What Does Good People Management Look Like?
What does good management look like under difficult times?
Good People Management During COVID-19 and Beyond
Good people managers can make a huge difference on the engagement and well-being of their company and its employees. But not every team is led by a great manager. That's why managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units, Gallup estimates
Over the past 18 months, the life of a people manager/middle manager within Corporate America hasn’t been easy. Managers were already tasked with a challenging job in terms of managing both up and down and across the organization, but during COVID-19 as leaders grappled with and eventually made decisions and pivots to the company strategy. Managers were tasked with figuring out how to take orders from above and translate them into effect for their team, while keeping their employees engaged and happy. This wasn’t always easy, many people struggled but there were bright spots along the way, not to mention, many managers were struggling with the same issues and challenges their employees were dealing with on their own. That said, there are always bright spots even in dark moments.
It’s easy to focus on the headlines of the Great Resignation around topics like burnout, wages, work environment ,and working conditions, many of which have negative connotations. And while I’ve written about many of those in previous articles I wanted to find out some of the positive things that managers on the front lines were doing to illustrate positive behaviors we've seen from managers over the past 18 months. With that in mind, I was able to crowdsource some thoughts and ideas, and here is what I found?
What are some examples of positive behaviors or management styles your manager has exhibited over the past 18 months?
Flexing Your Management Style to Accommodate Others
My manager is not the most “warm” and fuzzy person. That’s not meant to be a knock, it's just they are a very buttoned up and professional manager. I know for some of us on the team who tend to be more relationship based and warm and fuzzy this is difficult. During COVID-19, especially early on, our team was very nervous, not just about our work but in general about everything that was going on in the world and how it would impact us.
It was clear that our manager realized this, and they went out of their way in team meetings as well as individual 1:1’s to really check in on people and to genuinely ask how they were doing and how they were feeling. At first, it caught me off guard because it was awkward but also not in character. But I could tell they were trying, and over time, they got better and better. Given how difficult of a time this was, I think we all so much appreciated their willingness to stretch their own boundaries of their comfort zone and personality, in order to help all of us. They certainly still aren’t a warm and fuzzy person, but they have absolutely won over the respect of the team.
Blocking and Tackling to Help Other People Thrive
During COVID-19, our team was tasked to help launch an entirely brand new product that had never been built before. Since we’re a large company, not only did it require working with lots of cross functional stakeholders, but we had to do it virtually. Since none of us had done this before, literally nobody knew what we were doing. The first few weeks we’d sit on calls on end and it was clear to me that if I was going to be successful I was going to need to find pockets of time to peel off to actually get work done. I spoke to my manager, and he agreed to take the meetings for me when he could, and if there was anything I needed to cover, I’d either send it in advance or follow up after. Giving me the space to actually think allowed me to get time back in the day (night) to actually think, and was absolutely a huge lifesaver for me.
Not Forgetting About Career Development
My manager has always done a great job of remembering to remind us about our professional and career development. They could have easily brushed it to the side because of COVID-19 (I saw many people do this) but they made a point of telling our team that just because it was COVID didn’t mean that she was going to stop caring about our own development and our own career.
For me, I had just gotten promoted, so while I wasn’t looking to press too hard for anything she encouraged me to think about using the time to pursue skills or interests at work that I felt would be energizing, which led me to picking up taking some virtual classes in mindfulness and meditation. It would have been really easy (and all of us probably would have been fine) for her to just throw career development to the wind, but the fact that she pushed forward despite the conditions showed me how much she cared not just for the outcomes and results but for us as human beings.
Seeing the Strengths and Spotting Opportunities In Others
One of our teammates is more experienced and significantly older, and let’s just say he has a “unique skillset” However, the one thing he does have for him is experience, and our manager did an excellent job in terms of figuring out how to use him effectively. As a bit older and more experienced this individual has been through many ups and downs in the workplace and has a much more even keeled personality. Since we’re in a high-growth technology company that’s constantly changing and pivoting, he’s actually done quite well during COVID. During COVID, our manager sensed an opportunity to take on more scope for our team because of the changing demands of our customers. She tapped this individual to lead the programs, and they worked so well that he was given an additional series of headcount.
This individual is incredibly difficult to work with, but I give my manager a lot of credit because she had the patience to not give up, and despite his personality was able to see the strengths he did bring to the table and to create opportunities for him to thrive.
Onboarding Remote Employees
I joined a brand new team in the beginning of 2020 and at the time it was myself and my manager. Once COVID-19 hit, there was actually a huge demand for the cross functional partners we support and the workload they had, so we needed to scale up. We didn’t have a lot of budget but we did get a headcount, but that essentially meant that we had to hire very junior staff. We work in roles that require a lot of soft skills and experience, which generally does not jive well with junior hires, but my manager did an amazing job of finding great talent.
While the hiring decisions were great (it helps to work for a brand name company) her real secret sauce came during onboarding. Not only did she have the task of onboarding and ramping up young and inexperienced new hires, but she had to figure out how to do it virtually.
