How to Manage Teams When You’re not the Subject Matter Expert

Managers often have backgrounds in the disciplines of their reports: financial analysts become financial managers, software engineers become product managers.

But my first job out of college was as a startup founder. That meant I had to start managing people immediately—without any direct experience in the trenches or subject matter expertise.

Unsurprisingly, I made a lot of mistakes. I didn’t know the ins and outs of my employees’ day-to-day tasks, so the trust between us started off rocky.

Here’s what I do to learn and build trust when I’m not an expert.

Read on: How to manage teams when you’re not the subject matter expert