Loud Thinking December 27, 2013 at 02:29PM

To Manage Well, Get Out of the Way

Management, like payroll and sales, is becoming another function to facilitate the work of the technically and creatively skilled people who do the heavy lifting. We need managers, not because people need a boss, but because people need someone to resolve the issues that are stopping them from doing their work. Managers aren’t ball carriers. They’re running interference for the ball carriers. In the world of minimally invasive management, managers have three primary jobs: they need to hire, they need to develop and serve their people, and they need to fire. But most of the time, managers need to get out of the way and let people do their work.

Adapted by HBR from “Be a Minimally Invasive Manager” by Randy Komisar.

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