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

by Julie Zhuo

You’ve Just Assigned a Challenging New Project to Your Report Because this project is high stakes, you’d like to keep a close eye on how it’s going. If you frequently drop in and ask for an update or give unsolicited feedback, you risk making your report feel disempowered. He’ll be constantly checking over his shoulder, paranoid that you’re just around the corner. At the same time, you don’t want to wait a month before reviewing the work. If it’s not heading down the right track, you’d like to know sooner rather than later. Here, setting expectations helps with both problems. At the beginning of the project, let your report know how you’re planning to be involved. Be explicit that you’d like to review the work twice a week and talk through the most important problems together. Tell him which decisions you expect to make, and which he should make.