Resist The Temptation To Seize Control

What makes a great manager?

- Larry Sternberg And Kim Turnage

Google analysed 10,000 data points on managers and concluded that their number one criterion for promoting people to manager—technical proficiency— ranked dead last on the list of qualities that define the best managers in their company. This finding aligns with our decades of work studying and coaching managers and leaders.

Too often, companies promote the best individual performers to management roles without assessing their ‘potential’ for highly effective management and without providing any ‘training’ on how to be a great manager. That is a recipe for failure. The best manager might be only an average individual performer or technical expert because great management involves optimising the performance of ‘other people’, which requires a separate set of talents, skills, and priorities from those that optimise one’s own performance.

What defines great management, then? The short answer is: A relentless focus on people. Here are key priorities and practices that are common among the best managers, along with advice on how to incorporate them into your own approach to management and leadership.

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