Two Track Management

There are two types of employees at every startup, managers and individual contributors. Not everyone is meant to be a manager - and some people are truly uninterested in managing others. By offering “Two Track Management” career paths, you can help folks decide early on if they are on the individual contributor track - or the manager track and help them grow appropriately based on their interests. Senior members of your team shouldn’t have their growth limited because they aren’t heading towards the management path.

MANAGERS:

Managers contribute as individuals and also oversee other people as bosses. Managers typically have 1-10 direct reports. Every additional direct report reduces a manager’s overall individual contribution. Every managers should meet with their direct reports for 30 minutes each week at a minimum in a 1:1 meeting.

Key characteristics of managers:

  • Managers enjoy mentoring and coaching other people

  • Managers build relationships with their direct reports and invest in them

  • Managers’ main job is to help other people be their best selves at work by providing resources, troubleshooting challenges, and supporting learning

  • Managers need to be able to juggle contributing individually while also keeping all of their direct reports working as hard as they can individually - and collaboratively - in pursuit of company goals

Potential growth trajectory for managers:

  1. Individual contributor

  2. Manager training

  3. Managing 1 employee

  4. Managing 2+ employees

  5. Continued manager training + peer group support with other company managers

INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTORS

Individual contributors are employees with unique skills and experiences to help the company - and do not manage others. Individual contributors share their expertise with the company 80% of the time. Up to 20% of their time is used to help the company by leading and serving on Action Learning Groups, which are leadership opportunities

Action Learning Groups:

  • Action Learning Groups are small cross-functional task forces that have been given a problem to solve and are time-bound; their goal is to advise the CEO with data and recommendations working towards implementable solutions

  • Examples: DIEB at our company, onboarding tools + resources, advising projects, defining company celebrations, competitive analysis, etc.

Action Learning Group process:

  1. Identify a problem to solve

  2. Build a team

  3. Conduct research + run 1-10 effective meetings as a group

  4. Compile research and potential solutions

  5. Share solutions with CEO + leadership team for potential implementation

As a manager, it’s part of our job to check in with our direct reports to see whether or not the manager track - or the individual track is right for them. Their perspective may change over time so it’s important to revisit this conversation periodically.