The Manager’s Mindset Shift

The transition from "star contributor" to "manager" is often the most difficult jump in a professional career. In this episode, Leslie Ferry breaks down why the skills that made you a high-performer might be the very things holding you back from being a great leader. We explore how to trade "heads-down" execution for "heads-up" strategy and why the "one-size-fits-all" approach to management is a trap that leads to team stagnation.

Key Takeaways:

• The Identity Crisis: Why your performance is no longer about individual output, but about your ability to multiply the impact of others.
• The "Heads-Down" Trap: Learning to provide the What and the Why while giving your team the space to own the How.
• The Myth of Ubiquitous Management: Why treating everyone the same isn't "fair"—it's ineffective. Learn why a manager's true job is to tailor their approach to each individual’s unique needs.
• The New Scorecard: How to shift your daily metrics from "tasks completed" to "team enabled."

If you’re wondering if your daily approach has actually shifted to match your new responsibilities, take the Manager Quick Pulse questionnaire at https://myzandra.ai/questionnaire. It isn’t a mindset test; it’s a way to measure your work motions to see if you are enabling your team or still in the transition from being a "doer."

Transcript

Welcome back to the Career Edge, a podcast dedicated to helping today's professionals understand and strengthen the human skills that shape our career, especially in the era of AI, where how we think, connect, and communicate defines our true value. I'm your host, Leslie Ferry, founder of Brize, the creator of Zandra. Today, we're talking about a topic for those of you who have transitioned from a doer to a manager or those of you aspiring to do so. 

For most everyone in this transition, there's a specific, sometimes painful moment where you realize that the very skills that made you a star contributor are actually the ones holding you back as a manager. You were the go-to person. You delivered high quality results on time, every time. But now, your performance isn't about your individual output.

It's about your ability to multiply the impact of others. I often hear new managers say, they just don't have time to do their work. The reality is they haven't yet redefined what their work is now.

The biggest mind shift required in this transition is letting go of heads down execution. When you were only responsible for your work, your value is in the what and the how of the task. As a manager, your value is in providing the clarity of the what and the why, and then having the discipline to step back and give your team the space to figure out the how. If you find yourself

staying late to fix a team member's work instead of coaching them through it, you're still operating like a doer. And that's a blind spot that leads to burnout for you and it can breed resentment in your team. But here's the catch. You cannot avoid this trap by simply attempting to motivate and engage with everyone the same way. New managers often fall into the trap of ubiquitous management.

the belief that they can apply one single style to the entire team. The reality is that one size does not fit all. If you manage everyone the same, you aren't actually leading. You're just supervising a process. We're going to talk about how to know how to do this more in the next episode. But for now, know that to transition to being a manager, your job is to stop being heads down,

in the work so that you can be heads up enough to see what each individual specifically needs to thrive. You'll know you're making this transition when you recognize the shift in how you measure your day. The old way was I checked 10 things off my list. The new way, I enabled my team to hit their goals. I provided the strategic reasoning, and I spent my time removing barriers or offering feedback to my team members.

to ensure each can perform at their best.

Here's a quick reflection question for you. As you look at your calendar for the coming week, I want you to ask yourself one question. Am I planning my week around my task or am I planning it around the unique needs of my people? Pick one person on your team who has been struggling or perhaps one who is ready to move on and then ask yourself, have I been giving my team my preferred style of management?

or what they actually need to succeed. This transition, it doesn't happen overnight and it's rarely a linear path. It requires a conscious effort to move from high performing individual to an effective manager, but is one that can be achieved. 

Thank you for listening to the Career Edge. I'll see you in the next episode.