You don’t have to manage people to be a leader, but you must be a leader to be a good manager.

A common misconception many people hold is that being a people manager automatically makes you a leader – it doesn’t. And many also believe they must wait until they have direct reports to lead – this is also untrue. Some of the best leaders can do so without writing a single review and without clear authority. And some of the best people managers I’ve had, were leaders long before they had direct reports.

Over the last decade, I’ve been a leader in the technology field and have seen a diverse set of leadership principals across multiple companies. In addition to effective principals from each of those companies, great leaders embrace the qualities that aren’t always spelled out in the employee playbook.?

????????????I've had several direct reports, mentees, and sponsees ask me what they need to do to be a manager. When I coach them on this topic, I always explain that they should first focus on being a leader. The below list of leadership qualities are ones that I hold myself to as a manager and leader. They're also qualities I look for before promoting someone into a leadership position. I believe these each to be necessary to promote healthy culture, engagement, and innovation. And good culture is intentional.

1.?????Champion, Endorse and Advocate:?When you aren’t in the room, you should be confident that you manager is still advocating for you. A great leader will develop their team, allow each person to grow deep in subject matter areas, and then endorse and champion each person externally for the value they provide to the organization. When opportunities for impactful projects come up, a great leader will ensure that everyone on the team has access to projects that allow them to stretch to the next level and get the necessary visibility.?

I’ve seen many managers, especially new ones, highlighting themselves at the expense of their team. This often happens when an employee hasn’t quite realized that their team’s success is?also?their success. A leader is someone who can focus on building, developing, and sustaining in a continuous cycle – to ensure the holistic success of the group.

2.?????Encourage Risk Taking and Celebrate Mistakes:?There’s always a lesson in mistakes and if your team is afraid to make them, they’ll never take enough risks. And risks lead to the rapid innovation required in the tech industry. Many new managers struggle with giving up the ability to do everything themselves. It is hard to know you can do something quickly, but instead move aside and help teach someone else how to do it. When you are giving someone the opportunity to stretch, it’s usually not a given they will be successful. But you want to encourage everyone to be excited to grow, even if it’s a little scary. And when they fail, you should celebrate the bravery in the risk – share accountability in the failure – and collaborate on new lessons learned.?

As a leader without direct reports, being able to teach someone else and stepping back far enough to let them try it allows you to scale your talents across the team for larger overall impact.?

3.?????Embrace Friction:?I hate quiet meetings where everyone appears to agree. I know this likely sounds crazy but, in my experience, silence usually indicates a lack of psychological safety. If your team is afraid to disagree with you or afraid to offer a different perspective, they might appear to agree to avoid the risk of speaking up. Friction doesn’t need to be contentious. Respectful debate often leads to better ideas and healthier collaboration.?

Fostering an environment where you’re asking for people to challenge you, and celebrating them when they do, will reduce your risk for blind spots. And friction in a meeting is better than a customer stumbling on an embarrassing product flaw (or a marketing campaign that falls flat – see the racially insensitive?Dove Commercial ) that could’ve been fleshed out had everyone in the room felt empowered to speak.?

The leaders I’ve identified in organizations, regardless of whether they have direct reports, are often the people who understand how to bravely and respectful disagree – challenge ideas – and push others to think outside the box. They’re also people who create space for others who aren’t as comfortable speaking up to share their perspective.

4.?????Hire and Embrace Diversity:?When the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion comes up in the workplace, many people think it only relates to hiring under-represented racial identities. While that’s a piece of it, I encourage companies to look at DEI wholistically. If I picked one of my top performing employees and hired ten people just like them – it would be a horrible team. Not because that person isn’t amazing, but because everyone has blind spots. A common pitfall in the tech industry is that there’s a tendency to hire solely based on referrals. And while that can yield great, somewhat pre-vetted candidates, it can also lead to a homogenous workforce.?

The most successful teams I’ve built, have been ones where everyone had a talent that nobody else on the team had – and each person brought a wildly unique perspective to the mix. And the key to making this work, is coaching the team to crave a different opinion. The magic happens when you are in a meeting and the ideas start flowing. And when you seek out difference perspectives, you’ll naturally end up with racial and gender diversity as a result.

5.?????Be Vulnerable/Authentic:?Authentically sharing yourself with your team by fully experiencing emotions builds trust. A blind spot that I’ve seen many people in leadership suffer from is the belief that vulnerability equates to weakness. It’s this believe that often has managers placing up walls when they should be bringing them down.?

For example, during the height of covid I was managing a large team of engineers while sharing an office with my daughter as did second grade online. One day, during a team standup, my toddler walked into the office completely naked. I didn’t realize, of course, until my older daughter shrieked. I caught the faces of 12 other second graders laughing and pointing at the now dancing, naked two-year-old. While hilarious in hindsight, I was at my wits end juggling actively parenting – teaching – and trying to be fully present for work all at the same time.?

After removing the naked toddler from view, I shared with my team how I was struggling to juggle all of it and asked everyone how they were doing. Several people shared how they were having similar struggles and we discussed ways to cope. My team also witnessed a live parenting moment where I clearly didn’t have it all together. And I think it can be incredibly validating and healthy to see that sometimes even the boss doesn’t have all the answers.?

6.?????Be Self Aware:?Last year, in my first 1:1 with one of my direct reports, she opened the conversation with a discussion about “the keys to [her] kingdom”. Her goal was to be clear with me about her strengths, what she believed she could work on improving, how she liked to work, what she needed from me, and the best way that I could provide feedback to her without causing her to shut down. I was astonished at her level of self-awareness, organization, and bravery. This woman was relatively early in career, but this interaction proved she was already a leader.?

A great leader is always learning and iterating for improvement. And to grow as a leader you must start with self-awareness. And just like this woman did, don’t make people guess what the keys to your kingdom are – just tell them. People on your team, whether you’re their manager or peer, shouldn’t have to guess how to interact with you and when to ask for your help. They should also understand how to provide you feedback and you should be ready to listen when they do.?

Many companies think that someone is ready to be a manager when they’ve shown strong evidence of being a great individual contributor (IC). And there’s an assumption that as soon as the person manages people, they’ll suddenly become a leader. I’ve never seen this happen in real life. Every person I’ve seen go from an IC to a great manager was already a leader before taking on the role. That isn’t to say that leadership cannot be coached – it can. But if you want to be a successful manager, make sure you’re?already?a leader before stepping into the role. And companies – please stop assuming that making someone a people manager will suddenly cause them to apparate like a wizard from Harry Potter and become that leader you need them to be.

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