What’s the value of a manager?

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I recently read in a job description for a VP-level role: “You must be an outstanding individual contributor. You’re not here just to tell other people what to do.”

That’s right — according to this company, a Vice President, who will have 8–10 direct reports in this role and is responsible for leading an organization, had better be focusing their time on individual projects. Otherwise, what are they doing with their day? Probably just kicking their feet up on the desk and barking orders.

As someone who deeply values the importance of a thoughtful, engaged leader, I find these types of statements to be outdated and wrong. But they’ve become incredibly common.

Mark Zuckerberg made headlines recently with his reported comments that he wanted to eliminate the company’s multiple levels of management. “I don’t think you want a management structure that’s just managers managing managers, managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work.”

Elon Musk’s take on the “most messed up” thing at Twitter? “There seem to be 10 people ‘managing’ for every one person coding.”

Certainly there are companies where the management layers have gotten unruly. But some of these anti-manager comments feel like a devaluation of the impact that a great leader can offer. They imply that managers aren’t doing anything useful, and we’d be better off without them.

It’s unfortunate that so many people still don’t realize that a great manager can be the difference between impactful outputs or mediocre ones. Between team engagement or disillusionment. Between retention or attrition. Between success or failure.

So, if managing is a valuable activity — what should a great manager be doing?

Building the team

An effective manager is responsible for creating the infrastructure for the team. How does the team work? What do you focus on? How are requests prioritized? How often do you meet as a team? How do you communicate? Which individual behaviors are rewarded? A great manager proactively addresses these questions.

A few of the ways a great manager should be building their team:

• Defining the mission, vision, strategy. Make sure that everyone on your team understands the team’s purpose, path forward, and key focus areas. You’re responsible for making sure everyone is moving in the same direction.
• Hiring well. You need to hire people who are not only smart and talented, but are also suited to your team’s goals and culture.
• Creating team artifacts. At a minimum, create a thoughtful onboarding plan. Where appropriate, develop playbooks on how to deliver great work for your team.
• Developing a team culture. Create an environment where people connect and thrive, ensuring engagement within the team.
• Creating connection opportunities. Lead meaningful, interactive staff meetings. Conduct offsites at least twice a year, even if they have to be virtual. Start conversations on the team Slack channel. Build a team that’s not just a collection of individuals, but is truly integrated.

McKinsey found that managers are responsible for the biggest driver of job satisfaction: interpersonal relationships. People spend half their waking hours at work — make sure that your team is a place that people love to be.

Developing the team

This is where most of the classic “manager” activities come into play. Managers are responsible for ensuring their team produces work that’s not just good, not just great, but the best it can possibly be. And that work should contribute to the company’s success.

This requires managers to become passionate coaches who give meaningful, actionable feedback to uplevel their team. It can be time consuming and is a very different muscle from doing the work yourself, but the value of this skill is exponential.

Examples of how great managers coach their team:

• Review key deliverables. I took a brief pass through almost every presentation my team members gave before they presented it. Avoid nitpicking (it’s hard!). Focus on the big picture, the key messages, the communication style. Does the conclusion make sense? Even when you haven’t been involved in the day-to-day details, you can still offer a valuable external perspective.
• Be a practice audience. Some team members build fabulous deliverables and then stumble when presenting them. It’s natural to get nervous or be uncertain of how to handle challenging questions — which is exactly why you should offer a practice round. Make sure to not only give feedback, but also probe with some difficult questions to make sure they’re ready to present to execs.
• Role play difficult conversations. Everyone deals with hard conversations — delivering bad news, managing an unwieldy stakeholder, trying to keep the focus of a distracted exec. As your team member preps, don’t just give advice — break out your acting chops! Pretend to be the other person and play out the scenario.

I cannot emphasize this enough: Prioritize time with your team. Your 1:1s with your direct report should be weekly, and that time should be absolutely sacred on your schedule. Only cancel it if they tell you that they don’t need it. Otherwise, always keep the space for dialogue, no matter what.

They might want feedback or coaching as described above; they might need you to be a sounding board for ideas; they might just want to connect and talk to you about the team and their role. The subject is their choice. But you are responsible for being available and present for them.

Evolving the team

Managers should always be thinking about what’s next, both for the individuals on the team and for the team as a whole. A great coach doesn’t just prep for this week’s game; they also think ahead to the rest of the season to come.

How great managers evolve individuals:

• Feedback. Give thoughtful, specific feedback (minimum quarterly), leveraging performance expectations
• Growth planning. Help your team members create development plans that will take them to the next level, and check in with them regularly to ensure they’re making progress
• Challenging work. Provide stretch opportunities where they can be challenged and try something more complex (Be prepared to provide coaching support)

How great managers evolve their team as a whole:

• Reinvent. Periodically assess whether your team’s mission and current service offerings still match to the company’s needs. As the company’s goals and focus evolve, some of your initiatives may need to be re-prioritized as well.
• Expand capabilities. Think about what new capabilities your team can and should offer. Is there a gap in the organization that you can fill? Do you need to deepen your team’s skills in an area like data analysis or process improvement? Look to the future and ask leaders you support what else they might need.
• Deepen skills. Brainstorm ways to keep your team members continuously growing, including skills development and training sessions

Conclusion

So yes, all managers should be adding value to the company. And managers should be capable of doing the individual contributor work that their direct reports do. Their firsthand experience will give them useful insights and enhance their credibility.

But you wouldn’t expect a sports team to play without a coach. You don’t ask, “Why do all these movies have directors? Why do we need someone just telling the actors what to do?”

Hopefully that’s because you recognize that a strong manager — a leader — creates the conditions for their team to be great. And continues to push both the individuals and the team to excel. Personally, I think there’s value in that.