Your impact as you engage in management is possible to be far more wider reaching than it was as an individual contributor. Management is less about the operational and more about the tactical and strategic, more about creating the culture than adhering to it.

Strategy and Vision Creation

Definition

Developing and communicating a clear picture of where your team or organization is heading, why it matters, and how you'll get there. This includes translating high-level organizational strategy into actionable plans for your team.

Why It Matters

Teams with clear vision and strategy are 2.3x more likely to be engaged and 1.9x more likely to achieve above-average financial performance. Vision provides direction, motivation, and decision-making criteria for daily work.

This Is Strong When:

  • Your team understands how their work connects to organizational strategy
  • You can articulate a compelling vision for your team's future
  • Strategic decisions are consistent and aligned with stated direction
  • Team members can make good decisions independently using strategic principles
  • You regularly communicate progress toward strategic goals
  • Your strategy adapts to changing circumstances while maintaining core direction
  • Other teams understand and support your strategic direction

Warning Signs:

  • Your team doesn't understand the bigger picture or why their work matters
  • Strategic decisions seem random or inconsistent
  • You can't clearly explain where your team is heading in the next 1-3 years
  • Team members make decisions that work against strategic goals
  • You focus only on tactical execution without strategic thinking
  • Your strategy hasn't evolved despite significant changes in the environment
  • Other leaders don't understand or support your team's direction

Pathways to Improvement:

  • Learn strategic planning frameworks like OKRs, SWOT analysis, or Theory of Change
  • Read "Good Strategy Bad Strategy" by Richard Rumelt for strategic thinking principles
  • Practice communicating vision in simple, memorable terms
  • Connect daily work to strategic goals in team meetings
  • Regularly review and adjust strategy based on new information
  • Involve your team in strategic planning processes
  • Study successful strategies from other organizations and industries
Culture Driving

Definition

Actively shaping the values, behaviors, and norms that define how your team works together and interacts with others. This includes modeling desired behaviors and reinforcing culture through decisions and systems.

Why It Matters

Culture drives behavior, and behavior drives results. Strong team cultures increase engagement by 40% and improve performance by 20%. As a manager, you're the primary architect of your team's cultural experience.

This Is Strong When:

  • Your team's values are clearly defined and consistently demonstrated
  • New team members quickly understand and adopt team cultural norms
  • Decisions are made in ways that reinforce desired cultural values
  • Team members hold each other accountable to cultural standards
  • Your team culture supports both high performance and employee wellbeing
  • People outside your team recognize and respect your team's culture
  • Culture evolves thoughtfully as the team grows and changes

Warning Signs:

  • Your team doesn't have clearly defined values or cultural norms
  • Behavior on your team is inconsistent with stated organizational values
  • New team members struggle to understand "how things work here"
  • Cultural issues like lack of trust or poor communication persist
  • You don't intentionally shape culture - it just "happens"
  • Team culture feels toxic, competitive, or unsupportive
  • People leave your team citing cultural misfit

Pathways to Improvement:

  • Define your team's core values and behavioral expectations explicitly
  • Read "The Culture Code" by Daniel Coyle for culture-building principles
  • Model the behaviors you want to see consistently
  • Recognize and celebrate examples of good cultural behavior
  • Address cultural violations quickly and directly
  • Involve your team in defining and evolving cultural norms
  • Make hiring and performance decisions that reinforce cultural values
Goal Setting

Definition

Establishing clear, measurable, and achievable objectives that align with organizational priorities and motivate your team to perform at their best. This includes creating accountability systems and tracking progress.

Why It Matters

Teams with well-defined goals are 4.2x more likely to be engaged and achieve 90% higher performance than teams without clear goals. Good goal setting provides focus, motivation, and a framework for prioritizing work.

