The myth of the management playbook
For years, management has been simplified into something resembling an instruction manual: do this, avoid that, adopt this style, lead in this way. Managing people and resources as if it were a cooking recipe, with little room for customization.
In reality, there are hundreds of different ways to take on the responsibility of leading teams and managing resources. Hence the title of this post: 1000 ways to be a manager. Not because that is the exact number, but because it reflects well the diversity of contexts, personalities, pressures, and expectations that surround any managerial role.
The illusion of the “perfect” manager
When we talk about a good manager, the idea of perfection often slips in implicitly. But this is where the first uncomfortable question appears:
Perfect for whom?
A manager may be considered excellent by their superior because they meet targets, control costs, and execute decisions quickly. That same manager may be perceived very differently by their team if they see them as distant, overly demanding, or lacking empathy.
At the same time, their peers within the organization may evaluate them from another perspective: ability to collaborate, internal influence, reliability in shared projects, or willingness to take on uncomfortable responsibilities.
In other words, the same manager can be simultaneously valued, questioned, and criticized depending on the observer. As the English proverb says, beauty (and in this case, competence) is in the eye of the beholder.
And all of those perspectives may contain some degree of truth.
A role that combines multiple disciplines
Being a manager does not simply mean mastering a specific professional field. In fact, that is usually the starting point, not the destination. Leading implies operating on several levels at the same time:
- Financial management, because there are budgets, profitability, and efficiency targets to meet.
- Operational management, because there are processes, deadlines, and results to deliver.
- Political management, because organizations are complex systems influenced by interests, priorities, and internal balances.
- Human management, because in the end everything happens through people.
This last point is probably the most complex.
Organizations are not made up of spreadsheets. They are made up of individuals with different motivations, different levels of maturity, personal ambitions, insecurities, talent, frustrations, and expectations.
Managing all of this does not have a single formula. It requires judgment, experience, adaptability, and, above all, a certain level of professional maturity. And even with all that, mistakes are inevitable.
Mistakes are also part of management
There is a tacit expectation placed on those who manage teams: the expectation of always having the right answer.
Reality is quite different. Managers make incomplete decisions with partial information, under pressure, and in constantly changing environments. They prioritize limited resources, negotiate objectives that are sometimes contradictory, and manage conflicts that do not always have a clear solution.
In that context, making mistakes is not an anomaly; it is a structural part of the role. We must allow ourselves to make mistakes.
The difference between a bad manager and a competent one is rarely about avoiding all mistakes — that is impossible — but about how those mistakes are handled when they appear. Learning, correcting, adjusting course, and maintaining coherence with the team is what truly matters.
Expectations: a constant pressure
One of the most complex elements of management is the accumulation of expectations, with the manager permanently positioned in the middle of several layers of pressure:
- Expectations from leadership, translated into results, growth, or efficiency.
- Expectations from the team, which expects leadership, support, clarity, and recognition.
- Expectations from other departments, which require coordination and the fulfillment of commitments.
- And, of course, personal expectations, which are often the most demanding.
Reconciling all of this in a balanced way is extremely difficult.
That is why many management careers are filled with imperfect decisions that attempt to maximize balance in contexts where no solution satisfies 100% of all parties.
Beyond technical competencies
Professional competencies are necessary. Without knowledge of the business, the industry, or the function being managed, it is difficult to generate credibility. But management rarely stands on that pillar alone.
Over time, many of the differences between managers appear in less tangible dimensions:
- The ability to truly listen.
- Judgment when prioritizing what seems equally urgent.
- The ability to remain calm under pressure.
- Honesty when acknowledging mistakes.
- The skill to build trust within the team.
These are human and managerial competencies, not purely technical ones, and they often determine whether a team operates in a healthy way or ends up trapped in dynamics of exhaustion.
1000 ways to be a manager
There is no single valid style, nor a universal archetype. And there certainly is no perfect manager. What does exist is a vast variety of ways to exercise the role, each with its strengths, its limitations, and its own context.
Some managers stand out for their strategic capacity, others for their closeness to the team, and others for their operational rigor or their ability to navigate complex organizations.
Each of them represents, in reality, a different way of being a manager.
Perhaps the most useful reflection is not to search for the perfect model, but to accept something much more realistic: leading people and resources is a complex task, full of nuances, where learning is constant and balance is never final.
