Good management—good leadership—multiplies the impact of a group of people by aligning them in the same direction, increasing their capability, and cultivating systems that make it easier to be more effective.
In this episode, Richard and Peter answer the question: “I just got promoted from developer to development manager, and I want to do my new role well. What should I be thinking about? What should I avoid?” Tune in to learn 3 ways new managers often mess things up and 3 things to do instead.
Referenced Resource
Learn More
- The 3 Jobs of Management: Adding Value in a World of Highly-Empowered Teams (virtual, instructor-led) – A half-day workshop on Nov 9, 2023
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Episode Transcript
Richard Lawrence
Welcome to the Humanizing Work Mailbag, where we answer questions from the Humanizing Work Community!
Peter Green
Today, we’re looking at some common ways to mess things up as a new manager and what to do instead.
Before we jump into today’s episode… We want to help *you* with whatever challenges are most frustrating you right now. If you’re feeling stuck on something, whether that’s trying to take a more human-centric approach to your work, trying to make your product or business outcomes better, or if you’ve just got a more tactical, process-related question, let us know about it. Send us an email at mailbag@humanizingwork.com with a few details about the situation, and we’ll share how we might think through your challenge right here on the Humanizing Work Show.
Richard Lawrence
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Peter Green
And if you want to get access to more content we produce, not just the show, you can sign up for our newsletter where we share one key idea every week. Sign up at humanizingwork.com/hwnews.
Richard Lawrence
This week’s mailbag question is: “I just got promoted from developer to development manager, and I want to do my new role well. What should I be thinking about? What should I avoid?”
Peter Green
I love this question. So many people learn the hard way—if they learn it at all—that management is almost completely a different job from the individual contributor job you were good enough at to get promoted into management. And, too often, the manager of the new manager either isn’t consciously aware of this difference or doesn’t know how to teach it.
Richard Lawrence
This question has been sitting in the mailbag queue for a while, but it just came to mind for me again as one of my sons recently got promoted into his first management role and asked me a similar question.
Peter Green
I think most leaders have lived some variation on this. You’re good at software development. Maybe you show some kernels of natural leadership ability like helping other, more junior team members. So, you get promoted into the development manager role. Which is almost an entirely different job.
Richard Lawrence
Since the original question is from a software developer turned manager of software developers, we’ll use that context to be concrete in this episode. But it applies to pretty much any move from individual contributor to manager. My son, for example, was good at valet parking cars and driving the parking shuttle at his downtown office building parking operation, so he got promoted to a manager of the parking operation. And now his role is lots more than driving and parking.
Whatever the domain, there are three common ways to mess things up at that point.
One is to end up continuing to do the individual contributor work. Maybe you just take the most difficult tasks or more important decisions, but you’re still basically a developer. This has two big problems:
- You’re not helping other people on your team level up. In fact, you might be holding them down by keeping the most challenging tasks and most important decisions. This limits your team’s effectiveness and limits team members’ growth.
- If there are unique contributions to be made by a manager that are distinct from the individual contributor role, and you’re spending time on the individual contributor work, even if it’s important work, there’s an opportunity cost. There are management tasks that don’t get done.
Peter Green
So, if continuing to do the individual contributor work is one way to mess things up, a second common way to mess things up is to start directing the work. Telling people what to do and how to do it. After all, you got promoted because you were good at doing the work, so you must know best how to do it.
This has some of the same problems as doing the work yourself, but it adds a morale problem. When we ask groups what motivates them and what demotivates them, the single most common demotivator is micromanagement. It comes up in every class where we talk about motivation. Autonomy is one of the main motivation factors—people want to feel like they have some amount of control over their work. And when it feels like someone else is taking control of something I should have control over, my motivation drops.
Directing the work is not a good way to add value as a manager.
Richard Lawrence
The third common way to mess things up as a new manager is to just go hands-off. Sometimes this is from a desire to avoid infringing on the team’s autonomy by getting too deep into the work. Sometimes it’s more about not wanting to seem like you think of yourself as better or more important or just feeling uncomfortable having more power and authority.
