I recently had lunch with someone newly promoted into management. I asked how it was going, and he confessed to feeling a bit overwhelmed, and struggling to find time to do what he termed “real work.”

That’s a normal reaction for new managers. Management work is fundamentally different from the work of someone classified as an “individual contributor.” It’s fairly common to feel like you’re constantly being interrupted — because you are. That is part of being in charge. You’re still doing real work. Making sure your team is functioning smoothly, and that team members are working on the right things at the right times, is real work. It’s just that your work product is much less visible.