Over the last few years, many companies have removed layers of management. Fewer managers, each looking after more people. A team lead who once had six reports now has twelve. Someone who used to manage managers now has thirty people reporting straight to them. The reasons vary, from cost to a belief that flatter is faster, and few companies show signs of reversing it.
For you, this means something simple. The manager who once had an hour a week for you may have twenty minutes a fortnight. They will know less of your work in detail and notice less on their own. The coaching and the careful career conversations that used to come with the role will be rarer.
You can resent that, or you can get good at needing less from a manager while getting more out of the time you do have.
Bring the agenda to every one to one. Three lines, sent the day before. What I finished. Where I need a decision. One thing about my growth. A manager with twelve reports will be grateful, and you will leave with decisions instead of small talk.
Ask for the things only a manager can give. Context you cannot get anywhere else. Decisions above your level. Your name in the rooms where projects and promotions are discussed. Do not spend that scarce time on problems a peer could help you with.
Build a small circle for the rest. Two or three people at your level, ideally on other teams, who look at each other's work, rehearse difficult conversations together and tell each other the truth. A lot of the coaching that used to come from a manager will come from circles like this.
Learn to judge your own work. When nobody is watching closely, your honest view of what went well and what did not becomes the main signal you have, so practise looking at your work the way a good reviewer would.
None of this means managers matter less. A good one is still worth a great deal. It means the people who grow fastest over the next decade will be the ones who know exactly what to ask of a manager, and where to find everything else.
Monday: send your manager three lines before your next one to one.
– Asael Shinder
Top comments (0)