The hands-off manager mostly does open-ended meetings and administrative work. Maybe schedule some 1-on-1s to check in on everybody. Try to be vaguely helpful to the team. But they’re not adding value in any clear and concrete way. There’s a big missed opportunity here because a manager really does have valuable expertise and important and unique things to do.
Peter Green
Some new managers oscillate between these approaches. They try to stay hands-off and out of the details of the work. Until something goes wrong, at which point they swoop in and start doing or directing the work.
Richard Lawrence
We’ve talked about some things for this new manager to avoid. But, on the positive side, what should they do instead?
In our view, managers (or leaders more broadly, regardless of job title) have three jobs:
- Create Clarity
- Increase Capability
- Improve the System
The more senior the manager, the broader the scope of those 3 jobs, all the way up to a CEO doing them at the company level. But it’s the same 3 jobs.
Peter Green
Good management—good leadership—multiplies the impact of a group of people by aligning them in the same direction, increasing their capability, and cultivating systems that make it easier to be more effective.
Doing the work doesn’t have this multiplying effect. Directing the work doesn’t have this effect. Abdicating your responsibility doesn’t either. It’s an active, engaged role.
Richard Lawrence
So, for the new manager…
Job #1: How do I create more clarity for my team? Do they know what we’re trying to accomplish? Are they aligned on what success looks like? Do they know why the work matters? Etc.
Peter Green
Job #2: How can I increase my team’s capability to accomplish our mission? What training do they need? What resources? Do we need to hire more team members? What distractions or risks threaten our mission, and how can I protect the team from them?
Richard Lawrence
Job #3: How can I improve my team’s system of work? Are career paths clear and accessible? Is decision making authority configured well and clear to everyone? Do we have the right team structure? Is the right information available to the right people at the right time? Are workflows clear and smooth?
Peter Green
Even if some of these things are delegated—like on a Scrum team, where the Product Owner has a good chunk of the Create Clarity job—it’s often still good for the manager to look at the health of that job and see if they need to contribute in some way.
Richard Lawrence
If you’re a manager, you can download our 3 Jobs graphic and look through the different focus areas. Consider how healthy that area is for your team and whether you can do something to make it healthier. For some of them, you may be able to move the needle on your own. For others, you may need to enlist the help of a more senior leader or another group.
Peter Green
You may also find it useful to think about what you find yourself doing that doesn’t fit into any of the focus areas on the 3 Jobs graphics. Odds are, most of those things are some flavor of doing the work or directing the work. Consider how you can delegate those tasks or make them unnecessary by doing the 3 Jobs better.
Richard Lawrence
Now, it’s possible you actually have a hybrid role: part-time manager and part-time individual contributor. In that case, the move is to be clear about when you’re acting in one role vs the other. Keep the manager time focused on the 3 Jobs. And because your time is limited, use the 3 Jobs focus areas as a filter for how to spend your time to produce the biggest impact.
Peter Green
Want to learn more about our 3 Jobs model and how it can clarify your work as a leader? We’ll link to the waitlist for our half-day 3 Jobs workshop. Or you can contact us to learn about scheduling a 3 Jobs workshop for leaders in your organization.
Richard Lawrence
Finally, I want to break from our usual call to action for this episode. We get a steady trickle of mailbag questions like this one, which I appreciate. But looking at the stats, we’ve never heard from most listeners and we get almost no interaction with most episodes. It often feels like we’re just spending a few hours a week throwing this content out into the void.
So, we’d love to hear from you. Whether you’re new to the show or you’ve been listening for a while, would you be willing to shoot us a quick email at mailbag@humanizingwork.com? Introduce yourself. Tell us what you’ve found useful on the show. Tell us what you’d like to hear us talk about more. Maybe share a challenge you’re facing in your work that would benefit from a Humanizing Work Show perspective.
Peter Green
It would mean a lot to us to hear from our listeners, and it would help us make the show more valuable in the future. Thanks! And thanks for tuning in this week.
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