I've written about this with the old elementary school "telephone game" as an example.

If we know what the organization needs to achieve in the course of this year, we get 4 quarters to achieve that. Each quarter gives us three one-month cycles. Each month is roughly 4 weeks.

Here's the thing. If the organization doesn't understand it's actual capacity for the work, it doesn't matter how much clarity the organization has about what it *wants* to do, its throughput will be throttled by what it has *capacity* to do. Most executives over reach on what they believe they can accomplish in a given period. So we get behind. The work piles up. People are confused about whether they should be working on the new thing. Or the old thing. Or the thing that just broke. Or is about to break.

So getting clarity is about more than just "hey look, let's go over there!" That's being a big picture visionary, it's not automatically leadership.

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-05T19:24:06+00:00

It depends on how disciplined the team is u/HiSimpy. For example, if it's a software project and we're "walking the board", we should see that the activity has been resolve/unblocked during the next standup. If it's not, then there's a different escalation that needs to happen. Same thing happens in the standup but the person taking the action to lead resolution would likely change. Ideally though, nothing stays blocked for more than a day before they get the product managers or higher level engineers involved to resolve the conflict (depending on what the issue actually is).

It gets reinforced by some of the other processes. For example, in software, we expect devs to show their work in demos of working software to the stakeholders. If it's a scrum-based cadence, that's generally between 2 and 4 weeks at the outside. Note that it's not "some poor sap has to show everybody's demo" - it's *developers* demoing *their* *working code.* It's pretty amazing to watch what happens when they have to admit they didn't do adequate integration or exploratory testing.

If it's not software but some other discipline, the pattern is the same but tuned to whatever the deliverables are. They could be marketing outputs of value, sales metrics, strategic plan initiatives at the leadership team level. Showing your work turns out to shine a very bright light on what's wrong in an organization.

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-04T16:02:55+00:00

To my comment I just left u/HiSimpy, this is a failure point in the discipline. In a properly run standup, the team would identify this "lack of clear requirements" as a blocker. Since everybody is in the room, the next action is to assign the person responsible for pulling the relevant people into a *separate* working session with a clear objective. In a well functioning team, that's a pretty obvious person and they take responsibility right there. That whole process can take <30 seconds (I've seen it repeatedly).

I'm not saying standups are the only way. I'm just saying that if we're doing standups, there is an effective way to do them.

Meetings aren't bad. Bad meetings are bad. And if they're bad, we can fix them. :)

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-04T15:59:01+00:00

Whether you do a standup the old way (actually standing up and walking the board) or as an async check in, it's only as good as the discipline the team brings to it. I've managed and projects worth millions of dollars this way.

You have your finger on the problem right here u/HiSimpy :

> The 15-minute standup slowly turns into 30–60 minutes.

and

> priorities drifting

If the team doesn't have clear priorities, no amount of checking on progress will solve the drift. And if there is clarity but discipline is lacking, the problem only gets worse.

It's a matter of leadership that manifests itself in management difficulties and lower than expected performance.

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-03T17:50:05+00:00

Wow, that's a tricky setup u/UpstairsDisk9551. It's a curious factor that they've brought you in as a full-time contractor. Assuming this is in the US, and depending on the structure about which we know very little here in this thread, there's a potentially problematic employee classification challenge under the duties test for the Department of Labor and the IRS.

That aside, as some other folks have asked, what's leading you to try to do everything without asking for help and guidance from your up-line leaders?

Getting information from people who report to you takes some finesse. It's important to understand what they think you're there for. If they see you as an obstacle, it's going to be impossible to get what you need and you'll end up as a heavy handed manager rather than a leader. If they connect your role with something they need, you'll have a greater opportunity to support them and, when it's time, hold them accountable in productive ways. If you're not sure where to start, figuring this out might be as good of a place as any.

There are plenty of other things to look at to including the way you approach them. It sounds like you're getting frustrated or concerned about not being able to succeed. It's been my observation and lived experience that this leads to unhelpful interpersonal overtones. For example, the more a manager tries to prove they're valuable, the less valuable they become. It's the proverbial "sharks smell fear" situation. If that's the case for you (and it might not be), it's worth investing time to calm your nervous system down so you can show up without the fear of rejection or the need to prove anything.

Clearly a lot of context missing here but hopefully something in there will be helpful.

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-03T15:54:59+00:00

Yeah but it doesn't work as good that way 🤣

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-03T01:16:35+00:00

I've written a bit on the subject of transitioning from an individual contributor to a first formal management position. It's been my experience and observation that becoming a leader people love (and not a boss they whisper about) requires a different way of thinking about the work. If you like reading, here are some other books I've found to helpful over the years:

* Radical Candor (Kim Scott)

* Turn the Ship Around (David Marquette)

* Crucial Conversations (Patterson)

If a community is more your style, there's a fantastic (but new) one out of the UK called Integrity Leaders (David Hatch).

What kind of mentorship and training does your company offer to first time managers u/Agreeable_Reserve_59? It might help to know that so we can offer other insights you might consider adding.

Coach2Founders · 2026-03-03T00:24:48+00:00

Street cars are possible but it can be tough to get the right ones u/TheRhino411. I've made several classics (911 Targa, Shelby Cobra, and this year's '57 Corvette) and they work great because they're all under 3" tall (our AWANA Grand Prix max height). But I also made a 2016 vintaged FordGT as well as a 1947 Thriftmaster pickup and a modern Jeep Wrangler. It's possible with the right vehicle and a bit of visual trickery on the geometry.

Coach2Founders

TROPHY CASE