The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You

by Julie Zhuo

He’s the captain, but you’re with him on the boat. You’re rooting him on, helping him with whatever he needs you to do, and coaching him so he can smoothly and safely sail to his destination.

The rule of thumb for delegation goes like this: spend your time and energy on the intersection of 1) what’s most important to the organization and 2) what you’re uniquely able to do better than anyone else. From this, you can extrapolate that anything your report can do just as well or better than you, you should delegate.

I attend industry events and speak at conferences so that I can attract people to our team. I tell my reports that if they have a candidate they’re excited about, I’m happy to send that person a note or offer to talk on the phone.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR CURRENT TEAM What are the first three adjectives that come to mind when describing the personality of your team? What moments made you feel most proud to be a part of your team? Why? What does your team do better than the majority of other teams out there? If you picked five random members of your team and individually asked each person, “What does our team value?” what would you hear? How similar is your team’s culture to the broader organization’s culture? Imagine a journalist scrutinizing your team. What would she say your team does well or not well? When people complain about how things work, what are the top three things that they bring up?

I’ll get notes from people saying, “I care about that too. How can I help?”

talking about your values makes you a more authentic and inspiring leader.

If you say “good enough” to the first thing that pops into your head, you’re probably leaving better options undiscovered.