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To Have A Players, You Have to be an A Manager

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50%

of employees left their job "to get away from their manager”

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84%

of Workers Blame Bad Managers for Creating Unnecessary Stress

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People don’t leave companies.

They leave managers.

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Great leaders realize their No. 1 customer is their people.

If they take care of their people, train them, and empower them, they will take care of their second most important customer--the people who buy their products or services--and turn them into raving fans.

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BEING THE BEST LEADER YOU CAN BE

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How to be an A Manager?

One-on-ones

Training & coaching

Continuous learning

Help your people grow

Put them first

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Put yourself in their shoes

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Do unto others as you want done to yourself

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Kim Scott

Radical Candor

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How to give feedback

Get a Micro-Yes: “Can I give you feedback on X?”

Validation: “I care about you, so I’m sharing feedback because…”

Because: “I bring it up because…”

Question: “What are your thoughts?”

Timeline: “Should we meet again in 2 weeks to check on this?”

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Micro-Yes: “Hey John, are you free to chat about our average response times on Intercom for last month?”

Validation: “Awesome. First off, I really care about you and your performance, and will do everything I can to help us all do better.”

Because: “I just ran the monthly reports and noticed your average response time is 15 minutes. I bring it up because our website guarantees a 5 minute response time so we don’t want to let our customers down. The team is also averaging 4.5 minutes on average.”

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Question: “Do you think we can get there? What can I do to help us get there?”

Question: “Great! What do you think should be the next steps?”

Timeline: “Amazing, I agree. Let’s touch base again at the end of next week and see where we’re at. Thank you again.”

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Feedback Workshop

Get a Micro-Yes: “Can I give you feedback on X?”

Validation: “I care about you, so I’m sharing feedback because…”

Because: “I bring it up because…”

Question: “What are your thoughts?”

Timeline: “Should we meet again in 2 weeks to check on this?”

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Great managers ask more questions

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Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

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Eric Schmidt

Trillion Dollar Coach

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Kenneth Blanchard

The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey

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WARNING

Beware of answering questions all day

How to handle employees that constantly ask you questions:

Isn’t it funny that when you’re sick or not working, suddenly they figure everything out for themselves? They can easily do it, it’s just easier and more convenient for them to ask you. People don’t like to think, but they easily can when there’s no other options.
Wait a few hours or even a day and see if they still need help. Most of the time they will figure it out on their own.
Make sure they have already done their homework, for example, tell them do the the following:

Check all the available help docs or resources to find the answer.
Speak to another teammate to find the answer.
Come up with your own 3 solutions and present the best one you want confirmation for.
Everyone should ALWAYS come to you with potential solutions to their problems instead of asking you to solve it for them.

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Example questions

What do you hope to achieve? What does success look like?

Any obstacles, concerns, or potential consequences?

What are the options? What have you tried so far?

Is there anyone you know that’s solved this before?

What are the next steps?

Are there any reports or KPIs we can track to measure success?

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Thomas Erikson

Surrounded by Idiots

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Not everyone will be an MVP

One thing you will realize from the book, Surrounded by Idiots, is that not everyone will be a Red/Go-Getter, overachiever, and that’s perfectly fine.
Imagine if everyone was Type A, always trying to take your jobs and be a manager.
Not everyone is going to be an overachiever A Player and that’s okay.
A great team for support consists of many “greens”.
Don’t try to change your people to be someone they don’t want to be.
It’s totally okay for some people to be solid consistent performers.
Not everyone wants to earn more money or be a manager and that’s fine.
“You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink” - you can show them how to be great, but don’t expect them to be great if they don’t want to.
At the same time, identify who are your all-stars, and groom them for success.

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Do we treat our employees like a Family or like a Team?
While we say family, we probably should say Team going forward
A good sports team trains and coaches their players. You don’t really train or coach your family members.
A good sports team brings the best players onto their team that benefit the entire organization. You don’t exactly bring the best people into your family sometimes.
A good sports team moves players around to different positions (or departments).
A good sports team makes the hard decisions to cut their players when they’re not good enough, or trades them to other teams. You can’t exactly trade your siblings or parents. This is the hardest part and one that I’ve unfortunately had to do recently, but it’s for the best of the company and sometimes we need to put the company first.

