As senior leaders, one of the most powerful tools we have is our ability to amplify the strengths and skills of the people around us. It’s tempting to take direct control when the stakes are high, but the best outcomes often emerge when we resist that urge and manage through our teams, rather than around them.
Managing through people is not about delegating tasks and hoping for the best. It’s about creating an environment where your teams have the clarity, autonomy, and support they need to thrive. It requires trust, communication, and a strong framework of accountability. In this post, I’ll explore strategies for senior leaders to manage effectively through their people, leading to better outcomes, more empowered teams, and sustainable organizational success.
- Set Clear Expectations
- Effective management through others starts with clarity. Your teams can only deliver on what they understand, so the first step is to ensure that your vision and goals are communicated clearly and consistently.
- Define success: Outline clear objectives and measurable outcomes. Make sure each person on your team understands not just the “what,” but the “why.” This fosters ownership of the outcome, rather than just the task.
- Regular communication: Encourage an open flow of communication where questions and clarifications are welcomed. Make sure teams have a clear sense of the broader business goals, so they can align their work with the big picture.
- Foster a Culture of Accountability
- When managing through people, accountability becomes your foundation. It’s not about micromanaging or checking every detail; it’s about creating a system where people hold themselves and their peers accountable.
- Autonomy with guardrails: Give teams the freedom to operate independently, but set clear boundaries. Ensure they understand decision-making thresholds, when to escalate issues, and where they have full authority.
- Consistent follow-up: Instead of micromanaging daily tasks, establish regular check-ins or reviews to measure progress. These touch points should be opportunities to assess alignment with the broader goals and provide support where needed.
- Foster a Collaborative Culture
- Effective management through people requires collaboration across departments and teams. Encourage your managers to break down silos and collaborate with peers. This widens perspectives and enriches the solutions your team can offer.
- Practical Step: Create opportunities for cross-functional team collaboration, whether through shared goals, joint projects, or collaborative tools.
- Delegate Decisions, Not Just Tasks
- Senior leaders often fall into the trap of delegating tasks while keeping decision-making power to themselves. To truly manage through your people, you must delegate authority along with responsibility.
- Trust in expertise: Trust your teams to make decisions within their domain of expertise. Ensure they have the resources and authority to make those decisions without constant approvals from higher up.
- Encourage problem-solving: When problems arise, instead of stepping in with the solution, guide your team to develop their own. This builds confidence and fosters innovation while reducing dependency on leadership for every obstacle.
- Trust Your Managers
- Trust is the foundation of any successful delegation. When you’ve hired the right people and equipped them with the tools they need, trust their ability to execute. Micromanaging or bypassing your direct reports signals a lack of confidence in their abilities, which can demotivate and erode trust.
- Practical Step: Clearly define outcomes and expectations, but allow your team to determine the “how.” Check in on progress regularly without hovering over every decision.
- Develop Leadership in Others
- One of the greatest signs of success as a leader is when your team members begin to lead in their own right. By investing in the development of your managers and direct reports, you create a culture of leadership throughout the organization.
- Mentor and coach: Provide coaching opportunities for your managers. Teach them how to manage their teams in the same way you’re managing through them. This creates a multiplier effect on your leadership influence.
- Empower emerging leaders: Identify high-potential individuals and give them opportunities to lead initiatives or projects. By giving them responsibility for outcomes, you help them grow as leaders while increasing your ability to manage through others.
- Leverage Emotional Intelligence
- Managing through people requires a deep understanding of your team’s dynamics, motivations, and individual strengths. Emotional intelligence (EQ) becomes crucial in navigating the human element of leadership.
- Know your people: Take the time to understand what motivates each person on your team. What are their career goals? What challenges them? When you understand their personal drivers, you can align their work with their passions, increasing engagement and ownership.
- Build trust and rapport: Trust is the foundation of managing through people. Invest in relationships, build rapport, and show your team that you trust them. The more they trust you, the more they’ll be willing to take risks and make decisions on your behalf.
- Coach, Don’t Control
- Effective management is about coaching your team to reach their full potential, not controlling their every move. Through coaching, you’re helping them develop problem-solving skills and leadership qualities. This way, they’ll not only execute the current task but grow into leaders themselves.
- Practical Step: Schedule regular one-on-ones to discuss not just performance but career development and leadership growth. Use these sessions to ask powerful, open-ended questions that challenge them to think strategically.
- Remove Barriers, Don’t Solve Problems
- As a senior leader, your role is not to solve every problem but to remove the obstacles that prevent your team from solving problems themselves. This requires a shift from being the decision-maker to being an enabler.
- Unblock and support: Instead of taking on tasks yourself, focus on clearing the path for your team to be successful. Remove organizational barriers, provide resources, and shield your teams from unnecessary bureaucracy or politics.
- Encourage learning from failure: If teams know they’re not punished for failures but supported in learning from them, they will take more ownership of their decisions. This increases innovation and long-term success.
- Measure Outcomes, Not Outputs
- It’s easy to fall into the trap of measuring success based on tasks completed or hours worked. However, managing through people means focusing on outcomes—the real impact of your team’s efforts.
- Outcome-oriented metrics: Instead of tracking the number of tasks completed, focus on metrics that measure the true impact of your team’s work. Are they driving the results that matter most to the organization?
- Celebrate impact: When your team achieves a significant outcome, celebrate it. Recognize the contributions of the entire team, not just individual performance. This reinforces a culture of collective responsibility for success.
- Create a Feedback Loop
- For your team to thrive, they need constructive feedback. Without it, mistakes may be repeated, and growth will stagnate. Create a culture where feedback is normalized, both from you to your team and vice versa.
- Practical Step: Implement formal feedback cycles, such as quarterly reviews, but also foster a culture of informal, ongoing feedback. Make it a two-way conversation where team members can also share how you can support them better.
Conclusion: The Power of Managing Through People
Senior leaders who master the art of managing through people, not around them, create empowered, accountable teams that drive better outcomes. By fostering autonomy, delegating authority, and focusing on outcomes, you amplify your impact as a leader while cultivating a culture of trust and growth. Remember, your greatest strength isn’t in doing the work yourself—it’s in enabling your teams to do their best work.
Managing through people is a long-term investment in your organization’s success. It requires trust, clarity, and accountability, but the return is a stronger, more capable team that delivers sustainable results at scale.
