Being a people leader is a constant experience of learning and experimenting. Below is my collection of frameworks and resources I’ve used throughout my career to become a stronger people leader.
Frameworks
Manager Mindsets
The Three Roles of a Manager
- Momentum: Keeping the team moving forward and removing roadblocks.
- Vision & Transformation: Painting a clear picture of the future aligned with strategy.
- Growing People: Fostering career growth and acting as an emotional buffer for the team.
McKinsey Manager Archetypes
| Archetype | Description |
|---|---|
| Player/coach | High individual contribution alongside management duties. |
| Coach | Focuses on development and guiding work execution. |
| Supervisor | Direct oversight of tactical output and compliance. |
| Facilitator | Removes blockers and enables team self-organization. |
| Coordinator | Manages complex dependencies across disparate units. |
Mindset shifts from Individual Contributor to People Manager
| I do (Individual Contributor) | We do (People Manager) |
|---|---|
| Your output is your individual work. | Your output is the collective throughput of your team. |
| Moving fast is the primary goal. | Speed is useless without clarity; prioritize marching in the right direction. |
| Being the chief problem solver and providing answers. | Asking powerful questions that coach the team to find solutions. |
| Critiquing mistakes and “tearing down”. | Using mistakes as developmental milestones and “coaching up”. |
| Projecting absolute confidence. | Leading with vulnerability and admitting when you don’t know. |
| Taking bows for personal success. | Giving credit and shining the spotlight on the team. |
| Winning a race. | Lifting and enabling the team. |
From (IC) to People Manager matrix
| Capability | From (The Tactical Operator) | To (The Strategic Leader) |
|---|---|---|
| Living in the Future | I focus heavily on delivering immediate quarterly OKRs. I wait for upper leadership to define the strategy. I have no time for vision; I’m just trying to keep up. | I balance immediate execution with future capability. I actively get “on the balcony” to see the big picture. I build the bench now to unlock future team growth. |
| Ruthless Prioritizing | I try to monitor every single detail of my team’s work. I let others own my calendar and meeting schedule. I find it extremely hard to say “No” to new requests. | I shift focus from solving immediate problems to solving recurring patterns. I am the absolute owner of my calendar and say “No” strategically. I focus strictly on the unique work that only I can do. |
| Getting Done Through Others | If something goes wrong, I feel I should have done it myself. I worry that others won’t do the work the way I would. I prefer to remain in tight control of execution. | My role is to enable, trust, and guide without micromanaging. I tolerate discomfort and constructive mistakes as learning opportunities. I scale our impact by putting heads together across teams. |
| Focusing on Outcomes | Output-oriented: I focus on tracking tasks completed, lines of code, or hours worked. | Outcome-oriented: I treat my team like a business, tracking metrics that prove real business value. |
Polarity Management: From “Versus” to “And”
Leadership maturing involves managing complementary polarities rather than binary trade-offs:
- Giving the team autonomy AND Going deep on critical initiatives
- Prioritizing individual growth AND Driving team performance
- Leading with deep empathy AND Maintaining rigorous objectivity
Alignment & Communication
The 5 C’s Staircase (Building Shared Context)
Establish shared context when delegating by walking through:
- Colour: Paint the full picture and define what “done” looks like.
- Context: Discuss organizational factors influencing the decision.
- Connective Tissue: Help people understand the “why” and strategy foundation.
- Cost: Be transparent about trade-offs and opportunity costs.
- Consequence: Outline the stakes and risk of doing nothing.
S.W.I.M. Communications Framework
Use Caryn Marooney’s S.W.I.M. Framework for high-impact communications:
- Situation: Establish the current landscape.
- What is the problem: Define the friction point or challenge.
- Impact: Explain what is at stake and why it matters now.
- Meaning: Define the long-term meaning for the company and individuals.
Audit alignments of David Ulevitch’s Inner and Outer Loops
- The Inner Loop (Weekly): Knowing what is important, why, and performance metrics.
- The Outer Loop (Strategic): Ensuring you have the people, capital, and business relevance to win.
Delegation, Execution & Feedback
Team Operational Maturity
- Level 1 — Chaotic: No metrics; reliance on individual heroes.
- Level 2 — Managed: Defined roles and systematically tracked tasks.
- Level 3 — Defined: Metrics defined and processes standardized.
- Level 4 — Measured: Conformance and external feedback loops tracked.
