Don't dip down

Don’t dip down

When working with managers, I sometimes hear statements like the following:

“I don’t ask the team to do anything I would not do myself.”
“I don’t want to be one of those ivory tower managers.”
“I like to help out to show the team that I am not above them.”

What could be wrong with that? 

Nothing at all, if it’s late Friday afternoon and you “pitch in” to help the team get some last-minute work out the door before the weekend. Helping out in situations like this can be a great morale-building activity.  

However, if you constantly “dip down” to do the functional work of your people, you are operating at the wrong level as a manager, and wasting company resources (time and money).

I learned the term “dipping down” from a book a client CEO recommended to me recently called “No Bullsh!t Leadership” by Martin Moore (former CEO of CS Energy, an Australian energy company).  

According to the author, doing the functional work of your team and “helping out” sounds very noble, but most of the time, “dipping down” is a sign of a weak manager who can’t train and delegate. 

Managers who dip down often complain about being busy and overworked. They think this makes them indispensable to the company and therefore increases their job security. But they are mistaken. 

It signals to the CEO that the manager cannot build a functional team to deliver outcomes without their direct involvement. They are an ineffective manager who should not be considered for promotion to more senior leadership roles.  

Don’t Dip Down

Think of the manager’s role as being like the coach of a sports team. You may have been the star player once, but now you have been appointed as the coach of the team. You don’t play the game on the field anymore. Your role is to recruit, train, coach, and support a team of players to perform well in their positions and to play well as a team in order to win the game.

You don’t try to score the goals yourself. You don’t run onto the field to rescue the team and play the role of hero. On occasion, you might intervene to avert an imminent disaster, or lend your gravitas to win high-stakes negotiations, but this should be the exception, not the norm.

Your role is not to be the Superhero. It is to be more like Yoda, the wise mentor. 

My definition of the Manager’s role: “Increase the output of the team. Spend most of your time performing tasks that only someone in the manager’s role can do.”

This means letting go of tasks that are not the manager’s role, even if you are the best at doing them, and even if you enjoy doing them. You make the mental shift from player to coach. 

You coach people to deliver high performance, but you don’t do their jobs for them. You don’t spend time on details that you’re paying other people to handle. That’s their job, not yours.

You set the priorities. You set the standards. You set the pace. You praise good performance. You provide corrective feedback whenever results or behaviors fall below standard. You are accountable for the results of the team, but you don’t dip down. 

I have a saying, “Strategy Execution is 20% getting clear about what needs to be done, and 80% following up to make sure it actually gets done”.

The following 2 quotes resonate with lessons I learned the hard way as a manager:

1. “People perform to the level that you inspect.”

They don’t perform to the level that you “expect”. They perform to the level that you “inspect”.

Yes, you trust your people to do their job without micromanaging them, but you still need to “Go and See” for yourself. You inspect what is going on to ensure your plans are being carried out and standards are being met, just like good army generals do.

2. “Trust, but verify.”

This is a Russian quote, used by President Ronald Reagan of the USA when he negotiated a nuclear disarmament treaty with his Russian counterparts back in the 1980s.

You trust people to meet the agreed expectations, but you still verify to make sure they do.

Inspecting progress is not micromanaging. Inspecting progress is not dipping down either. Inspecting progress is a core management function.

You schedule regular 1 on 1 meetings to make sure projects and metrics are on track. You get out and observe people doing their work. You coach people to overcome obstacles and make wise decisions. You give corrective feedback to help them improve. But you don’t dip down and do their work for them.

It sounds counterintuitive, but you should try to “make yourself redundant” from your current role as soon as possible, to show that you are ready to operate at a higher level.

From individual contributor to manager. From manager to CEO. From CEO to owner. From owner to investor.

In summary, your mantra to level up should be, “Less Superhero, more Yoda.”

***

Until next time…
Stephen