# The primary job of a manager

- **Episode:** [177](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/177.md) (2025-03-06)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** management, leadership, manager-role
- **Time:** 0:33–1:49 (start 33s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/177?t=33](https://truthliesandwork.com/177?t=33)

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[0:33] Al Elliott: Nice
[0:37] Vince Sanderson: The primary job of a manager is to create an environment for other people to excel. So how are you going to do that? I mean, that's the biggest issue that people find. They get promoted, They're not entirely sure what to do. But then there's very high expectations without much guidance in order to do it. Then they go home and they're tired, and they're struggling to motivate themselves to go out and have fun. And they're checking emails at all sorts of hours, and then telling other people not to do it, but then doing it themselves in order to keep on top of the workload that they've created for themselves. And that is a very quick way to burn out. Something like 72% of Gen Z don't want to become managers anymore because they're seeing the stress that middle management is put under, the expectations that are unfair on people. Your job is to understand the people, the culture. It's not my job to be right. It is our job to get it right
[1:34] Al Elliott: A lot of people who've been newly promoted as a manager will end up managing people who used to be their peers
[1:39] Vince Sanderson: Yes
[1:39] Al Elliott: So talk me through, what are the pitfalls with that? What should they be doing? What should they not be doing? So how did Vince manage his first 30 days? What does it feel like? You mentioned you had imposter syndrome
[1:49] Leanne Elliott: Yes
[1:49] Al Elliott: Does that ever go away as a manager? What would you say are the absolute essentials that this person needs to know before they start on Monday?