Best Managers. Worst Managers. From Managers
Last week I mentioned that over the past few months I've caught up with a few dozen managers to hear about their management journeys. For some of those conversations, when extra time allowed, I asked them:
"What qualities did your best managers have? What qualities did your worst managers have?"
Here's a summary of the responses:
Best Managers
Empathetic. Supportive. A real person. Has a good sense of work/life balance
Clearly defines goals and strategy. Understands the team's needs and wants. Advocates for team and team members
Invested in team members' professional growth. Cares about you personally & shows you respect
Good teacher & coach. Challenges people by giving them feedback and also being open to receiving feedback
Keeps communication lines open. Leads with consistency & transparency
Isn’t judgmental. More likely to ask “what can we learn from this?” You can fail and know you’re not going to be punished
Can sense when you're struggling or down. Asks “how are you doing? How can I help?”
Deals with everyone a little differently. Understands what gets different people excited about their work
Worst Managers
Uninvested in team members as people. Treat them as cogs in a machine
Micro manage or are completely hands off > viewed equally as poorly
Perception that they’re worried more about their own promotion over their team members’ professional growth
Don’t manage their emotions well, stress people out, or lead with fear
Lack of empathy. When people make mistakes or personal things come up they’re not understanding. They may sometimes be perceived to view career/job > everything else
Similarly, they lack awareness around people’s personal lives. For example, don’t respect “after hours” time and may interrupt with emails or calls
Flaky, unprepared, and miss things. Ask questions that have already been answered or don’t know the answers to anything. Often don’t know what’s going on with the team
Opaque. Protective of executive info and will not share broader strategy with the team either because they can’t or they won’t
Tell people what they want to hear. Give faux feedback or lip service
Consistently inflexible. Steadfast in their approach and only adapt “10%” to the other person. Miss social cues
Play favorites or, worse, discriminate. Give preferential opportunities to some over others and treat team members differently
Couldn't have said it better myself. Hopefully you can learn a thing or two. Take notes!
From the Internet:
The IC’s Guide to Driving Career Conversations — 25 Tips for Purposeful Career Planning by First Round Capital Review
A founder’s guide to community by Lenny Rachitsky and David Spinks @ Lenny’s Newsletter
Pinterest settles shareholder lawsuit over workplace culture by Zoe Schiffer
The Token Disconnect by Stephen Diehl
Virgil Abloh’s Lecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (video) by Agostinho Zinga
How This All Happened (long 5k word read) by Morgan Housel
From Twitter:
Catch ya next week! -MC