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Individual Performer to Manager: A Practical Guide to Career Advancement Into Management
The author grew up in a small town in Hawaii, surfing, spearfishing, and hunting exotic fruits in the local rainforest, never imagining that he would one day work for a large multinational corporation on the mainland. He finally started to build a career, worked through self-doubt and an intense fear of failure, and eventually became a manager with Electronic Data Systems (EDS), founded by Ross Perot. Over three decades, he learned that to maximize one's career opportunities and financial rewards, you must be respected by your peers and valued by your managers by producing solid and consistent results.
You know the colleagues you most respect on the job and why, but what are managers looking for when they observe, review, and judge your work and performance? What can you do to increase your profile and impact?
As an individual performer, do you hold back from offering an opinion or suggestion in meetings for fear of looking stupid? Do you consider declining a new assignment or opportunity because you think it's beyond your capabilities and the prospect overwhelms you with fear?
As a leader, do you struggle to tell an employee that their work is subpar or behaving unprofessionally? Are you hesitant to assign undesirable work to someone? Are you giving that raise/bonus or new opportunity/promotion to the most deserving person? How can you be certain and confidently back up your decision if challenged?
The author experienced, confronted, and worked through these types of situations, working with people in the trenches every day. He spent 32+ years with EDS/HP. He started as a programmer and rose through the ranks to eventually manage EDS' 192-person Southern California Systems Engineering/Solution Center in Los Angeles. He had to guide new employees, mentor new leaders, judge people's performance, determine who to promote, terminate people, and stand up at all-hands meetings to announce budget cuts and salary freezes. Worse, he had to announce then personally lay off many people due to corporate down-sizing. In the book, he provides hard-earned career advice from successes and failures along his profoundly personal journey.
Individual Performer to Manager can offer you a competitive edge in advancing in your career.
Excerpts from Individual Performer to Manager:
"If your main concern is for people to always 'like' you, then you will never be a respected and successful leader. When people are not performing satisfactorily, when they are behaving in a manner that does not meet your or the company’s standards, you must have the courage to confront people one-on-one to make sure they understand from you directly, that they are not meeting your expectations. If you don’t take any action, or send someone else to do it, you will undermine and diminish people’s respect for you….”
”As a leader, you should acknowledge your people in your day-to-day interactions with them, not once a month, or during a six-month or annual review. You should seek out and always give credit where credit is due, never take credit when it belongs elsewhere, and never take credit alone for something you should be sharing with others.”
You know the colleagues you most respect on the job and why, but what are managers looking for when they observe, review, and judge your work and performance? What can you do to increase your profile and impact?
As an individual performer, do you hold back from offering an opinion or suggestion in meetings for fear of looking stupid? Do you consider declining a new assignment or opportunity because you think it's beyond your capabilities and the prospect overwhelms you with fear?
As a leader, do you struggle to tell an employee that their work is subpar or behaving unprofessionally? Are you hesitant to assign undesirable work to someone? Are you giving that raise/bonus or new opportunity/promotion to the most deserving person? How can you be certain and confidently back up your decision if challenged?
The author experienced, confronted, and worked through these types of situations, working with people in the trenches every day. He spent 32+ years with EDS/HP. He started as a programmer and rose through the ranks to eventually manage EDS' 192-person Southern California Systems Engineering/Solution Center in Los Angeles. He had to guide new employees, mentor new leaders, judge people's performance, determine who to promote, terminate people, and stand up at all-hands meetings to announce budget cuts and salary freezes. Worse, he had to announce then personally lay off many people due to corporate down-sizing. In the book, he provides hard-earned career advice from successes and failures along his profoundly personal journey.
Individual Performer to Manager can offer you a competitive edge in advancing in your career.
Excerpts from Individual Performer to Manager:
"If your main concern is for people to always 'like' you, then you will never be a respected and successful leader. When people are not performing satisfactorily, when they are behaving in a manner that does not meet your or the company’s standards, you must have the courage to confront people one-on-one to make sure they understand from you directly, that they are not meeting your expectations. If you don’t take any action, or send someone else to do it, you will undermine and diminish people’s respect for you….”
”As a leader, you should acknowledge your people in your day-to-day interactions with them, not once a month, or during a six-month or annual review. You should seek out and always give credit where credit is due, never take credit when it belongs elsewhere, and never take credit alone for something you should be sharing with others.”
- GenresBusinessNonfiction
197 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 15, 2019
13 people are currently reading
243 people want to read
About the author
Norm E. Oshiro
1 book4 followersWhile initially struggling with a lack of self-confidence, which he discusses and works through in the book, Norm Oshiro ultimately spent decades leading people, teams, and organizations, where he hired, assessed and ranked, mentored, rewarded and promoted, confronted performance issues, terminated, and also had to lay off many people due to corporate cutbacks.
