Common qualities of extraordinary managers

Disclaimer and proviso: "The postings on this site are my own and don't represent Amazon's position in any way whatsoever".

Several years ago, I attended a leadership offsite where one of the Vice-Presidents in attendance really grabbed our attention with this statistic: 82% of all job changes within that company, either internal or external, were attributed to changes within the employees' immediate (direct) management chain. I later found that this was pretty much universal throughout industry.

Think about this for a second: eight out of ten people change jobs because their immediate manager changes jobs. It doesn't take a nuclear physicist to deduce that such a degree of churn is bad for any business. Highly skilled professionals, especially in STEM, are incredibly hot commodities in any economy. However, that goes double for truly stellar managers in just about every industry at any time.

So what is it, really, that makes a manager absolutely outstanding? What are the significant differentiating factors, patterns of behavior, magical pixie dust that separates awesome managers that people would take a bullet for and follow into a fire from the rest of their management brethren? Every "Management Excellence" book, article, Google/Bing search will present a set of things that promise management greatness:

"Don't micromanage, communicate well, be transparent, have a clear strategy and vision, reward performance, be a great listener."

Well, yes. You will hear these principles repeated ad nauseam, but most good managers do these things already - if they don't, they shouldn't be managers in the first place, and sooner than later they are exposed.

Here are a few things that have been proven, time and again, to highlight exemplary managers and leaders in companies of all shapes and sizes:

Extraordinary managers inspire, connect, and make you believe you can walk to the Moon

Have you ever worked for a manager that "managed by agenda?" I have. 1 on 1's with this person consisted of me coming in with a report that recapped what I did every week (information they could have easily gotten if they paid attention to what was going on). Everything was routine, dull and monotone. My career aspirations were never discussed. I never felt I could learn anything useful, and gain knowledge and skills that would help me grow my career. It was the worst 30 minutes of my week, every week, until I left (quickly).

A great manager cares, and shows that they care. They take great pride in growing their folks. Allow me to let you in on a little secret: Firing someone is easy. Managing someone up, helping a struggling employee get better, that takes real management talent. What's even harder is taking a great employee and showing them how they can become incredible, how they can sharpen their skills to laser precision, without performing superhuman acts or burning out.

Great managers inspire every day. They gather the team and create a vision. They get the team bought into a collective strategy and show them how they will make it there. Then they lead them to victory through hard work, collaboration and most of all, fun. And when it's time to celebrate, they make sure the team gets most of the credit, not them.

Throughout all this, they say "please" and "thank you". They provide timely feedback, both positive and constructive, in a polite, honest and forthright manner. They are engaging and openly human. They are respectful. They're not afraid to show passion, emotion, sympathy, and worry. And they never, ever, talk down to you or demean you.

Being a good human being is really pretty simple. Be kind to others and don't be a jerk. Talk openly. Be honest, polite, friendly, and treat others with respect. It's not hard.

Extraordinary managers support their folks when it counts the most

As a manager, the most important time to excel at your job is review time.

Don't half-ass this process. Ever. Aside from attracting the best talent available, as a manager, you do not have a more important job that rewarding those that work for you. Period. Those that work for you have families, bills, mortgages, financial obligations of all kind. They work hard for you all year. It's incumbent on you to represent them to the best of your ability at review time.

Every single person in my organization, from managers to IC's get this message, almost verbatim:

"Do your absolute best, day in and day out. That gives me the data points necessary to do my job on your behalf, when it's time for me to do so. And if everyone in my organization deserves a promotion and a raise, I'll stack my data against my peers and fight to the teeth to get everyone the biggest rewards possible."

Review preparation starts the day an employee starts on your team. Not two days before review, when you Frankenstein together disparate notes and make a half-hearted attempt at a review doc. Feedback and relevant data are gathered constantly and consistently, so your documentation is bullet-proof and your data stands out above all others.

Prep your presentation (in a tactical stalemate between two employees, the best presenter usually always wins). And if other managers give you BS reasons (anecdotal feedback, political nonsense, etc.) - push back. This goes double when pushing back against those above you. You can have a backbone without being a jerk, and you are in that room to advocate and get the maximum reward amount for your team and organization. Being well prepared and letting the data do the talking allows you to succeed.

Extraordinary managers encourage mobility, especially with their best people

Uhh.. but wait: isn't my job as a manager to attract and retain the best talent available?

Sure it is. You should also know that as a manager, you function with the expectation that you will lose your rock stars sooner rather than later. Everyone wants them, and everyone will pay a premium to have them. Your rock stars know they're awesome, and unless you are in a place where you can offer them unlimited velocity and a fire hose that keeps pumping money, they will move swiftly through industry to get ahead.

Prepare and coach them on how to achieve their objectives, even if that means they leave your team, organization or company at some point. Invest in them heavily while they are there (this helps you!!), and give them every opportunity to stay. Reward them well. And when the time comes, help them get to where they want to go. Do this with tact and aplomb, because 1) it's the right thing to do and 2) you may end up working for them at some point.

