Frontline managers are always located at the second lowest level in an org chart, no matter how big the company is. They exclusively lead individual contributors (people without direct reports) and focus on execution and managing the work - often they do it too.
Common failure modes and how to overcome them
Micromanagement: Doing everything yourself or too closely controlling a report’s every task can hinder your team's growth, erode trust, and slow down entire initiatives.
Rely on your team: Overcome this by assigning work and responsibilities and giving Feedback continuously. Even if they get it wrong the first time, you didn’t master your role in a week either, did you?
Confusing Communication: A lack of clear instructions can lead to misunderstandings and a lack of listening can poison an entire team’s culture and productivity. You may be one of the countless functional experts who got promoted for your hard skills, not for your amazing Communication.
Set clear goals and listen: Explain why a given work is necessary, then set crisp Goals. Clarify who should do what by when, and trust your team on the how. Learn to listen actively and stop dominating every 1:1 or team meeting.
Neglecting Team Development: Focusing solely on tasks without investing in your team's growth will reduce morale and certainly drive out anyone who is serious about their professional development. Solving everyone’s problems yourself may feel good to you, but ultimately stunts your team’s growth.
Carve out time for growth: Use Coaching & Mentoring to guide people through their challenges rather than solving them yourself. Invest proactively in Career Planning and make space for people to grow on the job, not in the evenings or their precious weekend.
Recommended Resources
The Practice of Management: The late Peter Drucker wrote this primer on management in 1954, yet most of it is still relevant today. Drucker focused on a manager’s role, responsibilities, and activities in relation to people, rather than technology. This timeless read offers countless fundamentals, stories, and philosophical thoughts on managing workers, work, and entire organizations. (~15 hour read 💰)
Manager Tools Podcast: The Manager Tools Podcast series is one of the most comprehensive, long-running, and high-quality resources targeting managers. There are episodes on managerial basics (see Start Leading) and pretty much any topic you can think of, from How to Set Annual Goals to How to Handle Body Odor. (~30 min listen per episode or part)
Stop Overcomplicating It - The Simple Guidebook to Upping Your Management Game: Russ Laraway covers why so many managers are failing and how to approach setting direction, providing coaching, and considering a report’s long-term career. While most of us won’t implement his list of questions for measuring employee engagement and manager peformance, I find them useful to ask in my 1:1s and for self-assessments. (15 min read)