Upstart dot-com managers consider a rapid rise up the ladder an expected rite of passage. Promoted left and right, workers claim true meritocracy: Yippee for motivation and trust! Boo for behavior.

Tamar Love, a former executive assistant at a San Francisco-based business-to business e-commerce firm, remembers one out-of-line newbie boss. Earlier this year, when she informed her manager that a co-worker had touched her inappropriately and whispered in her ear, her boss - a twentysomething executive and first-time manager - laughed and told Love to loosen up. "What kind of attitude is that?" she fumes.

Love (who would not disclose the name of her former employer) considered suing the co-worker on sexual harassment charges but didn't. Instead, she left the company after a series of ongoing disappointments with her boss. The problem she faced wasn't just sexual harassment, but a lack of training and education for dot-com managers.

Such stories are all too common in the startup world. Those working at dot-coms frequently report chaos in their organizations, as first-time managers take on responsibilities they're unprepared for, and senior managers are stretched too thin to provide the support necessary to help first-timers develop their skills.

Compounding the problem are business plans that change, sometimes with the season. Few first-time managers have the skills to keep their team motivated when projects get killed after everyone's worked long nights to complete them. "Being a manager is hard, and it's not a natural thing," says Andrea Corney, who as principal of organizational development firm Acorn Consulting, works with managers at several high-tech firms.

Internet startups have generally ignored training managers in the rush to make money and launch products. Often, managers have multiple job roles they can barely handle - forget about nurturing and inspiring their staffs. The principles of management, developed over the last 100 years in the old economy, just don't seem to translate to Internet time.

"As far as I can see, [management] is an instinctual skill," says Celeste Schaefer, the No. 5 employee at Egreetings and now the director of product development at E-Translate. "I don't think you can be trained in a course to be a good manager of people." But as stock prices plummet, such myths are, thankfully, falling with them. Internet time may require a different set of management skills, but it requires them just the same.

The repercussions for a company where management skills are not taught or valued can be huge. First-time managers tend to blur their personal and professional relationships, as well as micromanage and delegate inappropriately. Many come into their roles after excelling as perfectionistic, individual contributors - unaware that management requires the opposite mindset. As a manager, success ceases to be measured solely by one's ability to meet deadlines and be creative. Listening to, collaborating with, encouraging and coaching others become paramount. Those who do their jobs poorly can drive members of their team to fail at assignments, damage company morale and, more often than not, quit.

Finally, Internet companies are beginning to realize that if they want long-term success, training their managers needs to become a priority. Many are establishing programs to make sure managers get basic management skills. Some are formal, like bringing in executive coaches, while others are informal approaches involving mentors and self-education. Often, it takes a combination of methods to help drive home the complex set of skills needed to lead others.