What Do Managers Actually Do?

If you ask ten people what a manager does, you might get ten different answers. But at some point, you’ll invariably hear some version of “They tell people what to do.” The perception of a detached boss who simply orders other people around is commonly known as the Management Myth, and it can lead to resentment and discord in the office.

In reality, management is fundamentally a service role. When someone enters management, they move from being responsible for their own results ot being responsible for the people who produce the results. The modern manager’s value isn’t measured by their personal output, but by the collective success, efficiency, and growth of their team. They’re organizational multipliers who help everyone do better work.

Five Core Functions of Management

Henri Fayol’s five functions of management are particularly relevant today. This foundational work breaks down management roles into five interdependent functions:

• Planning: This involves setting high-level objectives and determining the necessary steps to achieve them. It’s the critical first step of aligning the team’s daily tasks with the overarching strategic goals of the organization.
• Organizing: Managers create a structure for a work environment. This includes allocating the correct resources (budget, time, tools), defining clear roles, and streamlining workflows to eliminate bottlenecks and confusion.
• Staffing and talent development: Managers must place the right people in the right roles, and continuously coach them to improve their performance and foster paths to long-term retention.
• Leading: A manager must motivate the team, communicate the vision effectively, navigate internal conflict, and model the behavioral standards required to maintain a healthy team culture.
• Controlling: This involves establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), tracking the team’s progress against established goals, and making corrections to adjust strategies when goals are not being met.

Every manager’s role may look a bit different depending on the organization and their role within it. But at some point, they’ll likely perform one or several of these duties.

Three Dimensions of Management

Effective management rarely happens in a vacuum. Great managers operate across three distinct dimensions at the same time:

• Managing up: This involves strategic communication with senior leadership. Managers must advocate for their team, secure necessary resources, clearly communicate team progress, and ensure the team’s objectives remain aligned with executive strategy.
• Managing across: This requires collaboration with peers in other departments. Managers serve as a connector, breaking down organizational silos and facilitating cross-functional projects to ensure enterprise-wide success.
• Managing down: This is the most traditional dimension that the rank and file notice. Managers directly support, guide, and mentor their immediate team members. This involves everything from task assignment to career coaching.

Managers are at the core of the entire organization, serving as a fundamental cog to keep operations moving smoothly.

How Managers Remove Roadblocks

The most practical purpose of a modern manager is to remove roadblocks. Their jobs are to ensure that the team can operate with maximum efficiency by eliminating internal and external obstacles.

They do this by actively cultivating an environment where team members feel safe to take calculated risks, admit mistakes without fear of retribution, and propose unconventional ideas. They create a psychological safety net that can help fuel innovation.

Additionally, managers are responsible for managing budgets and ensuring continuous access to the tools, information, and resources necessary to accomplish goals. Whether it’s the right customer relationship management software (CMS), collaboration tools, or analytics software, managers keep the team working efficiently with the right tools.

Evolving From Manager to Coach

The command and control style of the past, in which managers issue orders and supervises compliance, is rapidly becoming obsolete. Today’s top managers have evolved into coaches. They lean on 1-on-1 meetings that are more career development conversations rather than mere status updates. They’re invested in talent, fostering loyalty for the company and greater productivity. They move beyond basic delegation to assign problems to solve rather than tasks to do. Rather than just saying “do this,” great managers trust employees’ capabilities to find their own solutions rather than prescribing them.

Common Challenges & Pitfalls for Managers

The transition to management is often difficult, even for the most talented individuals. Knowing how to spot challenges can help business leaders support more effective managers. Some common challenges include:

• Micromanagement trap: Former high-performing individual contributors often fall into the trap of trying to control the details of their team’s work because they know how to do it “better” or “faster.” It’s the quickest way to kill team morale and independence.
• “Player-coach” struggle: Many new managers are expected to split their time between their own technical work and their leadership duties. Balancing these conflicting demands—often referred to as context switching—is a difficult, ongoing challenge.
• Context switching: A manager might move from a meeting with the CEO to a 1-on-1 about an employee’s personal issue, and a fire drill on a technical bug, all within a matter of hours. It takes a mental and emotional toll on many people.

Being able to identify common pitfalls of new managers can help you troubleshoot issues with your own management training and provide better support to managers.