She did two things that I thought really stood out. First, she created 30-60-90 day plans for each of them complete with milestones, skills and checkpoints that were very clear. Second, she assigned them listening tours with the stakeholders, as well as a “buddy” who actually was on another team. This actually was helpful because it made some of our cross functional partners who we work with accountable for their development. 8 months in and the new hires are doing great and contributing in ways that I think neither of us had expected. She’s just been given an additional 2 headcount to grow even more.
What did your manager do that helped strengthen team culture during the past 18 months?
Embracing The Rule as a Culture Carrier
My manager is the definition of a culture carrier - she has been at our company a long time and is always very good at knowing what is going on, but also, knowing what is rewarded and valued here (given how long she has been here this is not surprising.) During the early stages of COVID, she was very good even under changing circumstances of figuring out the behaviors to model and to champion on our team, which I felt was really helpful to me, especially as someone who literally started in February 2020. The other thing she did a good job of was reinforcing in her communications, whether it was on team meetings or in our internal comms and group chats when someone did something right and giving them kudos for it, but also signaling to other people that those were behaviors that were valuable to exhibit. I think it took me a lot longer to get used to the culture at my company, but I don;t think I could have done it without our manager
Fostering Collaboration and Helping Other Teammates
One of the things my manager did each week was to host an open meeting, almost like an office hours for professors where people could come and get feedback from him. What ended up happening a lot of times was that as more and more people came, we actually started giving feedback to one another. I don’t know if this intentional and by design or by accident, but I think it helped our team actually help each other, which I think was good for overall morale
Making Wellness a Priority
As the pandemic kept going and it was clear that it was going to be with us for awhile, my manager encouraged all of us to take vacation and time off and to promote well-being and just recharging ourselves. He also made it clear that he was going to do it as well and he followed through on it, which I think gave the rest of us (subconsciously or consciously) the permission to do the same.
Managing Morale through difficult times while still driving results
“The last 18 months were hard given everything going on in the world. I think my manager did a great job of being able to hold space to let people feel the impact and challenges of all of these events that were impacting all of us while still keeping us on track for what we needed to get done as a team. There were definitely days when we did not achieve what we set out to do, and she was OK with that and made it known that it was OK, but she did a really good job managing the fact that we still had to get things done while making sure that everyone felt seen for whatever weight and concerns they were carrying on their shoulders, and that there wasn’t an expectation for them to “just be fine.”
My Takeaways on Good Managers During COVID-19
After reading through the responses and reflecting on my own experiences of seeing good management over the past 18 months, here are a few of my own takeaways from what makes a good manager during this unique and unusual times:
Being a good people manager requires being human-first - Many managers become managers because they are successful at their craft, not always because they want to manage people. This causes lots of challenges, but the role of the manager in today’s world requires a significant amount of understanding people, how they work, what makes them tick, and how to relate to them. The best managers have a desire to understand and engage with others, and an ability to model the traits that make us uniquely human. They seek to understand and know their employees, and how they can best support them in achieving their goals.
Seeking and Sensing The Talent and Growth of Employees - Good managers have done the work to understand the strengths and superpowers of their individual employees, and find ways to allow their employees to use them in their work. Managers also understand that even in difficult times, people want to continue to learn and grow, and look for ways to help their employees do that, formally and informally.
Investing in the culture to scale - Managers cannot do everything by themselves. The more they can figure out how to scale themselves (either through modeling behaviors or empowering others) the more they can help their team with the guidance and direction when they cannot physically (or virtually) be in the room
Being themselves and managing emotions - Managers are critical to the team and the team's output and outcomes, but managers are people too. They understand that they are just as fallible as others and show up as humans, but do their best to effectively manage themselves and their emotions especially during difficult times.
Creating Space To Let People Work Well - The challenge of managing up, down and across (which is what managers have to do) is that there is constantly noise and information coming in from all at once. The best managers help clear the noise to let their team members deliver exceptional work. This means in some cases, protecting their team from politics or difficult situations, or structuring the working environment so that employees feel like they have agency over their work and don’t feel overburdened.
Managing a Healthy Flow of Communication - Great managers are not only great communicators, but through empathy and listening, create places for information to flow seamlessly. Employees trust them and share genuine thoughts and concerns, and managers communicate in healthy and helpful ways, and balance between over communicating and constant noise, versus leaving out information or leaving people left in the dark.
And finally, great managers know the worth of the work of their team. They recognize and seek pride in doing exceptional work, but also know that for many people during these difficult times, the day job and their work was not the only thing that was on their mind, nor was work the only thing that mattered in the grand scheme of life.
As a manager once said to me, “we’re not delivering babies and we’re not saving lives. Our work matters, but let’s remember the big picture.” Great managers provide the right perspective to the right people at the right time, and motivate their teams to achieve their goals, through the easy and difficult times.
Special thanks to John, Jamie, Natalie, Justin and Tyler for your contributions and thoughts on managers
Additional Reading
The Indispensable Document For The Modern Manager (First Round)
The Best Managers Understand Their Employees Emotions - And Their Own (IDEO)