Extraordinary managers protect their folks from the bus, angry bears and scary monsters

To be clear, this means: standing up for your folks when things are really tough. When a project goes south, when people are jerks (especially those above you), when they are flooded with work, when morale is low, when those above you make unpopular decisions. This is your time to step up and raise your voice. This is also the time when you shield your employees from garbage coming in all directions. You absorb and fix it with a smile, allowing them to focus on their objectives and delivery.

Most extraordinary managers do their best to avoid these situations from occurring in the first place. In the event that some are unavoidable, they either dive in and course-correct as much as they can as soon as they can, or take bullets on behalf of the team. Few things will earn you more respect than doing this.

Extraordinary managers shun corporate speak and actually communicate like humans

How? Simple: stay away from "spinning the news", message early whenever possible, and always err to the side of transparency and realism. If you like to communicate like a politician, go into politics. Stop doing things like breaking unsavory news to people with a positive spin first, overlooking the negatives if at all possible, and dishing out said news at the last possible moment (then complain when the exact same thing happens to you). Moreover, don't talk like you're prepping for the debate team, and avoid corporate jargon if at all possible. In short, speak like you'd want to be spoken to.

For instance, this was the case at a former company when we moved from a closed-office concept to an open-office environment. Managers were sent to extensive training on how to put a positive spin on the new policies, and heaven forbid they talk about space savings. Most did just that, shying away from the hard questions, when most people knew the primary benefit were cost-cutting measures in terms of office space per capita. In this particular situation, one of my peers and I had a very simple conversation with our respective organizations that went pretty much like this:

"Guys, the company is running out of room and is apparently not standing up anymore buildings for us. This is really not a bad problem to have. Some things will suck, like not having couches and fridges in your offices, but we'll make the best of it together. Hopefully being able to turn around and talk to your colleagues will reduce your email and IM pile, write better code and help you get out of here on time. That, and you get to shoot each other with Nerf guns easier."

Notice, we led the conversation with Captain Obvious front and center, and managed the message in a way that didn't insult the intelligence of the folks working for us. We didn't throw our company under the bus and gave our folks a message that didn't make us look like paid mouthpieces.

Be honest, forthcoming and helpful in your messaging. Deliver it with meaning, intent and feeling, not like you're just going through the motions and walking on eggshells. If you can spot a fraud, it's a good bet that those that work for you can as well.

Extraordinary managers take risks, often, and make champagne out of lemonades

"Who dares, wins." It's the motto of Britain's Special Air Service, long recognized as the world's most elite special operators. And it's a motto most extraordinary managers live by.

Mediocre managers see a problem and run as quickly as they can in the opposite direction. A few savvy folks see a problem as an opportunity. Moreover, extraordinary managers view difficult situations and uncertainty as career and personal growth enhancers (sometime ago, I wrote about this here).

There are various ways to do this. Volunteer your team for tough assignments. Take a steady-state product and go beyond "Think Big" to "Think Mission Impossible". Dive head-first into something that's falling apart and state, with conviction: "Don't worry, I will get you out". Guess what - that takes real leadership, and that's what great people relate to and follow. I call this inspiration by example. When people see their managers do this, they believe that they, too, can achieve the impossible.

Extraordinary managers plan light, act fast, move even faster

They shun process and red tape. They stand up to bureaucracy, even when it's not the popular thing to do - and especially when it's not the popular thing to do. They are after results, period, and they know how to get things done.

Keep this in mind: anyone that tells you that you can efficiently plan for anything for more than 6 months is out of touch with reality. Most great managers know that change nowdays occurs so rapidly, and events of all shapes and sizes affect your roadmap. It's great to have a long-term vision, but planning the road to get there all at once is not realistic. Be prepared for your plans to change, reshuffle, or be scrapped for other plans altogether.

Extraordinary managers lead by example

Nothing is beneath you, and everything you ask someone on your team to do, you should be able to do as well. This serves two very important purposes: it keeps you grounded to runtime and reality, and it keeps your skills sharp. No one likes a paper-pusher or an "over-delegator", but everyone loves to work for the person who is willing to put in the time and elbow grease and jump into the deep waters along with their team.

Last: Extraordinary managers put themselves out of a job

Have you ever heard of the phrase: "build self-sustaining teams"? Do you know what it really means? Think about it for a second. It means that you should strive to have the skills, training, redundancy and staff levels in place to where the team is completely on auto-pilot, all the time, and you essentially put yourself out of a job.

What's funny is, most managers are afraid to do this. They take the "what will happen to me?" attitude, hold things back, do their best to make themselves seem irreplaceable. The best boss I've ever had used to say, often, that he does nothing other than hire and develop great people, and the less work he has to do, the better the organization and company was. He never worried about becoming irrelevant. Instead, people flocked to work for him, and he just kept getting promoted and recycling this extremely effective recipe while others sat by and wondered what made him so successful.

As a bonus: Think about the worst boss you've ever had, and do the exact opposite of what they do/did. I learned this from my first great manager, and it not only helped me build a solid management foundation, it articulated in bold print obvious things to avoid.

I hope this article proves informative and useful. Feedback is, as always, welcome, and many thanks for reading!

(cross-posted at booleanzen.com)

*******

I'm a devoted father and husband to an awesome family, and a Software Development Manager and hands-on technical leader and Engineer in my spare time. For more information about me, please visit my LinkedIn profile, or www.booleanzen.com.

*******