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We model ourselves on being a professional sports team, not a family. ��A family is about unconditional love. A dream team is about pushing yourself to be the best possible teammate, caring intensely about your team, and knowing that you may not be on the team forever.

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Dream teams are about performance, not seniority or tenure.

It is up to the manager to ensure that every player is amazing at their position, plays effectively with others and is given new opportunities to develop. That’s how we keep winning the championship.

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MORE BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

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Tania Luna

The Leader Lab: Core Skills to Become a Great Manager

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Spencer Johnson

Who Moved My Cheese

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Jocko Willink

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

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FINAL THOUGHTS

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Ask more questions

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Act like a sports team,

not like a family

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Help your team grow personally, professionally, & financially

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Whatever happens,�enjoy the ride!

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davidmbitton.com/management

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SURVEY QUESTIONS

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Spending too much of my time making up for "weak links" on the team

AMAZING that you realize this and accept it.
If I knew who you were I would ask you questions like “What do you think you should do? What options have you considered? What are your concerns? If they left tomorrow, would you fight to get them back?
Took me a LONG time to realize but once I did, I made the very hard decision to part ways with that person and find someone else.
Before however, I put that person on a PIP and gave them a chance to improve. You can also purposely NOT do the work and see if they do it. Maybe they’re not doing it because you’re doing it and filling in for them. There are a few solutions:

Train them and give them more guidance, super clear instructions. Mention this in a performance review or one-on-one with clear expectations.
Put them on a PIP
Let them go and find someone else
Do a secret job search and replace them once you hired someone else

No matter what, you MUST take action because it’s killing your time�

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Wish I was better at:

Having tough conversations and setting expectations

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Wish I was better at:

Setting boundaries

Why do you want to be better? Why is it bothering you so much? How is affecting your own job? What are some options that you can take? What have you tried? What are you afraid of?
Not sure of the context here but you can set boundaries in a number of ways.
“Open door policy” - You can let everyone know that you need to get your own work done too, so please wait until 5 PM to come into my office or ping me. Hold your questions or make a doc that we can review at 5 PM. You’ll be surprised to find that all of a sudden, no one has any questions because they want the answer NOW so they’ll just figure it out on their own.
“Message me on Slack” - I will always get back to you by end of day, but I will usually start clearing my Slacks after 6 PM. Feel free to message me, but please know that I won’t be able to answer everyone until 6 PM. You can also schedule your messages to me at 6 PM. Most of the time, they will figure out their own issues by then. If it’s SUPER urgent, then you can call me.
If they ask you a million questions, make sure they have already done their homework, for example: Can you please do the following:

Check all the available help docs or resources to find the answer.
Speak to another teammate to find the answer.
Come up with your own 3 solutions and present the best one you want confirmation for.
Everyone should ALWAYS come to you with potential solutions to their problems instead of asking you to solve it for them.

Isn’t it funny how everything is always fine and they find all their own answers when you’re on vacation or out of the office? They can easily do it, it’s just easier and more convenient for them to ask you. People don’t like to think, but they easily can when there’s no other options.

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How best to keep clear lines of communication between departments so everyone is on the same page in a constantly changing environment such as a startup company like ours.

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How do you create mutual trust and respect with your team?

Love that everyone is already using the word team
Why don’t you feel you have their trust and respect already? What did you do to lose it? What can you do to regain it? Did you write these down? Take action on them? Speak to a co-worker to see their thoughts?
You will earn their trust and respect if you hold them and everyone else accountable. If they see you let other people slide and low-performers or toxic employees stay, you will lose their trust.
If they feel you have their back and will go to war with them, they will trust you.
If you actually care about them, their personal lives, and their families, they will like you.
You will earn their respect if you take ownership for decisions, either good or bad. Own up to your own weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
Being as open, honest, and transparent with them.
Do amazing work, show them why you’re in your role and why you earned it. Show them what greatness looks like. They should look up to you and aspire to do your job one day.
If they feel they can do their job better than you, you will lose their respect.
Read the book Extreme Leadership.
Remember: People don’t leave companies, they leave managers.

