January 1, 2020

Managers Should Champion Their Direct Reports

“People leave managers, not companies”

In my experience, management is most effective when the manager sees their role as championing and advocating for their direct reports, and getting out of their way, rather than as figure that is policing the direct report and trying to optimize their output.

It’s much more about your personal rapport and relationship than anything else your manager should be someone you trust has faith in you and wants you to flourish even if they’re not the most relevant in terms of area.

Different people in the same role will click with different managers. To get best results, it may be best to let people choose their manager (to some extent this is kind of how academia works PhD students find an advisor in the relevant area that they get on with).

Performance-related feedback should be given from a point of view of ‘this is how you can improve and thrive’ rather than ‘you are letting the company down’.