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

by Julie Zhuo

“Hey, I’m really impressed with the way you [do X]. I’d love to learn from you. Would you be willing to grab a coffee with me and share your approach?”

Set Aside Time to Reflect and Set Goals

Where did you start? How far is there to go? Which parts were smooth and which were filled with potholes?

“participants who chose to reflect outperformed those who chose additional experience.”

professional coaches

The meeting was a great use of my time. I learned something new that will help me be more effective at my job. I left with a clearer sense of what I should do next. Everyone was engaged. I felt welcomed.

Gets a decision made (obviously) Includes the people most directly affected by the decision as well as a clearly designated decision-maker Presents all credible options objectively and with relevant background information, and includes the team’s recommendation if there is one

Gives equal airtime to dissenting opinions and makes people feel that they were heard

Enables the group to feel like they learned something valuable Conveys key messages clearly and memorably Keeps the audience’s attention (through dynamic speakers, rich storytelling, skilled pacing, interactivity) Evokes an intended emotion—whether inspiration, trust, pride, courage, empathy, etc.

Gets everyone on the same page about what success for the project looks like Honestly represents the current status of the work, including an assessment of how things are going, any changes since the last check-in, and what the future plans are Clearly frames open questions, key decisions, or known concerns to get the most helpful feedback Ends with agreed-upon next steps (including when the next milestone or check-in will be)

Preparation and good facilitation is key. A great generative meeting does the following: Produces many diverse, nonobvious solutions through ensuring each participant has quiet alone time to think of ideas and write them down (either before or during the meeting) Considers the totality of ideas from everyone, not just the loudest voices Helps ideas evolve and build off each other through meaningful discussion Ends with clear next steps for how to turn ideas into action

Creates better understanding and trust between participants Encourages people to be open and authentic Makes people feel cared for

Practice clarity and ruthless efficiency with your meetings, and people will thank you for respecting the sanctity of their time.

Which people are necessary to make that outcome happen?

GIVE PEOPLE A CHANCE TO COME PREPARED

“the curse of knowledge”—the

“So before we break, let’s make sure we agree on next steps . . .”

MAKE IT SAFE FOR PEOPLE TO CONTRIBUTE

Be Explicit about the Norms You Want to Set

One example is going around the room.

Another tactic I like is the “Post-it note” opening.

As a manager, your time is precious and finite, so guard it like a dragon guards its treasure stash. If you trust that the right outcomes will happen without you, then you don’t need to be there.

hiring is not a problem to be solved but an opportunity to build the future of your organization.

How many new people will I add to our team this year (based on company growth, expected attrition, budget, priorities, etc.)? For each new hire, what level of experience am I looking for?

Which specific skills or strengths do we need in our team (for example, creative thinking, operational excellence, expertise in XYZ, etc.)? Which skills and strengths does our team already have that new hires can stand to be weaker in? What traits, past experiences, or personalities would strengthen the diversity of our team?

There are three reasons why a handful of interviews isn’t ever going to be a perfectly reliable predictor of someone’s success.

The first is that it’s impossible to re-create the actual working environment of a team in a thirty-minute or hour-long meeting.

Second, interviewers bring their personal biases into the evaluation.

the third reason interview results don’t tell the whole truth is that people are capable of enormous change.

What kinds of challenges are interesting to you and why? Can you describe a favorite project? This tells me what a candidate is passionate about. What do you consider your greatest strengths? What would your peers agree are your areas of growth? This question gets both at a candidate’s self-awareness and what his actual strengths and weaknesses might be. Imagine yourself in three years. What do you hope will be different about you then compared to now? This lets me understand the candidate’s ambitions as well as how goal oriented and self-reflective she is. What was the hardest conflict you’ve had in the past year? How did it end, and what did you learn from the experience? This gives me a sense of how the candidate works with other people and how he approaches conflict. What’s something that’s inspired you in your work recently? This sheds light on what the candidate thinks is interesting or valuable.

Be on the lookout for warning signs in interviews:

The science supports this: A 2014 report of hundreds of public companies found that those with the greatest ethnic and racial diversity in their management ranks were 35 percent more likely to have financial returns higher than average. A study of 2,400 companies found that organizations with at least one female board member had better outcomes than organizations with no women.

Even if you don’t look at the data, it just makes logical sense: Are you more likely to get innovative ideas from a bunch of other people who look, think, and behave like you, or from people who come with different perspectives?

As a manager, one of the smartest ways to multiply your team’s impact is to hire the best people and empower them to do more and more until you stretch the limits of their capabilities.

“An average of X initial emails leads to a hire.”

when your team is growing swiftly, hiring becomes easily the top one or two most important skills.

You can’t create great outcomes without consistently attracting talented people and ensuring that they can also hire well.

Diligent Execution

If, for your team, one accept comes from two offers, eight interviews, twenty initial meetings, and forty emails, then to get twenty hires, you’ll need to send about 800 emails over the course of the year.

Look also for opportunities to make your funnel more efficient.

What do they look for in a résumé? What questions do they ask in interviews, and what kinds of answers are they looking for? Do they have any recommendations on where to look for strong candidates?

Recruiting top talent is all about the relationships you build.

Continuously build your network. And develop your team’s reputation as well, whether through participating in the community, contributing new learnings to your field, telling your story in the press, or simply through being known as a class act.

Jobs may be short, but careers are long.

Build a Great Bench

If you were to hike some distant mountains or sunbathe on a remote island for a few months, how much would your own manager need to step in to ensure that everything ran smoothly?

Can even the best leaders be coached to even better performance? The answer is absolutely yes, so you should still see your job as being a multiplier for your people.

The job your team does shouldn’t be static—as the group becomes capable of more, your ambitions should also grow. What is the next big problem that your team can take on, and how can you help make it happen?

pay close attention to how you set the tone for hiring. Coach your leaders to treat team building with the utmost care, and ensure that they dedicate enough time and attention to connecting with remarkable candidates. Repeatedly talk about your values so that everyone understands what great talent looks like. And, above all, make it clear that building the team isn’t just one person’s job, it’s everyone’s job.

Assume you have a magic wand that makes everything your team does go perfectly. What do you hope will be different in two to three years compared to now? How would you want someone who works on an adjacent team to describe what your team does? What do you hope will be your team’s reputation in a few years? How far off is that from where things are today? What unique superpower(s) does your team have? When you’re at your best, how are you creating value? What would it look like for your team to be twice as good? Five times as good? If you had to create a quick litmus test that anyone could use to assess whether your team was doing a poor job, a mediocre job, or a kick-ass job, what would that litmus test be?