Managing Managers

It’s a huge jump from individual contributor to managing a team. It’s a doozy 😁

But when you take another step upwards to managing managers, seems like there’s much less attention given to how to do it well.

Why is that? 🤔

From my own experience, managing managers can feel extra challenging because it’s a step further removed from the action.

You ultimately want an improvement in rep performance but the manager of the reps is your ‘lever’ to achieve it. 

So do we think that there’s less of a jump from being a manager of individual contributors to the next level where you’re teaching others how to manage?

And does that explain why there’s less advice, less structure, and fewer systems and tools for it? 

I’m starting to join the dots between this and the well-recognised issue where front line managers aren’t being given the support they need to do their job even though they should be our force multipliers for team performance.

Seems like it’s only when you reach an advanced stage of enablement and development maturity that someone starts to think about it and bring in training specifically for frontline managers.

But that’s pretty far down the road. In the meantime, are we letting our manager-managers down? Is there an attitude shift required, or is it a knowledge gap? 

So many questions, so little time 😂 – really curious about this space.

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