From managing people to managing managers

My career has been three different jobs that carried the same title of “manager”.

Matrix: leading without authority

First I led projects with no authority at all: teams from several functions, a customer deadline, and nothing to rely on but clarity and trust. That teaches you to ask well, because you cannot order.

Direct: authority makes mistakes travel faster

Then I led a team directly. Now I could decide, which was a relief for about a week.

I had just been appointed manager of colleagues who, the day before, held exactly my position and role. Some of the older and more experienced ones tested me. They doubted I could carry the pressure from customers and from the managers above me, because the higher you go, the tougher the people you face. In customer meetings, one of them did not fully respect my position. In front of the customer he would go along with me, then tell his colleagues: “OK, you follow him, but between us we do as usual.”

It was hard to accept, and back at the office I had a fight with him. The mistake was mine. The fight was useless, and worse than useless: in his eyes it proved I was weak and that he had been right.

I won his respect later, and not by imposing my position. A customer put very high pressure on us over a deadline and blamed us, with potentially serious financial consequences. I stepped in and said, fairly but clearly, that the issue was shared, and that our time was better spent finding solutions together than fighting over who would take the blame if we all failed. He saw me act, and that is what changed things. The title gave me the position. Respect came later, from what he saw me do.

Through managers: the step people underestimate

Later I led through managers, first in a group function, then running a country. This is where the job changes most:

1. Your work is no longer the work. Your output becomes the quality of the decisions your managers make without you.
2. Stay close to the field, but never take the problem back. Go and see, ask questions, then hand it back with a view. I learned why the hard way, below.
3. Give each manager a clear owner’s role: a function, a number to look after, a rhythm of review.
4. Spend your time on three things only: choosing and developing the managers, deciding where the company goes, and removing what blocks them.
5. Test it by leaving. A team that holds together when you are away is the real result, and the credit belongs to the people who built it.

What happens when you take the problem back

I did not always follow that rule. Early on, one of my managers did not deliver the level of detail and the output I expected, so I decided to complete the work myself.

Then it became a habit. Over a year, he delivered a little less than expected and I made up the difference. Nobody decided that; it settled in. When I finally stepped back and looked at the situation, I saw that I was doing his task. He was content, in a way, to do less than was expected, and he was also disappointed, because the work left to him was not very interesting.

We had a frank one-to-one. I reset the bar and the expectations, and he stepped up and did the job he was expected to do. The mistake was mine: by compensating, I had been doing his work while the standard slipped.

What I ask of my managers, and what I give back

Over the years the same agreement has held, whatever the country:

• I ask them to take responsibility and make decisions on their own, and to tell me openly what they are doing. Pro-active, but never secret.
• The credit stays with them. When the work is good, it is theirs and they are rewarded for it. I never step in front to collect the gratification.
• Sharing is what lets me protect them. The more they tell me, the more I can protect the team and the person. I would rather hear about a problem early than find it later.
• I do not blame anyone in public. If a blame has to be addressed, that is part of my responsibility, and I do it only with the person concerned, and in a constructive way.

Size changes the number of layers, not the method. Each time I thought the next step was about handling more. It was about letting go of what I knew how to do.