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What to Expect of a Manager

Picture of Thomas B. Cox By   ·  3 minute read

What expectations should HR/the firm place on managers?

It's too common for there to be little to no expectation of actual people-management in the job description.

To fix this, add to your managers' job descriptions, under Responsibilities (replace "Unit" with "team" or "department" or whatever): 

  • Take 100% responsibility for everything that is done in and by their Unit and that fails to be done, whether they know about it or not.
  • Ensure that the Unit delivers excellent results to its customers.
  • Provide management and leadership for the Unit and its staff. Ensure morale and culture are excellent, that all Unit staff master the duties of their roles and are growing their skills over time, and that staff are able to manage their conflicts constructively and professionally.  
  • Build highly trusting relationships with each direct report.
  • Ensure that all subordinate supervisors in the Unit are managing with excellence.
  • Maintain constructive, highly trusting working relationships with peers and direct supervisor.
  • Raise concerns timely to one's own manager when one cannot solve an issue directly, and it affects delivery on one of these Responsibilities.

If you are a manager, add the above bullets to your own job description first. 

Your non-managers should have this in their job descriptions:

  • Maintain constructive, highly trusting working relationships with peers and direct supervisor.
  • Manage conflicts with peers constructively and professionally.
  • Raise concerns timely to one's own manager when one cannot solve an issue directly, and it affects delivery on one of one's Responsibilities.
 

How to Assess a Manager

Once you set the job performance expectations via the job description, you'll have to assess how well a person is performing. Here's how I suggest doing that.
 
The numbered items (1, 2, 3) are the main expectations, stated in the most generic and agnostic way possible. In this example, a "Unit Head" is any manager, and a "Unit" is a team, department, or other grouping reporting to that Unit Head. Replace these terms with the language in common use in your organization.
 
The lettered sub-items (a, b, c) are the beginnings of the metrics you can use to assess how well the manager is meeting expectations.
 
The sub-sub-items (i, ii, iii) are examples of possible metrics you might try out. Customize this.
 

  1. The Unit Head is 100% responsible for everything that is done in and by their Unit and that fails to be done, whether they know about it or not.

  2. The Unit delivers its results to the organization.

    1. Results are timely.
    2. Results are at or above the quality bar.
    3. Results are of sufficient quantity.

  3. The Unit functions with internal cohesion and minimal drama - morale is good.

    1. Number of HR complaints between Unit members is low or zero.
    2. Number of complaints between the Unit Head and Unit members is low or zero.
    3. Unit Head's Boss holds "skip level" meetings (without the Unit Head present) and no major concerns are uncovered.

  4. The Unit functions smoothly with other Units, with minimal drama.

    1. Unit Head maintains positive working relationships with peers.

      1. Number of times Boss is notified after the fact that the Unit Head is successfully solving problems directly with peers
      2. Number of times Boss is pulled in to referee fights between the Unit Head and peers.

    2.  Smooth collaboration w/ (list of specific other Units) etc.

    3. Number of complaints from other Unit Heads to Unit Head's Boss is low or zero.

  5. Each member of the Unit is doing their job well and is growing in that job over time.

    1. Each staff is trained for their job, is given growth and learning opportUnities, is seen to be progressing.

    2. Unit Head is holding 1:1s with each of their Directs using M-T guidance.

    3. Unit Head is using the M-T Trinity and cascading it down.

  6. Unit Head represents the Unit to external entities and to Management

    1. Hosts site visitors, etc.

    2. Attends management meetings where they advocate for the needs of their Unit.

  7. Unit Head behaves with professionalism and builds and maintains positive working relationships with all relevant stakeholders.

    1. Number of complaints (about professionalism etc.) to the Unit Head's Boss is low or zero.
    2. Boss is pulled in to referee disputes rarely or never.
  8. Raise concerns timely to one's own manager when one cannot solve an issue directly and it affects delivery on one of these Responsibilities.
    1. Number of times the manager doesn't solve an issue and doesn't raise the concern appropriately (a "miss").
    2. Number of times the manager raises a concern prematurely without attempting to address it directly (a "false alarm").

This is just a start. You'll need to customize this to your circumstances.