This Issue at a Glance:

• A follow up on last week’s challenge to define management.
• A continuation on last week’s exploration of how management is a combination of concern for production and people and how you can use that to improve your management style today.

Welcome to Issue #7!

Last week I promised to share my bite-sized definition of management. So here goes.

Management is how we organize people and things to solve problems for other people.

Why it Matters: It’s hard to fix something if we can’t describe it. I’m convinced that the key to a brighter and wealthier future—one, too, where people reap the benefits of production—will come from a wider understanding of the decisions and tradeoffs that result in stolen-red-stapler-burn-the-building-down management versus eighty-world-class-people-playing-instruments-and-making-people-cry management.

The Backstory: Management governs our lives. It impacts the stock market, our moods when we come home (or sign off Zoom) at the end of the day, our salaries, and more. And despite the progress of three industrial revolutions, management still gets a shit grade on its report card.

• 50% of Americans have left a job to “get away from their manager at some point in their career.”
• But only 36% of employees report feeling engaged at work. Even if you doubled that, management as a field would still be getting a C- in class. Woof.

The Bottom Line: Before we can improve management’s failing grade, we have to learn how to talk about what it is, what it’s supposed to do, and where it’s busted.

Big Idea #7: The Land of Broken Promises

Managers get themselves in trouble when they set expectations they don’t live up to when it comes to juggling their concerns for people and production.

Theory

Why it Matters: The Managerial Grid from Issue 6 is a useful tool for charting where you think your management style lands, getting feedback from your team on where they think it lands, and then charting where you’d like it to be.

• It’s a rough estimate, but I feel safe guessing most managers default to a style in the “blue zone” of the graphic above. Similarly, I think many managers pretend, promise, and delude themselves and others into thinking they operate in the green zone, or “the land of broken promises,” as I like to call it.
• In an interview with Elad Gil for The High Growth Handbook, Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, said, “people’s disposition with regard to the company is actually a function of what they feel like they signed up for.” (p.190 or here; hat tip to Brie Wolfson).
• In my experience, startups are especially prone to promising terrific work environments that combine high concern for production—*fast-paced, get shit done kinds of cultures—*and a high concern for people—unlimited vacation! But then the experience doesn’t match the sales pitch.

Practice

How to Use it: First, plot where you think your management style falls on the grid. Then, ask your team where they thinkyour management style lies. You’ll have to decide what you agree with and don’t, but your self-estimation is likely a bit off (if not, good on you!). You should now have a clear idea of the reality of how you manage. Next, ask yourself if you’d like to shift that at all. If you do, plot a goal, and communicate to your team that you’d like to spend the next few months working on shifting your style and would like to receive feedback along the way.

Here’s a fictional example:

• The green avatar represents where I think my management style lies.
• The blue avatar represents where my team thinks my management style lies.
• After learning how different my style feels to my team than I thought, I set a goal to focus on increasing my concern for production, represented by the purple avatar.
• While my initial efforts to focus on production paid off, my team shares that it was at the cost of concern for people, represented by the orange avatar.

The Bottom Line (and People): Self-awareness is the first step toward setting accurate expectations and goals for your behavior change (and behavior change in other managers on your team) that can lead to an improved experience for the people at your company and your bottom line.

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Reads & Resources