When you have managers and technical leaders reporting to you, one of the biggest challenges you’ll face is when to step in and when to stay hands-off.
If you have an experienced manager reporting to you, the natural tendency is to keep delegating more and more with minimal direction. If you have a new manager reporting to you, the natural tendency is to delegate with a lot of hand-holding. This approach doesn’t work well. This is where the concept of Task Relevant Maturity (TRM) comes in. A term coined by Andy Grove in his book High Output Management.
If there is a type of project that your direct report has never dealt with before, you need to dive deeper and collaborate with them closely irrespective of their general experience level as a manager because their TRM level for a given task is low.
An experienced manager might have a high TRM when it comes to people management but low TRM when it comes to helping the team with the right technical choices. The opposite might be true for new managers. You need to change your management style based on the situation.
You’ll create the biggest managerial leverage if you focus on increasing TRM of your direct reports.
