Managing Tech: Heroes

This is part of a series:

• Managing Tech: People
• Managing Tech: Heroes (you are here)
• Managing Tech: Professionals
• Managing Tech: Time
• Managing Tech: Cadence

Have you ever heard the term "elevator pitch"? You usually hear it in the context of pitching an idea to senior management or to investors. The idea is that the pitch for your idea or business should take no longer than an elevator ride - because that is all the time you might get.

One morning, I happened to be sharing an elevator ride with a vice president at the company. It was just the two of us. He asked, "What is your team up to these days?" Feeling witty, I responded, "Making heroes." A few days later, I heard the VP use that same phrase on a conference call - in a completely different way than I had intended.

From that point on, I always made sure to finish the phrase.

Heroes

In my last post, Managing Tech: People, I mentioned that people bring their own desires and goals to work. As a manager, you should make it a priority to understand what those desires and goals are for your employees - to make people heroes for what it is that they want to achieve.

This is awkward at first. You will get the standard "Where do you want to be in five years?" type of dialogue. The kind of dialogue that carries hints of fear and reservation. A dialogue that is truthful, but not honest. That is a fine place to start, but you want to go deeper.

If you are treating your employees like people - and you are listening closely (not just hearing) - you will begin to pick up on more honest feedback over time. As trust builds, that dialogue can become particularly transparent. More on that in a moment.

Sometimes the feedback is easy to address. Something along the lines of: "I want to learn a new skill." Great! Now you have a place to start - from which you can work backward. If the objective is X, what are the steps needed to get there? Think those through and discuss them with your employee. Work together to design and define goals. Check in on progress. Check them off. And celebrate those completions together.

I generally like to have one to three goals like this set up for each employee at all times. Some may be achievable in the short term, while others may take longer. Pin goals to a year or less to best align with performance reviews.

Radical Transparency

Sometimes the feedback is surprising. If you have truly built trust - or if the employee is just that bold - you might hear something like: "I do not want to work in this department." I have heard, "I don’t want to work for this company." I have even heard, "I don’t want to work on your team."

If you are making heroes, perhaps these are antiheroes - heroes all the same, just unconventional.

This is actually a breakthrough win. If you reach this level of dialogue, you should feel good about what you have accomplished as a manager. If an employee does not want to be part of the team, department, or company, you want to know. You do not want that sentiment lingering in the background, quietly poisoning the team, the project, or the culture.

You still want to make them heroes for what they want to achieve.

The phrase "I do not want to work for this company" is really shorthand for "I want to work for a different company." My response to that sentiment often surprises people. I will follow it with: "Where do you want to work?" and "What role would you like to have there?" Make that a goal and work backward to plan the steps to get there. I may even have contacts at that company I can introduce.

"I do not want to work in this department" strikes me the same way, but it is often easier to address. You already know how to network within your own company - and that is usually far easier than doing so externally. In these situations, I have reached out to managers in other departments and set up mentoring conversations for the employee.

This helps both the employee and me understand what steps need to be taken. Maybe there are skills to develop. Certifications to earn. Or maybe everything is a perfect fit and we are simply waiting for a position to open. In some cases, I have even coordinated work between the employee and the manager in their target department. The manager gets extra help, the employee sees a real path forward, and I alleviate potential toxicity on my own team.

Still People

Helping employees define goals that will make them heroes - and collaborating with them to get there - can start to feel mechanical if you are not careful. You have to remember that your employees are still people.

I once had an employee tell me they wanted to swim to Alcatraz (Sharkfest). What an interesting personal goal. I did not make this a corporate objective, but I did follow up on their progress from time to time. When they fell behind in training, I encouraged them to stay the course. When they hit milestones, I congratulated them. When they signed up and were ready for the swim, I booked a flight to San Francisco to cheer them on.

Careful of the "friend zone" I showed up, watched the event, took a picture with the employee when they finished, and then went on my way - letting them celebrate with their support team and friends who had helped them along the journey.

Stay on Target

You might think that helping an employee leave the company is misaligned with company goals - but it often is not. In the technology sector, it is commonly estimated that an employee departure costs a company around $100k. More importantly, disengaged employees cost far more while they stay.

When you come alongside an employee - when you listen, build trust, and help them become a hero for what they want to achieve - you reduce that hidden cost. Sometimes the result is growth within the team. Sometimes it is a move to another department. And sometimes it is a well-supported exit.

That is not a failure of management. It is management.

Managing tech is not about extracting maximum output from people. It is about creating the conditions where people can do meaningful work, grow honestly, and move forward with clarity - even when that path eventually leads away from you.

If you make people heroes for what it is that they want to achieve, the business outcomes tend to take care of themselves.