managing managers | leadership development | people management | delegation | 1 on 1 | feedback | succession planning
What You Will Learn:
- Develop managers deliberately, using the ten competencies from the Gallup and Google research
- Teach delegation through six distinct levels, and recognise micromanagement and seagull management in someone else’s behaviour
- Run a one-to-one with a manager, where the subject is their team rather than their tasks
- Give feedback to someone whose own job is giving feedback, which is a different conversation entirely
- Decide what to pay, when to raise it, and how to keep a manager a competitor is calling
- Build a succession plan with a 9-box grid, so promoting someone does not create a hole
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The Leap from Player-Coach to Architect: My Take on Managing Managers
If you’ve spent any time in the tech trenches, you know the transition from Individual Contributor (IC) to Manager is a total culture shock. But the transition from managing ICs to Managing Managers? That’s where the real “final boss” energy starts. I’ve seen countless Engineering leads hit a ceiling because they try to scale their team using the same micro-tactics that worked for a team of six. It doesn’t work. You end up being a bottleneck, or worse, the dreaded “seagull manager” who flies in, makes a mess, and leaves.
This course, Managing Managers: Leading Leaders and Scaling a Team, is one of the few resources I’ve found that actually treats leadership as a system rather than a personality trait. It’s not just a collection of “be nice to people” platitudes; it’s a framework for career growth at the organizational level. The core insight here is that when you manage leaders, your output is no longer the code or even the project—it’s the health and autonomy of the managers reporting to you. You are essentially debugging the human operating system of your department.
The curriculum moves beyond beginner to advanced management theory by focusing on “meta-management.” You aren’t just giving feedback; you are auditing how your managers give feedback. That distinction is subtle, but it’s what separates a Director from a Senior Manager. The course leans heavily into real-world projects by forcing you to apply these frameworks to your current org chart, making it feel less like a lecture and more like a high-level strategy session for your own career growth.
Prerequisites for the Next Level
Don’t jump into this if you haven’t managed a direct report yet. This isn’t “Management 101.” To get the most out of this, you should have at least 1–2 years of experience leading a team of ICs. You need to have felt the pain of a failed 1-on-1 or a botched project delivery to appreciate the solutions offered here. While it’s presented in a way that’s accessible, the job-ready skills taught here are aimed at those looking to move into Director, VP, or Head of Engineering roles. Familiarity with basic HR cycles (like annual reviews) will help you contextualize the succession planning modules.
Developing Your Toolkit: Skills & Tools
The course introduces several industry-standard tools that I now consider non-negotiable for scaling. We aren’t talking about Jira or Trello here; we’re talking about cognitive frameworks and data-driven decision models. You’ll dive deep into:
- The 9-Box Grid: A staple for succession planning that helps you visualize talent density and identify who is ready for a promotion versus who needs a PIP.
- Gallup & Google Competencies: Moving away from “gut feelings” and using hands-on labs (mental simulations) to apply research-backed traits to your leadership team.
- Delegation Matrix: Learning the six levels of delegation so you can stop micromanaging and start empowering.
- Retention Frameworks: How to handle “the call”—that moment a recruiter tries to poach your best manager—and how to use real-world projects to keep them engaged.
Career Benefits & Job Roles
If you are eyeing a certification prep path or a significant promotion, this course is a massive tailwind. In the tech world, once you hit the “Manager of Managers” level, your salary trajectory changes significantly. You are no longer paid for your technical output, but for your ability to build a self-sustaining ecosystem. This course prepares you for roles like Director of Engineering, VP of Product, or Chief Operations Officer. It gives you the vocabulary to speak to HR and the C-suite about “talent pipelines” and “org health” in a way that sounds professional and data-backed.
Why This Course Hits the Mark (The Pros)
- The “Feedback on Feedback” Loop: This was a game-changer. Learning how to coach a manager on their coaching style is a niche skill that isn’t taught in standard leadership books. It’s essential for scaling a team without losing quality.
- Level-Based Delegation: The six levels of delegation provide a clear language to use with your reports. It helps you say, “I’m at Level 3 on this project,” which instantly clarifies expectations and prevents micromanagement.
- No-Nonsense Succession Planning: The 9-box grid exercises feel like hands-on labs for your own company. It forces you to look at your “bus factor” and realize that if you don’t have a successor, you can’t be promoted.
The Honest Reality Check (The Cons)
The only real downside is that leadership is inherently messy, and while the course provides industry-standard tools, it sometimes feels a bit “cleaner” than reality. In the real world, a 9-box grid can be influenced by office politics or personal bias, and the course doesn’t spend a ton of time on the “darker” side of management—like handling a manager who is technically brilliant but toxic to their team’s culture. You’ll have to supplement the frameworks with your own emotional intelligence and some “boots on the ground” intuition.