There’s a lot that goes into great management, but one framework I’ve developed over time is a simple two-by-two about their team’s needs (short-term and long-term) and each individual’s needs (short-term and long-term). (Note that I use “team” here to represent the manager’s span of control—it could be as wide as an entire company).
A great manager deeply understands:
- What the team needs in the short and long-term.
- What each person on the team needs in the short and long-term.
The team needs to make progress in the short-term on certain projects, certain metrics, and so on. This entails having the right people working on the right projects with the right incentives. In the long-term, it needs to stay healthy, build capability, and do things sustainably.
The “person” may sound like the simpler side of this equation, but it’s actually not. People have work they enjoy doing day-to-day. They have goals they want to work towards longer-term. We are also bundles of complex wants/needs, lack of self-awareness, baggage from our past, and so on. We are equally capable of performing magic or getting in our own way and falling flat on our face.
Anyway, experts have written books on each of these topics, so I won’t go into too much depth here. But when managers understand and trade off those four quadrants, they end up enabling their teams to deliver in the short-term in way that is sustainable long-term (“do what we need to do in a way that let’s us continue to do what we need to do”) and at the same time, keeping, developing, and growing their best talent.
As a manager, spend time and effort building a mental model of this for your team and each person on it. Carry it around in your head. Use it to decide who works on what, who gets hired, who gets promoted, etc.
Somehow Manage 