Free — 20 pages

20 Things Your First Manager Should Have Told You.

The unwritten rules of work — from someone who sat in the rooms where promotions, raises, and hiring decisions actually got made. Every rule comes with one concrete move to try this week.

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Nearly two decades inside a Fortune 50. Author of The Savage Arsenal, The Reverent Leader, and Corporate Clapbacks. This is what I wish someone had told me in my first job.

What's inside

  • How the room actually sees you — sponsors vs your manager, why being good at the job isn't the same as being visible, the 3-people rule that decides every promotion, and the receipts file that saves your comp conversation.
  • How to manage up — why your boss's promotion is more urgent than yours, why you bring options not problems, and the one question that gets you a scorecard instead of a shrug.
  • How to think about your career — the 60-minute comp audit that tells you if you're really underpaid, why loyalty isn't rewarded and replaceability is punished, and why the best time to interview is when you don't need to.
  • How to handle the hard moments — the difference between questioning your boss and correcting them, why the room beats the hallway every time, and how to leave a job without setting fire to what you built.
  • One concrete this-week action attached to every single rule. Read it once, come back every 90 days, and it changes how the next chapter of your career unfolds.

Also by Joe Grimes

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