Three Ideas to Get the Best Out of the People You Manage
Poor Johnnie's Almanack #3
Hey everyone! I hope you’ve had a great month. Here’s my post for May (I know, I know… sneaking in there just before the closing bell).
Earlier in my career I had the privilege of managing junior team members.
It was great. They were smart and hungry, but a little wet behind the ears. I got a lot of joy out of seeing them build confidence during a project, eventually taking off the training wheels and running the show without my help.
This year, as I’m taking on more consulting gigs, I’m in the fortunate position of overseeing and supporting others’ work again. For me, the work and the results are important, but I get even more kicks out of seeing people perform at their full potential.
Here are three short ideas to help you get the best out of the people you manage.
1. Someone has to go first (it’s not personal)
Someone has to write the first draft, create the first pitch deck, and/or build the first financial model.
This provides the foundation from which the rest of the team can work.
After that people can improve and tweak the original version.
That’s where the problem comes in sometimes... Feedback can feel personal.
While some comments are positive, sometimes the feedback sounds harsh. This disheartens the guy or gal who had to write the first piece. Their work is under the microscope and, no matter how thick-skinned they are, they feel a little touchy once the reviews are in.
But the feedback is the easier part. It’s much simpler to work from a 10-slide pitch deck than building it from scratch. It’s way less demanding to tweak the already-solid financial model than staring down a blank Google Sheet yourself.
That’s what I try to remind my team members of when their work is up on the stage.
The feedback isn’t personal. It just comes with the territory of doing the original work.
The original version must exist so that it can be iterated upon. It’s the humble foundation for the improvements to build on. Nothing can happen without the person who dares to go first.
2. Teach them how to fish
My main rule for managing people can be summarized by this simple proverb:
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for his lifetime.” - Lao-Tzu
Teaching someone how to fish means not jumping in to help a junior before they have attempted to do the assignment themselves first.
If they haven’t applied their minds to the problem, they haven’t experienced the main benefit of problem-solving - building the habit and the confidence to solve future problems (the how to fish part).
If I help someone with a problem before they have given their all and exhausted their thinking, I’m doing them a disservice. Sure, doing the work for them is a relief in the short term (thanks for the leg up), but over the long term, their problem-solving skills (and confidence in their ability) stagnate.
They will become dependent on me (or someone else) to catch their fish when the going gets hard.
Side note:
This is becoming even more important with the rise of tools like ChatGPT (I’m starting to sound old).
Ideally, you should do the work yourself before typing in the prompt in the LLM. If you want to learn something, that is.
It reminds me of my high school maths teacher who always went on about not using calculators. His view (which I came to share) was that it’s more beneficial to do the equation in your head first. You can double-check the solution later but do the mental work yourself first.
The same applies to AI tools. Apply your mind first, then use AI to supplement the ideas and thinking you’ve already pinned down. Without this step, you don’t practice your muscle for creativity and brainstorming. You become dependent on OpenAI to feed you fish.
3. There’s always something more important than the work
Are there any former colleagues, people you no longer work with, that you still hold in high regard?
Are there ex-classmates, old friends you don’t see anymore, that still bring back fond memories?
What makes these people so special?
Was it the number of deals they signed, or rather, the stories they shared around the water cooler? The excellent quality of their slides or that time they helped you out when you were facing a crazy deadline? In short, what was more important, their work or how they made you feel?
“At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” ― Maya Angelou
This is something I try to remind myself and the (sometimes stressed-out) juniors on my team about.
While the work is important, there’s always something more important than the work.
Don’t get lost in the pressure of the workplace with its never-ending stream of deadlines and to-dos. Remember to come up for air. See the bigger picture. Ask about your colleague’s kid’s ballet recital. Pay attention when your work buddy is quieter than usual.
Apply the softer skills. This is what people will remember.
My Favourites
💬 Quote of the week:
“The best way to manage people, he thought, was to convince them that you were good for their careers. He further believed that the only way to get people to believe that you were good for their careers was actually to be good for their careers.” — Michael Lewis, Flash Boys
✍️ Essay. How Much Money is Enough? by Edward - a writer I met in Write of Passage who’s a doctor by day, and a writer by night. Writing under only his first name, he’s free to explore topics like meaningful work and money. I resonated with a lot of the themes in this essay. Quote:
“I can see how people get ‘addicted’ to some degree to glamorous yet stressful jobs. In their eyes, they don’t have a choice: they are hooked on the dopamine of a big paycheck and hooked on the power, and society can be unkind if they take a step back.”
📚 Book. The Anthology of Balaji: A Guide to Technology, Truth, and Building the Future by Eric Jorgenson. This was a solid 4/5 and right up there with the Navalmanack - Jorgenson’s other book on Naval Ravikant. This collection of Balaji’s thoughts throws your brain 20-50 years into the future, something I don’t get nudged to do often. Balaji is good at understanding history, applying those lessons to modern-day tech and projecting how things will play out in the future. Recommended reading.
📱 App. A friend recommended Oom, “the chat app that skips the small talk” to me last week. The premise is simple - you and your conversation partner answer prompts that explore your differences and similarities. Give it a go if you want to slice through the “the weather’s good” niceties and connect with people faster.
✌️ Small Win. This newsletter recently reached 500 subscribers. No Oscar-winning speech from me this time, but I will say, I truly value your support. Let’s keep it going.
Until next time - happy creating
— John
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People who can write from a "blank page" are extremely underrated in business.
Everyone who comes after takes for granted the courage required to make the shitty first draft.
Thanks John. I don't manage people (except wife and children… actually they manage me), but, come to think of it, these are helpful tips for managing yourself, too: Go first, get feedback later, Teach yourself how to fish; There's always something more important than work.
Your side note reminds me of something Andy Crouch writes about in The Life We're Looking for, the distinction between devices and instruments. Instruments enable you, devices do it for you.
Lastly, kudos to your photographer for following you around and snapping nice pics as you cycle.