Crossing the bridge from staff employee to management can be one of the most exciting times in a person's career. Many cross that bridge for the first time when they leave traditional employment to strike their own way in business.

First time managers face many unknowns - you can't always see the other side. Each day brings a new challenge and presents decisions that need to be made to move a team and company forward.

Gautam Ghosh offers excellent advice and guidance for new managers:

One of the toughest tasks to move from a individual employee working in a team to move to the next level of becoming a manager is to move from managing his/her performance to managing others' performance.

While it sounds easy, it is one of the toughest tasks that you have to do in your career. The reason is that your control on the performance of others is limited and you can only influence it indirectly.

For excellent performers who have always achieved their targets and exceeded satisfaction it can be a traumatic experience at worst and an unnerving one at best.

Do you have any advice to share on making the first move into management? Any lessons learned that can be shared?