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"Being too nice!"

Remember the old saying “Nice guys finish last”
You can and should of COURSE be nice, courteous, and respectful. Never ever yell at or embarrass an employee in front of other people.
At the same time, you can’t let employees walk all over you, do whatever they want, break all the roles, and underperform. You MUST hold them accountable in a very friendly and nice way.
I used to scream, be mad, and get super upset and angry with people. My entire approach has changed now to: I’m going to be the nice guy, “I’m going to help you grow, I’ll help train you if needed, and I’ll teach you how to fish. But it’s your responsibility to catch the fish on your own going forward. If you stop catching fish or producing results, we’ll talk so I can help you get back on track. The last thing I want to do is let you go. I believe in you and know you can succeed and do this. But after a few attempts, if it’s still not clicking for some reason, it’s all good, no hard feelings, we both really tried hard to make this work and it simply didn’t click for whatever reason. I will do everything in my power to make sure you’re well taken care of, including 2 week severance pay, a letter of recommendation, a LinkedIn recommendation, and maybe even introducing you to my other friends or online on social media. Lastly, you can always use me as a reference for any future jobs. Although it didn’t work out here, I still want what’s best for you, and ultimately I think you’ll do much better in another environment where you’ll truly thrive. I know it’s tough now to hear this, but in a few weeks or months, you’ll see it will all work out for the best as it always does. “

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How do you set expectations with new people, and how do you reset expectations with existing employees whose performance has started to slip?

New people: On the interview make sure they know the bar is VERY high. They will always be judged according to their performance and compared to their peers.

Show them their goals and KPIs they need to hit. Help them track it. Review it weekly or monthly. Hold them accountable to it.
Make sure you have weekly or bi-weekly calls OR a call a week before the end of the month so they know if they’re going to hit or miss their targets and can course-correct.
Run reports weekly and then share it with them so they know where they are.

Existing: You reset expectations by speaking them monthly about their goals and targets and let them know where they stand and where they need to be at.

You help them put a plan together to improve for the next month.
If they still fall VERY short the next month, you have a much more serious talk.
If you’re ready to let them go and are losing hope, you put them on a PIP for 30 days and give them a final chance to excel.
If they pass the PIP, you continue it for another month to ensure they keep the bar high.
If they continually go up and down like a rollercoaster, it’s time to find someone else.
If you have a batter that hits home runs once every 3 games and strikes out on all other games, but the rest of your team is hitting homers every game or other game, they need to be replaced with a better batter.

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Characteristics of an "A" manager? Education or Experience?

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What do you do about someone who clearly thinks too highly of themselves?

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Wish I was better at:

“Not putting myself under pressure and manage the day to day without stressing myself.”

Why do you put yourself under pressure? Is it because you want to impress your boss or co-workers?
What would happen if you didn’t put so much pressure on yourself? Would your work or performance slip up? Would you miss deadlines?
Have you tried not putting pressure on yourself for 1 day and saw what happens?
Have you tried writing down your MIT (most important task) for the day, and maybe 3 big tasks you want to accomplish for each day? If you do those, would it be a successful and productive day?
You need to realize and accept the fact that “There are only 8 working hours a day. You will NEVER finish all your work and that’s a good thing because you’re always busy and never bored. Instead of working 14 hour days, you need to tell your own manager that you’re falling behind because there’s not enough time in the day and ask them to help you prioritize your tasks. If your manager thinks some tasks are not important, they can be delayed. If not, they can hire someone else to help, or let things fall through the cracks.

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Questions?

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Connect

@davidmbitton

me@davidmbitton.com