Workbook
The First-Time Manager's Workbook
From Peer to Leader: How to Manage People Who Used to Be Your Colleagues
Getting promoted did not make you a manager. Deciding who you are as one does.
For the person who was an excellent individual contributor and is now managing the identity shift of having authority over people they used to work beside.
The Name It First Experience
You were promoted because you were excellent at individual work. The skills that made you excellent there do not automatically transfer here. This workbook moves from identity audit to forward design of who you are as a leader — not a management skills course, a structured identity decision. The output is Your First-Time Manager Charter — a stress-tested and signed declaration of the leader you are committed to being.
You can opt into 30-, 60-, and 90-day check-ins from your account. We recommend you do — the point is to see what changed.
Sample questions
- What is the hardest part of having authority over people you used to work beside — and have you let yourself name that out loud?
- What kind of leader do you want to be — and what do you notice yourself actually doing when things get hard?
- What did no one tell you about this role before you stepped into it — and what are you figuring out in real time?
Research basis
Hill on first-year manager identity disruption and role transition / Avolio and Bass on leadership identity development / Maslach on role ambiguity as burnout predictor in new managers / DeRue and Ashford on leader identity claiming
Choose your format.
Every format asks the same questions and produces the same document.
Print Paperbackpersonalize
A real book and a pen. Write in the margins. The most permanent version of you on a page.
$22.99
eBook + journal
The full guide on any screen, with a companion journal to write your answers by hand.
Not available
Audiobook
We read every question and every scenario aloud. For the commute, the walk, the dishes.
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Hardcoverpersonalize
The keepsake edition — sewn, ribboned, made to sit on a shelf and be returned to.
Not available
Digital Fill + membership+membership
Answer on screen. Your responses save as you go and assemble into your finished document.
$12.99
Hands-Free Interactive + membership+membership
Listen to each question and speak your answer. We capture it. You never touch a keyboard.
Not available
Everything packages
The Paperback Everything Package
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The Hardcover Everything Package
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The Premium Hardcover Everything Package
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Choose your pace.
The Essential path takes you to your finished document by the questions that matter most. The Full-depth path walks every question, every scenario, every angle. Both produce the same signed document — one just goes deeper on the way there.
Essential path
Shorter sessions. The questions that go directly to the document.
Full depth
Every question. Every scenario, every angle.
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