This Is Strong When:

  • Your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART)
  • Team members understand how their individual work contributes to team goals
  • You track progress regularly and adjust plans when needed
  • Goals strike the right balance between challenging and achievable
  • Your team goals clearly support organizational objectives
  • Team members feel motivated and energized by the goals you've set
  • You celebrate achievements and learn from missed goals

Warning Signs:

  • Goals are vague, unmeasurable, or constantly changing
  • Team members don't understand what they're working toward
  • You set goals but don't track progress or hold people accountable
  • Goals are either too easy (no motivation) or impossible (discouraging)
  • Your team goals don't clearly connect to organizational priorities
  • People focus on their individual work without understanding team objectives
  • You don't celebrate successes or analyze why goals were missed

Pathways to Improvement:

  • Learn goal-setting frameworks like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)
  • Read "Measure What Matters" by John Doerr for effective goal-setting practices
  • Involve your team in setting goals to increase buy-in and ownership
  • Create visual tracking systems that make progress visible
  • Review goals regularly and adjust based on changing circumstances
  • Break large goals into smaller milestones to maintain momentum
  • Practice setting stretch goals that inspire without overwhelming
Change Management

Definition

Leading your team through organizational transitions, new processes, or strategic shifts by communicating effectively, addressing resistance, and helping people adapt to new ways of working.

Why It Matters

70% of change initiatives fail, often due to poor change management. Your ability to guide your team through change determines whether transitions are smooth and successful or disruptive and demoralizing.

This Is Strong When:

  • You communicate the why behind changes before explaining the what and how
  • You acknowledge the difficulty of change and validate people's concerns
  • Your team adapts to new processes and systems relatively quickly
  • You identify and address resistance constructively rather than ignoring it
  • People feel supported and equipped to succeed in the new environment
  • You can maintain team performance during periods of transition
  • Team members become advocates for positive changes

Warning Signs:

  • Your team resists changes and seems stuck in old ways of working
  • You announce changes without explaining the reasoning behind them
  • Productivity drops significantly during transitions
  • Team members express confusion, frustration, or fear about changes
  • You don't plan for the people side of change - only the technical aspects
  • Resistance goes underground rather than being addressed openly
  • Changes get implemented but not truly adopted

Pathways to Improvement:

  • Learn change management models like Kotter's 8-Step Process or ADKAR
  • Read "Switch" by Chip Heath for understanding how people change
  • Communicate the vision and urgency behind changes clearly and repeatedly
  • Involve your team in planning how to implement changes
  • Provide training and support to help people develop new skills
  • Identify change champions who can help influence others
  • Address resistance with empathy while maintaining momentum
Data-Driven Decision Making

Definition

Using quantitative and qualitative data to inform decisions, measure progress, and validate assumptions rather than relying solely on intuition or opinion.

Why It Matters

Data-driven organizations are 6% more profitable and 5% more productive than competitors. Using data reduces bias, improves decision quality, and creates accountability for results.

This Is Strong When:

  • You regularly collect and analyze relevant metrics for your team's work
  • Decisions are supported by data while also considering human factors
  • You can identify trends and patterns that inform strategic choices
  • Your team uses data to validate assumptions and test hypotheses
  • You can communicate insights from data clearly to different audiences
  • Data helps you identify problems early before they become major issues
  • You balance quantitative data with qualitative feedback and context

Warning Signs:

  • Decisions are based primarily on opinion, politics, or intuition
  • You collect data but don't analyze it or use it to drive decisions
  • Important metrics are missing or aren't tracked consistently
  • You can't explain why certain approaches work better than others
  • Data exists but isn't accessible or understandable to your team
  • You over-rely on data without considering human factors and context
  • Analysis paralysis prevents timely decision-making

Pathways to Improvement:

  • Identify the key metrics that matter most for your team's success
  • Read "Lean Analytics" by Croll & Yoskovitz for practical measurement approaches
  • Learn basic data analysis tools and techniques
  • Create dashboards that make key metrics visible and actionable
  • Practice telling stories with data to make insights compelling
  • Train your team on how to collect, analyze, and use data effectively
  • Balance data analysis with rapid experimentation and learning
Stakeholder Management

Definition

Building and maintaining effective relationships with all parties who impact or are impacted by your team's work - including senior leadership, peer managers, external partners, and other departments. This involves understanding their needs, managing expectations, and creating mutual value.

Why It Matters

No team operates in isolation. Your ability to navigate organizational politics, secure resources, and align diverse interests directly impacts your team's success and your own career progression. Strong stakeholder management multiplies your team's impact.

This Is Strong When:

  • You proactively communicate with stakeholders rather than waiting for them to reach out
  • You understand each stakeholder's goals, pressures, and success metrics
  • You can translate your team's work into terms that matter to different audiences
  • Conflicts between stakeholders get resolved through your facilitation
  • You regularly receive positive feedback about your team from other departments
  • Senior leadership sees you as a reliable partner who delivers on commitments
  • You can secure resources and support when your team needs them

Warning Signs:

  • You're often surprised by organizational changes that affect your team
  • Other departments frequently complain about your team's work or responsiveness
  • You struggle to get budget approval or resources for important initiatives
  • Senior leadership doesn't seem to understand or value your team's contributions
  • You find yourself caught in the middle of conflicts without ability to resolve them
  • Important decisions get made without your input despite impacting your team
  • You feel isolated or like your team is working in a silo

Pathways to Improvement:

  • Create a stakeholder map: identify all key relationships and their influence levels
  • Schedule regular check-ins with key stakeholders, not just when you need something
  • Read "Getting Things Done" by Allen and "Influence" by Cialdini for relationship strategies
  • Practice translating technical work into business impact stories
  • Find an internal mentor who is skilled at organizational navigation
  • Join cross-functional projects to build relationships and understand other perspectives
  • Ask stakeholders directly: "What would make our partnership more effective?"
Resource Planning & Allocation

Definition

Strategically planning and managing your team's budget, headcount, tools, and time to maximize impact while operating within organizational constraints.

Why It Matters

Effective resource management determines what your team can accomplish and how efficiently they can work. Poor resource planning leads to missed opportunities, team burnout, and organizational frustration.

This Is Strong When:

  • You can accurately forecast your team's resource needs for upcoming periods
  • Your budget requests are well-justified and typically approved
  • Resources are allocated to highest-priority initiatives
  • You identify resource constraints early and plan accordingly
  • Your team has the tools and support they need to be effective
  • You can make trade-off decisions when resources are limited
  • Resource planning supports both short-term delivery and long-term capability building

Warning Signs:

  • You frequently run out of budget or resources before the end of planning periods
  • Resource requests get rejected because they're poorly justified or timed
  • Your team struggles with outdated tools or insufficient support
  • You can't clearly explain how resources are being used or why they're needed
  • Resource constraints repeatedly prevent your team from achieving goals
  • You don't plan ahead for resource needs and are always reacting
  • Resource allocation doesn't align with stated priorities

Pathways to Improvement:

  • Learn basic budgeting and financial planning skills
  • Create templates for justifying resource requests with business impact
  • Read "The Lean Startup" by Ries for resource-efficient approaches
  • Track how resources are actually used vs. how you planned to use them
  • Build relationships with finance and procurement teams
  • Practice making compelling business cases for resource needs
  • Develop contingency plans for when resources are constrained
Innovation & Experimentation

Definition

Fostering creative problem-solving, encouraging new ideas, and creating safe spaces for testing approaches that might fail but could lead to breakthrough improvements.

Why It Matters

Organizations that don't innovate become irrelevant. Your ability to drive innovation within your team determines whether you're continuously improving or falling behind competitors and changing market conditions.

This Is Strong When:

  • Your team regularly generates and tests new ideas
  • You create time and space for experimentation despite delivery pressures
  • Failures are treated as learning opportunities rather than career-limiting events
  • You can identify promising experiments and scale successful ones
  • Team members feel encouraged to suggest improvements and try new approaches
  • Innovation efforts are balanced with reliable execution of core responsibilities
  • You can measure and communicate the impact of innovation initiatives

Warning Signs:

  • Your team always does things the same way and resists trying new approaches
  • Innovation only happens during designated "innovation time" rather than continuously
  • People are afraid to suggest ideas because they might fail
  • Good ideas get generated but never tested or implemented
  • You're always too busy with current work to invest in future improvements
  • Innovation efforts are disconnected from business needs and priorities
  • You can't point to concrete improvements that came from experimentation

Pathways to Improvement:

  • Allocate specific time for experimentation (like Google's 20% time)
  • Read "The Innovator's Dilemma" by Clayton Christensen for innovation frameworks
  • Create simple processes for capturing, evaluating, and testing ideas
  • Celebrate intelligent failures and the learning that comes from them
  • Partner with other teams to share innovation costs and learnings
  • Track innovation metrics like number of experiments and success rates
  • Connect innovation efforts to real business problems and opportunities