EP 277 - Grow Managers #2: When Managers Grow People, Results Multiply - Freedom by Design (Pt. 13) - Guest: Michael Walsh
- Govindh Jayaraman
- 7 days ago
- 4 min read
On today’s napkin, Michael sketches a deceptively simple truth: a manager who works through people generates far bigger results than a talented individual contributor working alone. The drawing shows two paths: Manager → People → (big) Results versus Individual → (smaller) Results. It’s not a knock on personal excellence; it’s a reminder that leadership scale lives in leverage—the kind you earn by growing your people.
Early in our conversation, Michael laughed about how many of us misread our own management ability: “According to Gallup, 71% of all managers put themselves in the top 20% of all managers.” That gap between confidence and capability is exactly why this napkin matters—most businesses hit a ceiling right where frontline heroes are promoted and suddenly responsible for everyone else’s outcomes.
So why is the shift so hard? Because the skills that make you great as an individual contributor aren’t the same skills that make you a great manager. As Michael puts it, “what it takes as an individual contributor are vastly different from the skills that it takes to be a manager.” If you were promoted for being the best “doer,” your default under pressure is to jump back into the work. That gets you short-term relief—and long-term stagnation.
Michael also challenges an old industrial-age myth: “run your business like a well-oiled machine.” The problem with that metaphor? “People become cogs in a system.” Cogs don’t think, learn, or grow. People do. The pre-industrial apprenticeship model understood this: masters taught, journeymen practiced, and capability scaled as individuals grew. Returning to that spirit—teach, develop, and transfer skill—is the modern manager’s edge.
We also got into the most abused word in management: accountability. Michael’s take is clarifying: “You’re now accountable for everybody’s result. Not just yours.” But that doesn’t mean “hold people” in the punitive sense. The job is to partner in accountability: “What if I treat you as somebody who’s accountable, and I partner with you in your accountability?” That shift—from policing to partnering—unlocks adult-to-adult ownership without the control games that kill trust.
Another gem: managers who expect people to succeed their way will always leave performance on the table. “There are 7.9 billion iterations of the world,” Michael quips. Translation: personalize how you support each person. Some learn by watching, others by trying. Some need space; others need cadence. Your job isn’t to clone yourself; it’s to discover how each person wins, then build the environment for that win to happen repeatedly.
Here’s the kicker: when managers spend their energy growing people and shaping systems, results compound. When they spend their energy doing the work themselves, results plateau. The napkin makes the asymmetry obvious. Your growth ceiling is the number of tasks you can personally touch. Your company’s growth ceiling is the number of capable people you can empower and align.
Michael’s Napkin in One Line: Managers don’t scale by doing more; they scale by making more people capable of producing results.
About Michael: Michael Walsh is the founder of the Walsh Business Growth Institute and a multi-time author. His work focuses on helping established, service-based companies grow profitably while giving owners more freedom. His latest thinking is captured in Freedom by Design: The Established Business Owner’s Guide to Grow, Make an Impact, and Find the Joy Again. Walsh Business GrowthLinkedInBarnes & Noble
5 Key Takeaways (with Take-Action steps)
1) Great managers are multipliers, not super-doers. If your best people get promoted and then keep doing the work, you’ll stall. Scale comes from capability transfer. Take Action: Audit each manager’s calendar. Target ≥60% of time on people-building activities (1:1s, coaching, shadowing, feedback, SOP refinement) rather than personal task work. Set this as an explicit expectation for the role.
2) Redefine accountability as a partnership. Stop trying to “hold” adults accountable; design agreements and cadence that make ownership the default. Take Action: Introduce a simple “Ownership Contract” for key initiatives: Clear outcome → Current reality → Next best action → Check-in date. Review weekly. The manager’s job is to remove friction, not micromanage.
3) Personalize how each person wins. There isn’t one right way—coach to strengths, preferences, and learning styles. Take Action: Build a Personal Operating Manual for every direct report (strengths, energizers/drainers, communication preferences, learning mode, early-warning signs). Use it to tailor coaching and task assignment.
4) Bring back apprenticeship—on purpose. Capability scales when teaching is built into the work, not bolted on. Take Action: For every core process, run a Shadow → Assist → Own → Teach pipeline. Track leading indicators: # of people in each stage per process, and time-to-competence. Celebrate when someone moves to “Teach.”
5) Measure results through people, not around them. A manager’s scoreboard should show team health and capability growth as leading indicators of performance. Take Action: Add three “people-to-results” metrics to your manager dashboards: (a) % of direct reports with clear 90-day outcomes, (b) frequency of effective 1:1s, (c) # of tasks escalated back to the manager (aim down and to the right).
Quotes to Remember
“71% of all managers put themselves in the top 20%.” — Michael Walsh
“People become cogs in a system when you run the business like a machine.” — Michael Walsh
“You’re now accountable for everybody’s result. Not just yours.” — Michael Walsh
“What if I treat you as somebody who’s accountable, and I partner with you in your accountability?” — Michael Walsh
“There are 7.9 billion iterations of the world.” — Michael Walsh
Links & Resources
Michael’s site: https://walshbusinessgrowth.com/
Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-walsh/
Freedom by Design (book): recent retail listing and overview Barnes & Noble
Your Turn
If you run a growing company, ask yourself: Am I growing managers who grow people… or managers who just do more? What’s one shift you’ll make this week to multiply results through your team?
👉 Post your takeaway on a paper napkin and tag it with #PaperNapkinWisdom. Let’s see how you’re growing managers who grow people.