- Level 5 — Continuous Improvement: Procedures regularly reviewed and optimized.
The OARB Feedback Framework
Deliver feedback that is objective and tied to self-interest:
- Observation: Describe behavior objectively.
- Assertion: Describe how the behavior is perceived.
- Repercussion: Explain how it limits their own impact.
- Benefit: Suggest an alternative and explain the positive benefit.
Example: “When you agree in meetings but execute differently (Observation), it seems untrustworthy (Assertion), which leads to closer questioning and wastes your time (Repercussion). Try raising reservations in real-time to protect your autonomy (Benefit).”
Strategy, Systems Thinking, and Decisions
Roger Martin: 17 Principles on OKRs vs. Strategy
- OKRs are not a substitute for a well-thought-out strategy.
- Focus on the desired results, not the actions you think will get you there.
- Multiple objectives don’t mean multiple strategies; coherence is critical.
- Give teams the autonomy to meet objectives in their own way.
- Setting key results isn’t a guarantee for achieving objectives.
- Key results are outcomes of effective strategies, not the cause.
- Toggle between your audacious objectives and your strategy for mutual reinforcement.
- A strategy is a set of choices that work in concert, not in isolation.
- Your ‘Where to Play/How to Win’ choices should inform your OKRs.
- Individual OKRs are not strategies; they are tactics that should align with the strategy.
- If you don’t meet your OKRs, your management system should alert you for corrective actions.
- The right strategy makes achieving OKRs more likely, not the other way around.
- Avoid labelling every objective or key result as a separate ‘strategy’.
- What some call ‘attributes’ or ‘facets’, others incorrectly call ‘strategies’.
- Your competitor’s capabilities can limit your OKRs, regardless of your desires.
- If an OKR seems unachievable, revisit your strategy, not the OKR.
- Objectives are checkpoints in the journey of your broader strategy.
Reversible vs. Irreversible Decisions by James Clear
- Hats: Easy to change, low consequence.
- Haircuts: Significant but reversible with time.
- Tattoos: Permanent or extremely hard to reverse.
The Holy Trinity of Leadership by Dave Kline
- Synthesis: Cutting through noise to spot what matters.
- Selling: Inspiring others via compelling narrative.
- Systems: Building structures so success endures without you.
The Support Spectrum
Understanding the difference between different professional advocates is crucial:
- A Mentor talks to you — sharing their past experiences and giving advice.
- A Sponsor talks about you — advocating for your advancement behind closed doors.
- A Coach talks with you — asking powerful questions to unlock your own latent potential.
Self-Coaching: Reflecting on Burnout & Boundaries
A primary responsibility of leadership is maintaining a sustainable pace of work. Use these diagnostic questions to assess your energy exchange:
- What is out of balance in your work? What are you giving too much of yourself to without an equal exchange?
- What boundaries are currently lacking that would protect me from chronic imbalances?
- Are you resting? Are you letting yourself rest without guilt for the remaining to-do list?
- Physical health (sleep, movement, recovery) is mental health. Are you protecting your sleep so you can process daily workplace stressors?
Resources
Books
- The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo
- Scaling People by Claire Hughes Johnson
- The shared workbooks have fantastic tools on how to implement practices with yourself and your team.
- Crucial Conversations by Al Switzler et al.
- The Manager’s Path by Camille Fournier
- Focus: Indistractable by Nir Eyal
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
- Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink & Leif Babin
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- High Output Management by Andy Grove
Newsletters
- HBR: Management Tip of the Day
- Lenny’s Newsletter on Product, Growth, and Management
- Wes Kao’s Best Articles on Marketing & Leadership
- Level Up by Ethan Evans on Substack
Articles / Videos
- Why You’re So Angry at Work on Lenny’s Newsletter
- Five Principles for Successfully Managing Managers on Lenny’s Newsletter
- How to Ship Software Successfully by Sean Goedecke
- The Guide to Software Engineering Management by Yew Jin
- How to Give Effective Feedback by Resend
- Liz Wiseman on Practices of High-Impact Players on the Awesome at Your Job Podcast
- Roger Martin on Strategy (A Plan is Not a Strategy) on YouTube
- Being Glue: Slide Deck on Career Growth and Glue Work by Tanya Reilly
Unlock your potential through 1:1 coaching
One of the most useful mediums to learn as a manager are your peers - both on your org, in your company, and in the industry. From time to time I offer coaching engagements. Specifically, I focus on: