The manager’s checklist

Management is less about doing one thing well than about keeping several in balance. Patrick Newman’s checklist makes that balance visible across four relationships: your team, your peers, your management, and yourself. Here’s a shorter version.

You won’t hit everything at once, and not every item fits every team. Share it with your team, managers and reports alike, so everyone knows what good looks like and can say where it’s slipping.

Your team

1. Everyone knows what to work on, and what to do when done or stuck.
2. Everyone has had a real career conversation in the last six months.
3. Feedback is timely, specific and actionable, so reviews hold no surprises.
4. The work that matters is the work that gets people promoted.
5. People can pitch projects, shape the roadmap and improve the process.
6. The team is staffed right, the load is shared, and there’s room to stretch.
7. Conflicts are settled fairly, and many points of view are heard.

Your peers

1. Key relationships get regular, useful meetings and clear writing.
2. Teams that depend on you can trust your commitments.
3. Peers know how to ask for your team’s time, and what it will cost.
4. Teams you depend on keep their commitments to you.
5. Agreements are written down; progress and setbacks are shared early.
6. Credit for shared work is shared.
7. Escalation is clear and respectful, and problems can be raised privately.

Your management

1. Your manager can see how the team is doing.
2. They get pulled in when something needs their attention.
3. You can argue for priorities, and priorities are set in the open.
4. You agree on the goals and on what success looks like.

Yourself

1. Your work-life boundaries are respected.
2. Your short- and long-term career goals are written down.
3. You keep growing, even with no promotion in sight.
4. Your impact shows in what the team achieves and how its people grow.