Becoming a manager for the first time is a transformational experience. It changes the way others look at you, as well as how you look at yourself. With new responsibilities that focus more around leadership and less around personal production, your first foray into management means you will have to guide your team and redefine personal relationships while you cope with emotions of your own and the people you now lead.

The long-term outcomes of the work you, as a manager or leader, are doing today rests with your company’s future leaders.

“Conflict is inevitable, combat is optional”- Max Lucado

Whether an established leader or an aspiring entrepreneur, you have led something at some point in your life and can and will lead again. You may have led a friend who needed advice, facilitated a carpool for your neighborhood, arranged a retirement party for a relative, or facilitated a community volunteer event.

Leading a business or organization means guiding people to work together toward a unifying mission. A leader that is singularly focused on one path to reach their goal can miss a lot of opportunities and create a misaligned and perhaps resentful employee base. To lead most effectively, good leaders should reorient themselves away from their gut reaction and challenge their inner thoughts.