Education & Certifications:
• BA in Sociology (inter-ethnic relations), University of Hawaii (UH) at Hilo.
• MS in Meteorology, UH Manoa.
• Executive MBA, University of Southern California (USC), Marshall School of Business.
• Credentialed as a Project Management Professional (PMP) through the Project Management Institute (PMI), and has an ITIL V3 Foundation Certification.
Career and Management Experience:
• Undergraduate and Graduate Meteorology Research Assistantships.
• Meteorology Field Manager for UH’s 5-year Statewide Wind Energy Research Project from 1977.
• Hired by Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1983 in Hawaii, and eventually transferred to the mainland US.
• Started as a programmer/systems engineer (SE), moved up to team leader, promoted to SE Supervisor, SE Manager, Account Manager, then Organization Manager.
• Advanced to Expert level Project/Program Manager.
• Retired from EDS/Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2015 after 32+ years.
Highest Organizational Management Level:
• Manager for EDS’ 192-person Southern California Systems Engineering/Solution Center.
Oshiro was born and raised in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii, in a diverse multi-cultural neighborhood and community. His Hawaii roots inspired the book’s cover as well as the cover’s subtext: “A barefoot kid's journey from climbing coconut and guava trees in Hawaii to climbing the corporate ladder.”
He himself never did that well in the classroom from elementary through high school, including his first two years in college, spending too much of his time surfing, until a mentor finally got him inspired to reach for a better future.
Oshiro lives in Southern California with his wife of 45 years (friends since the 3rd grade), and they still travel to the Big Island at least once per year. He enjoys road course track days, drag racing, video editing, and listening to all types of music (except jazz). Their son, who is also involved in Motorsports, and his wife also live in Southern California.
Education & Certifications:
• BA in Sociology (inter-ethnic relations), University of Hawaii (UH) at Hilo.
• MS in Meteorology, UH Manoa.
• Executive MBA, University of Southern California (USC), Marshall School of Business.
• Credentialed as a Project Management Professional (PMP) through the Project Management Institute (PMI), and has an ITIL V3 Foundation Certification.
Career and Management Experience:
• Undergraduate and Graduate Meteorology Research Assistantships.
• Meteorology Field Manager for UH’s 5-year Statewide Wind Energy Research Project from 1977.
• Hired by Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1983 in Hawaii, and eventually transferred to the mainland US.
• Started as a programmer/systems engineer (SE), moved up to team leader, promoted to SE Supervisor, SE Manager, Account Manager, then Organization Manager.
• Advanced to Expert level Project/Program Manager.
• Retired from EDS/Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2015 after 32+ years.
Highest Organizational Management Level:
• Manager for EDS’ 192-person Southern California Systems Engineering/Solution Center.
Oshiro was born and raised in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii, in a diverse multi-cultural neighborhood and community. His Hawaii roots inspired the book’s cover as well as the cover’s subtext: “A barefoot kid's journey from climbing coconut and guava trees in Hawaii to climbing the corporate ladder.”
He himself never did that well in the classroom from elementary through high school, including his first two years in college, spending too much of his time surfing, until a mentor finally got him inspired to reach for a better future.
Oshiro lives in Southern California with his wife of 45 years (friends since the 3rd grade), and they still travel to the Big Island at least once per year. He enjoys road course track days, drag racing, video editing, and listening to all types of music (except jazz). Their son, who is also involved in Motorsports, and his wife also live in Southern California.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 1, 2021
Full disclosure: I had the privilege of having Norm as a member of my team towards the end of his career when he was a project manager.
Review: Most of what Norm says in this book I observed from him directly. It is all true. He did not make any of this up to my knowledge. My only regret is that I did not have a book like this early in my career. Its lessons would have saved me much heartache and angst. It would have also saved me the time of figuring some of this information out on my own through trial and error. If you are going to walk through a minefield, follow someone. The principles in this book are worthy of following. I have a child who is at the beginning of his career. I am sending this book to him.
Review: Most of what Norm says in this book I observed from him directly. It is all true. He did not make any of this up to my knowledge. My only regret is that I did not have a book like this early in my career. Its lessons would have saved me much heartache and angst. It would have also saved me the time of figuring some of this information out on my own through trial and error. If you are going to walk through a minefield, follow someone. The principles in this book are worthy of following. I have a child who is at the beginning of his career. I am sending this book to him.
January 28, 2021
Individual Performer to Manager: A Practical Guide to Career Advancement Into Management
by Norm E. Oshiro is interesting. It contains some practical advice withe examples
I received a copy thru a Goodreads giveaway.
by Norm E. Oshiro is interesting. It contains some practical advice withe examples
I received a copy thru a Goodreads giveaway.
April 22, 2020
Excellent book!!!
November 28, 2021
This is the best manager guide and reference book I have read so far. I will be using it going forward in my hopefully new job. Thank you Norm for sharing your stories and personal experiences.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews