Are you a good manager? And why?

This is a favorite question of mine for candidates that I interview who are going to have to manage some people. Why? Because most people answer it wrong.

I’ve asked a fair number of people this question in the past. Mainly to see how they define what being a ‘manager’ even is.

And I recently asked an Upwork person I was interviewing for a part-time role where he’d have to manage a few folks. His answer was something like…

“Yes, I think i’m a good manager because I listen well and give clear direction.”

And that is a decent, typical answer. But then my follow-up question was… “And are you good at structuring large amounts of work and executing it yourself?”

And his answer was similar to one i’ve heard before numerous times… “I’m ok I guess. But I am better managing than doing it myself.”

What do people think being a manager is?

The books out there have taught us that managers are these people who provide clear direction and are good listeners and developers of people.

But the books generally don’t say that these managers should first learn to be absolute machines of efficiency themselves. Because that is more ‘my’ definition.

You see my logic is…. why would I wanna hire a manager who has not learned to be an absolute machine themselves?

How are they going to teach and enforce the right habits?

How are they going to set the right example?

How are they going to fill in when someone in the team goes down if they’re not hands on?

Why do I think i’m a decent manager?

I consider myself a pretty decent manager because I invest time into doing and understanding any task myself before I give it to someone else.

Yes, there are some exceptions when it is very technical… but generally these exceptions are few and have solid justification.

I also try to operate at levels of efficiency that exceed anyone in my team. My goal is for the team to think… “Dang.. this Ken is a machine. I can learn from him.”

And therefore this will motivate the good folks to get better.

But if I was slow as shit and preferred talking instead of doing… than what example would that set of what ‘success’ looks like?

Now, what is my view of what a manager is?

A manager for me is someone who is absolute machine in terms of structure, discipline and efficiency.

And yeah they need to be decent (but not great) at the communication stuff.

Meaning i’m ok if they’re not great at expressing themselves verbally or charismatic… but I want them to be very responsive and clear.

Why? Because I generally want everything to run according to clear process & transparency rather than verbal communication, which i find to be the least efficient of all forms of communication for task management.

Because it requires being synchronous, its often not documented and thus has little accountability, and its open to various interpretation sometimes.

If everyone is using my Clickup process the right way than they know exactly what to do and in what priority.

And they know how to comment to ask questions if they get stuck.

So do I need the world’s most empathetic manager to manage a team that operates like this? HELL NO.

In fact I don’t want that person. Because they will spend most of their time doing touchy feely shit.. instead of enforcing discipline to the process.

Why I think my definition of ‘manager’ is healthier?

Well it comes down to a simple philosophy that I want my team to run like clockwork.

And this means that the whole thing should run with as little human intervention as possible.

I don’t care if people form deep work relationships. I, personally, have not attempted to achieve such deep relationships with any of the folks I hired into my teams for nearly three years.

And guess what? It has been some of the best team work and productivity of my entire career.

Because you reduce the amount of ‘noise’ like politics, emotions, and the rest of it.

And I look for the team members that appreciate that. The ones that wanna become a ‘machine’ themselves but still have respectful and responsive relationships with their colleagues.

The two can exist in perfect harmony in my experience.