Check in, check up, and make sure everyone gets the memo

I don’t remember this film ending well. Image credit: Sky.

Managers make mistakes, particularly at the start of their career. Most are forgettable and easy to fix, but some stay with you.

It was 2005 and I had co-founded Random Thoughts Media, a company that created content for what were then emerging media formats.

Online video and games were relatively new, and while traditional ad agencies were still looking to print, TV and radio, we had spotted an opportunity to connect with millions of people that were beginning to turn their attention online, and more specifically — to mobile.

In 2004 people still held up big cheques. I’m on the left.

A lot of our projects came together in an ad hoc way, but the work we produced was good and clients found our approach refreshing. At the time, the projects didn’t seem to need much oversight. We had a good base of freelancers and we trusted our team.

But occasionally things didn’t come together so easily. In one case, the delayed submission of materials for a renowned sportswear brand led us to lose the client.

When I had finished kicking myself, I thought more calmly about what had happened.

Not all the problems with the project were exactly my fault, but they were my responsibility.

Reflection told me that I was trying to avoid being a manager. To be honest, I found telling people what to do a bit embarrassing. The people on my team were great at their job and I wanted to show that I trusted their judgement with a hands-off approach. If there was a problem they’d let me know, I assumed.

However, a lack of frequent communications with the people I managed didn’t allow me to adequately setting expectations. I also didn’t always maintain a detailed schedule to make sure we met targets collectively.

Everyone worked on their own part of the puzzle, but someone needed to make sure that all came together as a whole block at the end.

Since then, I’ve been careful to break projects down to their atomic components and think about how each part needs to glue together — and which parts have a functional impact on the ability to deliver others. It also helps to give yourself some wriggle room — to give the glue some time to set.

Tools like Asana, Basecamp and others help a lot. Back then, Skype was the most sophisticated collaboration tool I had access to.

To be clear, I’m a fan of hands-off management, so long as you can be sure your direct report(s) are creating something that’s deliverable. Even if your team is hitting deadlines, if you don’t tell them specifically what you want, they’re not necessarily going to ask. As a manager you need to be the person that ‘makes sure’, ties each individual strand of a project together, and brings it to completion.

Also, try to avoid sending someone a text asking how a task is going. They’re probably just going to answer with “good”.

Under-communication is everywhere, but over-communication is rare. As a manager, you’ll reach a balance with experience. Until then, err on the side of catching up more regularly.

You don’t want to be me on that day over a decade ago.

Here’s another take on ‘hands-free management’ from Eamon Tuhami, CEO at Motivii:

Sometimes I hold off on hands-off management

If you liked this, hold down the 👏 below. You can find more from me here, and more on managers learning the hard way at Manager Real Talk.