Congratulations-you're a manager! A.k.a. you've just stepped into a year-long blooper reel where every slip comes with witnesses, Slack receipts, and maybe even a meme in your honor.
"Knowing When to Shut Up" is not another dry leadership textbook-it's a field guide for surviving your first year in charge, told through 21 painfully funny stories that capture the real mistakes new managers make when confidence outruns competence.
Inside, you'll find:
The cringe-worthy scenarios every new leader faces, from trying too hard to be the "cool boss" to calling three projects the "#1 priority" in one meeting.
Real-world echoes from history and business missteps that prove these aren't just rookie errors-they're timeless traps.
Practical takeaways you can actually use: when to speak up, when to shut up, and how to keep your credibility intact when things go sideways.
Quick-reference tools like "shut up or speak up" grids, generational tips, and survival rules for meetings, emails, and hybrid chaos.
This isn't theory-it's the honest, awkward truth about leading people who used to be your peers, juggling four generations in the workplace, and learning how to pause before you commit yourself-or your team-to disaster.
Michael Sarran, a consultant, educator, veteran, and HR professional, draws on more than two decades of leadership development experience to highlight the blunders that managers rarely admit but everyone remembers. With humor and hard-won insight, he makes leadership lessons both practical and entertaining.
By the end, you won't have a perfect playbook-you'll have something better: the timing, clarity, and confidence to survive your first year in management without becoming the office cautionary tale.
