Olivia: Most people think getting promoted to manager is a reward for being good at your job. What if that's the exact mindset that guarantees you'll fail? That the skills that got you here will actively sabotage your success as a leader. Jackson: Whoa, that's a terrifying thought. Because that’s exactly what happens. You get a new title, a bigger paycheck, and this sudden, sinking feeling that you have absolutely no idea what you're doing. The terror is real. You're rewarded for being a great coder or a great salesperson, and now you're supposed to manage other people doing that job? It feels like a trap. Olivia: It’s a trap many, many people fall into. And that very paradox is at the heart of a book that’s become a go-to manual for new leaders, Everyone Deserves a Great Manager: The 6 Critical Practices for Leading a Team by Scott Miller, Todd Davis, and Victoria Roos Olsson. Jackson: Right, these are the folks from FranklinCovey, the leadership giant. And this book isn't just theory; it's a Wall Street Journal bestseller built on nearly a decade of research with hundreds of thousands of managers. They’ve seen it all. Olivia: Exactly. They’ve seen the patterns of success and, more importantly, the patterns of failure. And they start with a story of failure that is so painfully relatable, it’s the perfect place for us to begin.

Olivia: The book’s first big idea is that new leaders must undergo a fundamental mindset shift. You have to stop being the ‘genius’—the star individual performer—and start becoming the ‘genius maker.’ Your job is no longer to have all the answers, but to get results with and through other people. Jackson: Okay, but isn't that just corporate-speak? "Get results through others." What does it actually mean to change your mindset? Most new managers are just trying to keep their head above water, not philosophize about their role. Olivia: That’s a fair point. And the book makes it incredibly concrete with a story from one of the authors, Scott Miller. Early in his career, at age 27, he was a hotshot salesperson who got promoted to manage a team of client-service coordinators. He saw them as underperforming and decided he was the guy to whip them into shape. Jackson: Oh, I can already feel the cringe coming on. This has "new manager power trip" written all over it. Olivia: You have no idea. He implemented a bunch of strict, top-down rules. He monitored their arrival and departure times to the minute. He banned all personal appointments during work hours. He was convinced that what they needed was more accountability and discipline, which he, of course, would provide. Jackson: He was treating them like children, not professionals. Olivia: Precisely. And the peak of this disastrous approach came when one of his team members went on her honeymoon. Scott actually called her and asked her to check her voicemails and respond to client messages. Jackson: No. Come on. He did not. On her HONEYMOON? That's a hall-of-fame bad manager move. That’s grounds for immediate resignation. Olivia: She refused, thankfully. But the damage was done. Team morale plummeted. People felt disrespected and demoralized. After just three weeks, Scott got a call from his own boss, the Vice President. He was eating a powdered sugar donut at the time, and he says the news made him so sick to his stomach that he's never been able to eat one since. Jackson: What was the news? Olivia: He was being "un-promoted." Fired from his leadership role and put back into his old salesperson job. The VP told him he was destroying the team's self-esteem. Jackson: Wow. That is brutal. But honestly, I can see how it happens. He was still acting like a super-salesperson, just trying to make his 'product'—the team—perform better through sheer force of will. He hadn't made the mindset shift. Olivia: Exactly. The book uses a simple but powerful model to explain this: the See-Do-Get cycle. How you See the world determines what you Do, and what you do determines the results you Get. Scott saw his team as a machine that needed fixing. So he did a bunch of controlling, micromanaging things. And he got a demotivated team and a demotion. Jackson: That makes so much sense. It’s like trying to lose weight. You can't just change what you do—go to the gym once—you have to change how you see yourself, as a healthy person. Is that the idea? Olivia: That's the perfect analogy. To get different results, you can't just tweak your behavior. You have to challenge your fundamental paradigm. For a new leader, the paradigm shift is from "I achieve results on my own" to "I achieve results with and through others." Your people are your results. Jackson: Okay, so you change your mindset. You're not the hero anymore. You’re the coach. But what do you actually do then? How do you connect with your team and turn that new mindset into action?

