Ross Saunders (00:07.474)
Hey there, welcome to the first episode and quick introduction to my podcast. My name is Ross. I'm going to be taking you through a bit of a journey to how I got where I am today and where the podcast is coming from. So in short, this podcast is going to be about helping new managers not sink by teaching them how to swim. I've had what I think is a pretty great career so far

in terms of managing teams across a wide variety and array of countries, companies, verticals, industries, as well as disciplines. Things like managing a call center that followed the sun 24 seven, I've been in charge of technical IT teams. I've led software engineering functions and I've managed a product program that involved multiple teams and managing multiple managers across multiple countries. So it's been quite an exciting

journey so far. I say it's been a great career and it has, but it hasn't been without some absolute category five disasters and utter train wrecks. I've messed up, I've messed up hard and I've paid the price in those mess ups along the way. Because in so many cases, I had no freaking clue what the hell I was doing managing.

But I think of all of this that I've had along the way as school fees to some seriously awesome roles where I was surrounded by pretty fricking epic people. And I think that's the goal we all want and we all enjoy is being around these epic people. So in one of my later and most enjoyable roles, I was doing my master's degree in management to further my studies.

And at the time I was also hiring graduates straight out of university into these highly technical roles. And in this space, we put together a load of training programs so we could set up these graduates to win, complete with everything they needed to succeed in the role. They were coming in with sure textbook knowledge from university and great degrees and great grades.

Ross Saunders (02:31.324)
but we were teaching them so much more and it was fun as hell with the teaching process. And this gave me pause to thought or think about how I never had any of these programs when I became a manager for the first time and how categorically not fun it was in the beginning of becoming a manager.

And since then, almost every manager I've spoken to has had the same trial by fire. So I figured, why do we teach this to graduates, but not folks in the working world who are going into management? I mean, going into management is pretty much a graduation on its own. And people are so often set up to fail in this place, to drown, to not swim. I know I...

certainly was set up to fail and in my colleagues that I had at the time most certainly made sure I was aware of that fact. And if you want to hear more about that story, you'll have to pick up a copy of the book. It's in there and it's in there early on. But that's where the book really came in. Shortly after completing my masters,

I'd been a manager for a while now and I found that the training program that I'd put together for these graduates, a lot of the new managers in the company who had actually started as grads and were moving into these leadership roles like supervisors or team leads or managers were coming to me for advice on this. And I was having regular coaching sessions with them where we'd discuss their trials and tribulations and how I could help them.

It was really awesome to give them an opportunity to realize that, you you've been promoted into this role. You want to do the best you can do, but there are going to be some colossal stuff ups and it's going to be okay in almost all those cases. And hopefully we can avoid any sort of future issues coming up by getting a bunch of basics in place. And after a while of doing this,

Ross Saunders (04:46.44)
I kind of figured this needs to get out to everyone, not just these folks that I'm coaching. And how do we do that? So I ended up speaking to a bunch of executives that I knew. By this point, I'd worked in a lot of companies, particularly in the tech space. I'd had a lot of companies as clients in the tech space. I had a lot of leaders that were sort of award -winning or fantastic leaders that I'd experienced myself.

that I could go to in a network both locally and abroad across the globe. And I leaned on them to get what their thoughts were about topics that new managers need to know. And with the feedback that I got from them, there were a few topics that came out over and over and over again when you're becoming a first -time manager. And those five topics became the basis of the book. And those five topics in the beginning

our communication and listening. It's time management. How do you manage all the time that you've got to deal with now? The delegation of work. How do you pass work on to people? Your performance management. How do you manage the teams that you've got? And then what do you do with conflict when conflict happens? And these five were really, really, really important to the managers that were coming in and were vitally important to the executives that were hiring these managers. So

That was the topic set out, and I decided to spend the next little while writing the book. And over a space of a couple of years, I wrote that book. But while I was writing it, one of the things that my masters also led me to think about was to ensure that the book wasn't these lofty academic models or highly technical things, but instead stories, things that are stories of the successes I've

Also, probably more frequently, the failures I've had and things that are completely practical methods that you can put in place straight away without having to try and drink a ton of coffee to stay awake through heaps of heavy and boring textbooks or get sent on some sponsored retreat with the company where you go to a motivational session that frankly wastes a couple of whiteboard markers and a few hours and

Ross Saunders (07:13.288)
let someone in the company think that they have spent the right budget for training and pat themselves on the back. So sorry folks who are in that space. So in 2019, the book was launched. It was titled, This is Not What I Signed Up For, a Survival Guide for First -Time Managers. And it was taken in by a couple of business schools and quite a few readers across South Africa and a few across the globe as well. And with that, I got a whole bunch of good feedback on it from these new managers and

I really enjoyed it being out there. It's been a passion project for years now. And it's helping people. The book is still out there, the first edition. It's on Amazon. And it was good to know that the book is somewhere and people are getting value from it. And these guys that are going through these business schools are also getting a copy of the book and getting some of that knowledge out there. So really, really heartwarming for me because I love training people in this space.

