Home / The Playbook / Year 1 / Start Developing Your Own Manager
Year 1 · Move 03

Start developing your own manager.

Someone on your team may be close to where you were a year ago. Start treating their growth as part of your job, not a distraction from it.

It's tempting to view developing a future manager as a nice-to-have you'll get to once things calm down. Things rarely calm down, and the manager who waits for a quiet moment to invest in someone else's growth usually waits indefinitely.

Identify who on your team is ready for more ownership
Not necessarily your most senior person, the one showing judgment beyond their current scope.
Give them something real to manage, even informally
A small project, a junior hire, a piece of the team's process. Let them practice before the title exists.
Treat their growth as your output, not a side project
Developing someone else's judgment pays off more than almost anything else you could spend that hour on, even when it doesn't show up on a dashboard.
More moves in Year 1
Year 1 · Move 01
Decide what you'd change if it were fully yours →
Year 1 · Move 02
Build the thing nobody assigned you →
Year 1 · Move 04
Write down what you'd tell yourself on day one →
Year 1 · Move 05
Decide what kind of manager you want to be known as →
Year 1 · Move 06
Audit your own habits, not just your team's →
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Making It Yours: Year 1
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