Olivia: This is where the book gets incredibly practical. Once you have the right mindset, the engine of leadership runs on two fuels: regular 1-on-1 meetings and a culture of feedback. These are the most direct, human ways you build trust and performance. Jackson: I’m skeptical about 1-on-1s. Honestly, most of the ones I've had in my career feel like a waste of time. We just list what we did last week, my boss nods, and then we schedule the next one. How is this any different? Olivia: The book argues that you're describing the common, ineffective mindset: "I hold 1-on-1s to monitor people's progress." It's a status update. The effective mindset is: "I hold regular 1-on-1s to help people get—and stay—engaged." The meeting is for them, not for you. Jackson: What does that even look like in practice? Olivia: The book tells the story of a woman named Joanna, a superstar remote project manager. She was consistently hitting her goals, a top performer by every metric. But she put in her two weeks' notice. When the Chief People Officer did an exit interview, he was shocked. She was paid well, she was successful... why was she leaving? Jackson: I’m guessing it wasn’t about the money. Olivia: Never is. Joanna said, "I know it’s not his job to be my friend, but I want to work where I feel valued and connected—not just a machine." Her 1-on-1s with her manager were purely transactional. He’d run through her project list, acknowledge they were on time and on budget, and then the meeting was over. He never asked about the challenges of working remotely, or what she was interested in doing next, or how she was feeling. Jackson: That’s so common. The human element gets completely lost. So what happened? Olivia: The company was smart. They moved her to a different team with a new leader who was hyper-focused on engagement. His 1-on-1s were about her, her career, her challenges. And she flourished. She stayed with the company and became an even bigger star. It's a perfect example of how the purpose of the 1-on-1 changes everything. Jackson: So it's the forum for connection. What's the other part? You said feedback. That’s another minefield. Nobody wants to be the bad guy, but you also can't let problems fester. Olivia: Right. And the book has another great story for this. Scott Miller, our friend from the honeymoon incident, tells a story from when he was a waiter in college. He was a great waiter in terms of speed—he’d memorize orders, rush the kitchen, and get his tables served fast, which meant great tips for him. Jackson: But I'm sensing a 'but' here. Olivia: A huge 'but'. In the process, he was creating total chaos for the other waiters and the kitchen staff. He was jumping the queue, stressing everyone out, and basically being a terrible teammate. He was optimizing for his own success at the expense of the system. Jackson: A classic individual contributor mindset. Olivia: Exactly. Then, his friend got promoted to be the manager. After closing one night, the new manager sat him down and said, very directly, "Scott, I need to see a marked improvement in your teamwork." He even wrote it down on an index card and handed it to him. Jackson: Ouch. That's blunt. How did Scott take it? Olivia: He was shocked and offended at first. But later, he realized his friend had the right intention, even if the delivery was a bit clumsy. The feedback, as harsh as it felt, was a gift. It revealed a blind spot he never knew he had. The point is, feedback is essential for growth. The goal is to deliver it with both courage and consideration. Jackson: So the 1-on-1 is the safe space you create, and feedback is the honest conversation you have within that space. One without the other doesn't really work. Olivia: You've got it. They are the twin engines of engagement. But that engine is useless if the car doesn't have a road to drive on or a destination in mind.

Olivia: And that brings us to the final piece of the puzzle: the architecture of achievement. This is about how a manager builds the systems that allow the team to get results, navigate the inevitable chaos of change, and do it all without burning out. Jackson: This feels like the most 'manager-y' part. The strategy, the planning. Olivia: It is, but the book’s approach is surprisingly human. It starts with a simple idea: a leader's primary job is to provide clarity. Not to tell people how to do their jobs, but to make sure they understand why their work matters and what the goal is. Jackson: I feel like we've all worked for the opposite of that leader. The micromanager. Olivia: The book has a fantastic, almost comical story about that. It takes place in a super high-end luxury hotel in Paris. The waitstaff are seasoned professionals who take immense pride in setting the dinner tables perfectly for VIP guests. They know their craft inside and out. Jackson: Okay, I'm picturing white tablecloths and way too many forks. Olivia: Exactly. So the waiters would meticulously set a table. Then, their supervisor would come by and, say, move a champagne flute half an inch to the left. Then the assistant manager would come by and refold a linen napkin. And finally, the general manager himself would walk through and rearrange the centerpiece. Every single time. Jackson: That is maddening. What was the point? Olivia: There was no point! It was just three layers of management "adding value" by making tiny, meaningless changes. And the result? The staff eventually just stopped trying. They'd do a slapdash job because they knew, no matter what, someone higher up was going to come and redo it anyway. They became indifferent and resentful. Jackson: So the manager's job is to set the destination and make sure the car has gas, but not to grab the steering wheel from the passenger seat? Olivia: That's a perfect way to put it! You define the "why" and the "what"—the goal. You create a scoreboard so everyone knows if they're winning. And then you empower the team to figure out the "how." You trust their expertise. This frees you up to do the real work of a leader, which is managing the two things that are always in flux: change and energy. Jackson: Change is a big one. Every time a new system or a re-org is announced, you can just feel the collective groan across the company. Olivia: The book has a whole model for leading change, but the core idea is to be transparent and empathetic. Acknowledge that change is disruptive and scary. Your job isn't to contain it, but to champion it with your team. Use 'we' and 'us,' not 'they' and 'them.' Over-communicate. Jackson: And what about energy? That feels like a new addition to the management canon. Olivia: It's so critical. The book points to a Gallup report saying two-thirds of the workforce is struggling with burnout. A great manager manages their own energy first—they model sustainable work habits. And they coach their team to do the same. They recognize that you can't have a high-performing team if everyone is running on empty. It's about protecting the most valuable resource of all.

Jackson: Okay, so we've gone from mindset to 1-on-1s to building these big systems for results. When you boil it all down, what's the one thing a manager absolutely cannot forget from this book? Olivia: It's the shift from being the genius to being the genius maker. It's realizing that your legacy isn't your own achievements anymore. It's the careers you grow and the lives you influence. There's a powerful quote in the book from one of the author's mentors. He said, "Ten years from now, no one will remember if you met your second-quarter EBITDA or increased your margin by 4 percent... but your legacy will be the lives you influence and the careers you grow." Jackson: That's a powerful reframe. It takes the pressure off being the smartest person in the room and puts the focus on lifting others up. It’s a much more generous way to think about leadership. Olivia: It is. And it's a choice. The book ends by asking a simple question from leadership expert Liz Wiseman: "Are you the genius in the room or the genius maker?" Jackson: So for anyone listening who is a manager, or wants to be one, what’s a simple first step they can take today? Olivia: The book is full of tools, but here's a simple one inspired by its philosophy. Schedule your next 1-on-1 with each person on your team. And in the calendar invite, just add one sentence: "This meeting is for you. What's on your mind?" That simple act can begin to change the entire dynamic. Jackson: I love that. It immediately signals that this isn't about you, it's about them. We'd love to hear from our listeners on this one. Share your best 'great manager' moment or your most cringeworthy 'bad manager' story. We all have them. Olivia: This is Aibrary, signing off.