And then COVID happened, as well as a bunch of other life stuff in particular. By the point of writing the book, I'd actually left that management role and I'd started running my own consultancy, working with other teams. And in the process of that, started working a lot in Canada. And this led me to actually join a company here in Canada, where I'm coming to you from now, and relocate to Toronto after COVID.

Since then and since I've been here, the book started getting a lot more traction. But I've been getting a lot more feedback lately that there are some things missing in the way the world is working now. And it was clear that I had to update it to reflect these changes that we've had in the last number of years. So now post -COVID, the second edition of the book is coming. I'm updating it to have a bit more of a reference as to how things are working now in a global sense.

In particular, bringing in two major new topics, one being managing remote and hybrid teams. Now that we've had COVID happen and everyone worked remotely and now people are in the office, out the office, hybrid of the office. There's a lot of management challenges that come in there. So one of the chapters brings in that. And then I'm also bringing in a chapter that deals with compliance.

Ross Saunders (09:38.172)
because we're seeing a whole lot more of that in different laws and legislations, that you have to have all sorts of compliance in place as a manager to look after your teams. And it's not really stuff that is at the executive level like it used to be or in the compliance team. It's now everyone's responsibility. So I want to bring that experience into this because that's something I do in my day to day. write policies all the time and procedures.

Let's bring that in for you so you can have some of that experience. And in a way that is actually exciting because when you talk policy and compliance, people tend to turn off a bit. But let's hope that's not the case in this one. I'm hoping to bring in some nice stories there as well. So this is now, with the book coming out, where the podcast comes in. And there's my voice in the book. There's my voice in the writing I do.

But then there's also the collective expertise of amazing leaders out there that I've met along the way. Be they speakers or managers, executives, coaches, bosses I've had. There's so much value in other people. So I want to bring in a lot of these folks, bring their thought leadership in on the related topics to the book and bring you a bunch of bite -sized chunks of information that you can

Take away, take in on the train, on a lunch break, over coffee, when you've got your headphones in, wherever you've got 15 to 20 minutes. Think of it as an ongoing education that's there to supplement the soon to be released second edition and the existing first edition. The second edition should hit Amazon in the later part of this year. And coupled with that, which is also really, really exciting, is going to be

courses, and these are going to be courses for individuals to up their management skill, as well as entire teams at companies. So getting an entire junior management team or middle management team onto a course to learn all these skills, along with additional bits and pieces that I couldn't quite get into the book that I can have in this course experience with you. So I think it's going to be really fun. The other side is also

Ross Saunders (12:03.504)
I spoke about working in call centers and things like that. I'm going to bring in courses that are specific to managing those roles. So managing developers or herding cats, in other words, managing support centers, bringing in project managers, things like that. So I'm really, really excited about it. And I hope you are too listening to this or watching this. So that's the summary. That's where I am at the moment.

Watch this space for guests that are incoming. The podcast is launching early September, so keep an eye out for it. To make sure you're getting everything in the podcast, sign up for my newsletter at thisisnotwhatisignedupfor .com, or give me a follow over on Instagram if you're not one for mailing lists, I know I'm not. And I'll let you know whenever a new podcast comes out. I'll include my blog posts in there and any writings and thought stuff I do.

as well as any new courses that I have and any special offers that are gonna be out there. The podcast is gonna be available on Apple as well as Spotify and likely a bunch of other channels too. take a look on your favorite channel, drop me a subscribe there. You'll get notified whenever they come out. And I really look forward to having you aboard for this journey. Let's get you the skills you need. Let's get you into this management role and really enjoying.

what management is, because it really is enjoyable when you've got that baseline that you can work from. And I'd love to have everyone enjoy management as much as I do. And I am excited to bring that to you along with all my friends and colleagues in this space. So watch this space, check out the website, and I will chat to you soon. Thank you for listening. Cheerio.