The One Person Every Manager Forgets to Manage

Hint: they are not a direct report

Gilad Naor

Aug 29, 2025

This week, I’m passing the feather and quill to my friend

Gilad Naor

, a seasoned Engineering Manager (Ex-Meta, Ex-Amazon), trainer, and gifted systems thinker.

If you’re leading a team, this one’s for you…

Michael Greenspan

Whether you're a new manager or an experienced one, I'm sure you know this feeling. Always reacting, never having time to push what's important. It feels like work, it feels like you're adding value, but deep down it feels like running in place.

I remember days of back-to-back meetings. Who am I kidding, I had double and triple bookings most days. And I felt proud. It was a badge of honor to have an overflowing calendar. That's what all the senior managers around me were doing.

It was exhausting. Running from one meeting to the next, juggling emails and Slack messages with urgent escalations while walking between rooms. It felt like work. It felt like progress. Until the day ended and I took a rare look backward. That's when it felt terrible. I was never 100% present, never exceptional at anything, just a constant thrum of mediocrity.

Do you know why this happens? You switch from being an individual contributor creating value every day—fast dopamine cycles of write code, PR, deploy, BAM—to suddenly being responsible for everything your team delivers. Your days become full of activity but empty of impact.

The sad thing is, that's not really your job. Yes, you're responsible for what your team delivers, but your job is to increase what your team can deliver. To create positive, sustainable change in what this group of humans can produce.

The δelta Journal Discovery

You can gain sanity over your calendar. It starts with what I call the δelta journal.

At the end of each day, spend just 5 minutes reviewing your meetings, emails, and conversations. Write down what positive and sustainable change you created that day. Not tasks completed, but real positive change in the capabilities of your people or team.

Write down the feedback you shared, the two people you connected. Capture a bottleneck you removed, or how you gently refocused work toward what really matters. Focus on creating growth. Focus on enabling a stronger future.

When you create this daily habit, magic happens. You'll notice dozens of new opportunities for impact every day. Your people will grow. Your team will run like a well-oiled machine.

But here's the problem: your work doesn't speak for itself.

Making Your Impact Visible

When I started my δelta journal, I began noticing how I delivered value as a manager. Instead of technical designs or code reviews, I was coaching people, removing roadblocks, improving collaboration. I was finally doing work I was proud of.

Except it wasn't just invisible—it was actively hiding.

When an engineer does excellent work, they leave a paper trail. Comments on design docs, discussions in Jira, code in production, dashboards they built. The work is out there if you look for it.

None of this is true as a manager. Your contributions happen behind closed doors. When you guide a team discussion so everyone feels heard. The direct feedback you share that helps someone course-correct. You're building your team so your team can build—but none of this is visible.

As a manager, it's not that your work doesn't speak for itself. It's that your work covers its tracks so no one can see it.

Here's how to fix it: Schedule 10 minutes each Friday. Open your δelta journal and write three ways you created value this week using this format: action → specific outcome → business benefit

Example: "Connected Kevin with Lara from the Platform team. She was amazing on the Tranton project last year. She already gave Kevin great tips and we're ready to start building next week. We can't commit yet, but we may launch one week ahead of schedule."

Send it to your manager.

When you start doing this, your work will no longer hide. You'll get more frequent, higher-quality feedback. Your manager will recognize your contributions and your career will accelerate.

The Systems Gap

After using these tools for weeks, something will feel off. You'll start noticing inconsistencies in your performance. Sometimes you know exactly what to do but can't find the energy. A wasted δelta here, a missed δelta there.

I remember reading every leadership blog, buying every management book. I slowly built a toolbox: checklists for delegation, templates for evaluation, rituals like the daily δelta. It helped. It really helped.

But it wasn't enough.

I was managing by exception. Any time something came up, it was like an exception thrown in my code. Where I was, what I was doing? All lost, reacting to the latest fire. I had tools for every situation, but I couldn't thrive.

The inconsistencies matter. Trust is not symmetric—it's hard to earn and easy to lose. You can be an excellent manager 90% of the time, but your team notices that 10%. Your manager notices that 10%. That's what blocks your growth and promotion.

I was managing the team, managing the people on my team. Everyone except myself.

You are the most important person to manage.

That's the heart of managing by systems instead of managing by exceptions. Without a clear system, you're always reacting. You can't be the best version of yourself consistently. When you're not consistent, you're not trustworthy.

This was my key insight when I developed the Management Operating System. You need to build a system around you—one that adds self-management tools to your toolbox and combines everything into a cohesive system so you always know what to do.

Keep using tools like the δelta journal and δelta wins. But start building a complete system around them. Find opportunities to create positive, sustainable change not just in your team, but in yourself.