The Noble Art of Better Management

Wondering about BetterManager?

Let me tell you how it got started, and how I chose the title for this first blog.

Last spring, after shutting down my first tech start-up, I knew I wanted to try my hand at entrepreneurship again. I was looking for a problem that was relevant to my skill-set, and requiring a solution that would have significant social impact. I started with a survey of my skills, and the truth is that, after being a manager for over twenty years, my technical skills were a bit dated…ok, a lot dated. I asked people I had worked with recently, and the consensus was that I was a good manager, and smart enough to get up to speed with new technologies. Good to hear!

At the same time, my friends and executive coaches, Wendy Hanson and Will Corley, were brainstorming ways to disrupt the highly-fragmented executive coaching industry. They asked for my ideas, and my first thought was to create an online marketplace that would reduce friction, lower costs and expand the coaching market. However, I had doubts. I had faced the challenge of selling platforms in the past, and found it easier to sell solutions. But what was the problem we were trying to solve?

A few Google searches with the words “management” and “problem” quickly led us to a number of articles from Gallup, HBR and Fortune. They talked about the lack of employee engagement, how employees leave managers not companies, and how most Americans are unhappy at work. We had found our problem: Managers are not good at managing people!

I realized that solving management problems would also meet my social impact criterion, because we know that having a bad relationship with your boss makes your life pretty miserable. As I thought about how I could help, I was reminded of something Clayton Christensen wrote in his book: How will you measure your life? He had an epiphany when he realized that the managers in his company would come into work with a strong sense of self-esteem, but might leave at the end of the day feeling unappreciated and frustrated if he didn’t support them properly. Clayton concluded: “Management is among the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well”.

So, that’s why this blog is dedicated to the Noble Art of Good Management, and why we’ve launched a program to help you become a Better Manager. At first, we didn’t focus on coaching as the solution to what we called the “manager problem.” Instead, like all Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, we looked for technological solutions. After further research, we had a concept, but it required a ton of coding, technical talent, lots of money, and a big leap of faith in our ability to fill a gap in the market.

I decided that we shouldn’t start with a big risky investment, but instead try to bootstrap a solution of our own. Wendy and Will are experienced executive coaches, and they quickly agreed to conduct an experiment…a pilot, where we would coach middle managers for free, just to learn more about that manager problem.

We worked with 16 managers from 5 start-ups and learned a lot. To be effective, we needed to have content on best practices. We learned about the things that trip up new managers most often. But most importantly, we learned that we could not remove the human touch from our solution. So, we decided to focus on building a curriculum for managers, centered around coaching.

And since managing is often compared to a journey, and maps are essential, we called it the Manager Acceleration Program.