What Makes a Good Manager

A manager's role combines two distinct functions: supervision (the administrative nuts and bolts like approving vacation and giving reviews) and leadership (providing technical guidance, mentorship, and direction).

Being a good individual contributor or a technical lead does not automatically make someone a good manager. The skills are different, and the desire to manage people is a critical prerequisite.

The Core Qualities of a Good Manager:

Builds Trust: This is the most important quality. Team members must trust that their manager will be fair, will listen, will make good decisions, and will have their back. A key part of this is the manager taking responsibility for the team's mistakes rather than throwing individual members under the bus.
Gives Constructive Feedback: Most people avoid conflict, but a manager's job is to help their team grow. This requires the ability to give clear, direct, and constructive feedback when someone is underperforming.
- Rule of Thumb: Praise in public, correct in private.
Is Honest and Transparent: A manager must be willing to tell the truth, even when the news is bad. If an employee is let go, it should never come as a surprise. A lack of honest feedback breaks trust across the entire team.

When to Hire Managers:

Leads First: Promote or hire "leads" (e.g., a tech lead) once you have 2-3 people in a department. This person provides technical guidance without full supervisory duties.
Managers Later: Hire a full manager once you have 4-5 people in a department. A founder cannot effectively manage more than a handful of direct reports without becoming a bottleneck and neglecting their team.

Early management hires in a startup should be "player-coaches"—individual contributors who also have management responsibilities.

Tags: #SaaS #management #leadership #team-building #hiring #feedback #trust