From Maker to Manager: How to Make the Switch and Boost Productivity
No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.
This century-old quote from industrialist Andrew Carnegie still holds true today. You can’t do everything yourself and still run a successful business, so don’t even try. That’s what employees are for, after all.
But many managers struggle with giving up the reins and letting employees excel in their positions. While you may love being hands-on, that will become less possible the more your company grows.
You need a strategy to plan your day so you can use your time to be a more productive manager and less of a helicopter boss.
Categories of Time
Before you can put a strategy in place, you need to understand the three types of time:
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Maker’s time is when you’re making things. You’re in maker’s time when your company is small enough that you need to perform day-to-day tasks to keep the business running.
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Maker/manager mix is when you’re doing both making and managing. This is a transitional period between a small company and a large one. You’re managing employees while still completing necessary day-to-day tasks.
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Manager’s time is when you’re only managing others. That’s it. Your company has grown enough that you get to just be the boss and make sure your employees are successful. Your success will flow from theirs.
How to Make the Transition
Transitioning from a maker to a manager isn’t easy. Here are a few tips for making the switch well:
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Be comfortable with ambiguity. No one is going to wake up and tell you what to do. What’s important one day won’t necessarily be important the next. Be OK with continually reevaluating your tasks to decide what you need to do today and what can wait or be delegated to someone else.
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Experiment. Try something new. Mixing things up keeps your schedule from getting stale.
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If it’s not working, change it. Every few weeks, I have to change my work habits. As your employee lineup changes and the market shifts, you need to change your work habits to reflect that.
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Be yourself. As you transition to a manager’s schedule, you’ll feel lost. The temptation is to copy other managers. Don’t. Instead, find routines that work for you.
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Fire yourself. As your company grows, regularly fire yourself from specific responsibilities. Leadership roles aren’t static; they’re always changing with the company.
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Use the MIT method. In other words, use the “most important tasks” method. Every night, I select the three most important tasks for the next day. As soon as I wake up, I complete those tasks. Once they’re finished, I know I’ll have a good day even if I only get those three things done. Choose the most important things you can do to advance your company, and then break those up into smaller, definable tasks.
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Use the Jerry Seinfeld method. When Seinfeld was starting out, he realized the only way to get better material was to write every day. So he hung a giant calendar on his wall and drew a big red X on each day that he wrote. It began to look like a chain, but if he skipped a day, he’d break it. So he didn’t. Combine this method with the MIT method, and you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish in a year.
Manager Time vs. Maker Time
While it’s important for you as a leader to devote yourself to manager time, it’s vital that you remember the difference between manager time and maker time.
A leader’s time is typically kept in an appointment book (or calendar app), with each day cut into one-hour intervals. Of course, you often block off several hours for a task, but you expect to see something different every hour.
A worker on the front lines, however, sees the same thing all day. A worker’s typical time unit might be half a day. For example, programmers and writers can’t write an article or program well in units of an hour. That’s barely enough time to get started. And they usually can’t go all day like this without some sort of break.
So if you see an employee taking a break every couple hours, don’t jump to conclusions and call him lazy. Remember that doing the same task for hours on end without breaks is exhausting and, frankly, unhealthy.
Give Yourself a Break
Just because you’re not out on the front lines with your employees doesn’t mean you don’t deserve breaks throughout the day, too. In fact, you need them to be healthy, happy, and productive — not to mention that your brain will reward you by being more creative.
I learned this from my dog, Tuna, who demanded a walk every few hours. While it was something I had to do to keep my dog healthy, that 20-minute interlude to focus on something else was worthwhile — I returned refreshed. (And Tuna was happy, too.)
No two leaders are exactly alike. So take these routines and tailor them to create a time management strategy that works for you. Look for the happy middle between strict discipline and creative adaptability. It’s there that you’ll be more productive — and more successful.
What other strategies did you use to transition from maker’s time to manager time? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks Wade, This is a very good article. In My perspective, I take challenges and Goals very seriously. I dont mind failures, I learn out of it. But the goals are still intact. A good Manager is the person who guides and shares his ideas with the team and make that happen. As a Manager, I have created some effective sales process, which was successful, strategical achievable goals given to sales which makes them motivated and accomplish. As a maker, I have always searched for opportunity to make more sales by Networking (partnership) Identifying right partner and creating brand awareness in the region. I have loved this work and loving it, when I set my own goals that benefit the organisation. One thing I always keep in mind. Never Give Up. Leaders are path Finders.
Wade, I loved this article! It speaks to what I've been going through growing my business. Day by day, the most important things for me to do vary from: meeting with clients, finding and qualifying new clients, negotiating with the assessor's office, networking, etc. Learning to plan my work effectively and work my plan efficiently has been paramount to my success. I enjoy being a maker/leader now and look forward to reorganizing my work life as the business grows and my role is to lead the organization by example. I dislike the word manager because all leaders manage well but few managers are leaders.
Thanks Wade for the great post!
Interesting ideas. I've found over many years that the best managers are the ones who aren't worried about "managing" per se. They are the ones who are thinking about leading. That means that they are thinking about ways to knock down barriers to the success of their people. They set meaningful goals and reasonable deadlines for their staff. They provide regular and constructive feedback (especially when he or she sees that one of his/ her staff has actually taken the advice from a prior feedback discussion). They show managerial courage, and lean against pressures from above when those pressures will be detrimental to the team, and if that is not possible, then they are creative in finding ways to ameliorate the stress. What they do not do, is worry much about managing their staff's time if the goals are being met. That's micromanagement and is almost always a losing proposition. The beauty here is that you can generally spot such leaders because they are already doing these activities as makers. They find ways to mentor junior staff. They look for creative ways to do their "maker" work better, and they share those ideas. They show maturity in providing counsel to their managers. They are natural candidates to move up. And when they do, they fit nicely into their new role. Do they need coaching as to how to improve? Sure. It's a new experience. But if you are encouraging the right behaviors amongst your makers, and your are on the lookout, you'll have an easy time creating the next generation of leaders in the organization.
Hi Wade. Thanks for this little article. I enjoyed reading it, as its very appropriate for the growth stage of my business Carbon Architecture in the UK. Will