What are the rare ingredients of an effective manager?

When it comes to responsibility of work streams & ownership in any professional setting, I've observed three kinds of people, broadly: those who 1) manage nothing, 2) manage activities and 3) manage outcomes. Let me explain each type of person with their associated characteristics:

1) Manage nothing: This is the simplest of them all and unfortunately covers a sizeable number of the people. As the name implies, these are individuals who are not so effective at completing or tracking the assigned activity. Whether its missing some activities altogether, issues with execution, or attention to detail, the work is not completed in its entirety and a lot is left to be desired. Consequently, the desired goal is often not reached.


2) Manage activities: Most people fall into this bucket, wherein there is focus and ownership to complete the task. With discipline and rigour to accomplish the activities, they track timelines and ensure that the planned sequence and detailing of identified tasks are accomplished. While this might seem complete and sufficient, what is missing is a focus on the desired outcome and hence these people often miss the wood for the trees.

Given work dynamics, the targets are always moving and hence the means to achieve the target are fuzzy and variable at best. You might find such individuals try everything in the text book within 'defined guidelines' and come back to you wringing their hands in frustration that 'I've done my best, but this just seems to be beyond me'. This is where the third category gets cracking.


3) Manage outcomes: While these people have the discipline and focus on the constituent activities to accomplish a task, their primary focus is on the outcome as opposed to just getting the planned tasks done. Quite rightly, the end goal is considered most critical and 'any viable means to achieve the outcome' falls right within their realm.

These people hit the ground running with this single goal in mind often going beyond the text book prescriptions, whether its influencing stakeholders, buying additional time or resources, or motivating and convincing people in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. They might junk a plan & redo tasks in their entirety, as long as this is seen as a path to achieving the outcome. Convincing the people involved & getting buy-in for any drastic measures is right up their alley.



In Summary, while pure skill differentiates the first category of those who 'manage nothing' from those who 'manage activities'. Its a subtle difference of gumption and right level of ownership that differentiates the second category from those who 'manage outcomes'. As you can see, by being wedded to the end goal, as opposed to being limited by a self-imposed boundary of tasks-owned makes all the difference.

As a closing note, the above applies not just to managers and above, but pretty much across levels, including individual contributors. One could comfortably extend it off the work setting as well.