I always hear about “small businesses this” or “huge companies that”.

It’s all about the team, not the company.

I’ve worked AT both, FOR both. None is like the other. The basic unit for me is the team, and set of teams.

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It’s like a tree (a graph, actually) where constraints are applied.

A bad manager can spoil everything below them, while also inciting higher-ups to impose even more constraints in the hopes of fixing things, or even just understanding.

A good (great) manager can shield and reorient many things so the teams in his responsibility can be fully functional and happy, producing value or limiting damage.

It’s surprisingly often setting up the right communications: managers, partners, customers, teams that have to talk to yours. Shield (some) pressure, smooth details, enhance priorities, allow and encourage cutting the middlemen when necessary…

Delegating the right things to the right people, bringing together who needs to be, AND setting correct boundaries.

It’s so easily overlooked. Don’t make the same mistakes as younger me.

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Yes, layers of management do add time, and take out responsibilities and involvement. But a fully functional chain of management with trust can do wonders.

Yes, big companies do allow for some waste to happen, and attracts parasitic behaviors. But so do well-funded startups, or full freedom to any single person. “Trust, but verify”.

Yes, small companies with a toxic leader result in the full organisation being (able to be) toxic.

Of course, everyone wants smart leaders of smart teams, with enough challenge to be motivation, with enough money and safety so you can experiment, leverage things and see awesome results.

But please, don’t think any of these is startup-specific, or Fortune-500 only. Understand your manager, his managers, and decide for yourself what to keep and what to change.