Hard job by design
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed as a frontline manager, then yes, the job is overwhelming by design. You will also see why the belief that some people are born managers is false.
This is not to victimize or compare to other jobs and roles. ICs have their own challenges, as well as managers of managers and executives. The point is to explain what makes it hard and how you can support such managers.
1. Constant uncertainty
Frontline managers have very little control over the forces shaping their reality:
- priorities shift constantly
- senior leadership changes direction
- no coherent company strategy
- inconsistent application of company values
- markets move, customers change their minds
- goals and OKRs evolve mid-quarter as we learn more
- the direct manager has no clear goals and expectations
- vague expectation to contribute strategically to the company
- some KPIs importance is unclear
- tools and policies change
- stakeholders change their agenda and processes
- the trend of what “good management” looks like changes every few years, and you don’t necessarily get the memo
This creates a constant sense of instability. Managers must make decisions with incomplete information while staying accountable for outcomes they don’t fully control, including on-time and on-budget delivery.
2. Direct reports expectations
Direct reports expect you to:
- trust
- give positive and negative feedback
- recognize, reward
- train, guide
- coach
- delegate
- mentor
- develop their career
- split and assign tasks
- find opportunities
- attend to their personal problems
- advocate for them
- be a problem-solver
- be a sounding board
- mediate conflict
- be an admin
- be emotionally available
- inspire
- motivate
- set the team’s culture
- set the functional direction
- improve the processes and ways of working
- prioritize
- navigate politically
- occasionally break the rules
Recently, many teams have grown from 5-6 members to 8-12.
3. Influence without authority
Frontline managers need to collaborate with peers and stakeholders:
- communicate up and sideways
- align on strategy
- influence decisions
- resolve conflicts
- do favors
- support cross-team initiatives
- advocate for their team, bring visibility
- create opportunities for their team and members
- improve inter-team or company process
Sometimes the manager is expected to influence leaders far above their level, even C-level executives, while still being held responsible for the outcomes.
4. High cognitive load
Frontline managers must juggle multiple domains simultaneously:
- business context
- product knowledge
- customers needs, use cases, commitments
- technical understanding
- individuals and their unique state and desire
- team performance
- growth plans
- operational processes
- tools, metrics, dashboards
- delivery tracking
- goals & OKRs
- constant communication: email, Slack, tickets, WhatsApp, meetings
- AI adoption and uncertainty
Most roles require specialization, but the frontline manager must be competent enough on many dimensions to keep the system sustainably running, which creates constant mental fatigue.
5. Two jobs: manager AND individual contributor
Many frontline managers are still expected to:
- deliver functional work
- be on-call
- handle vacations, capacity planning and business continuity
- lead projects
- refine processes and ways of working
- own cross-team initiatives (guilds, communities, culture)
- organize events, meetups or office days
- attract talent, hire and onboard
- tasks from HR, security and other internal teams with mandate
The manager is both deep in the implementation details, in the trenches, and at a higher level of tactics and strategy.
6. No training, minimal support
The reality is brutal:
- Only ⅓ of managers actually want to manage (the rest did it for career progress, status, compensation, external expectations)
- 87% never received managerial training or coaching
- Many receive little to no feedback from their own manager – they’re expected to “figure it out because they’re senior” (including first-time managers!)
- Underperformance is only discussed very late, resulting in a failed PIP
- Individual Development Plans are rare
- They must grow in at least three dimensions simultaneously
- functional
- managerial (the team and stakeholders management)
- business
7. The burden of responsibility is heavy and lonely
Frontline managers must:
- lead by example
- be accountable for their whole team
- set the right culture for effectiveness
- represent senior leadership, speak in the voice of the company
- advocate for the team
- make and communicate hard decisions
- handle errors and difficult conversations
It is much more intense in environments of low psychological safety, where questions and mistakes are punished.
So why do so many frontline managers struggle?
- the role is overloaded
- expectations are very high
- training is rare
- support is minimal
- the cognitive burden is continuous
- accountability is high
- authority is low
No wonder so many fail their jobs, are reactive instead of strategic, feel like a failure, and eventually receive negative feedback at the performance review, resulting in no promotion or recognition.
What about ICs and directors?
Every role has its challenges, so why is frontline management so difficult?
ICs are the ones who “do the real work”, they also have to talk to customers, be ready on time and the directors have much greater responsibility.
The IC has one primary stream of work.
The director+, while having pieces of individual work, has several streams, but for each, it’s more about guiding and overseeing at a high level.
The frontline manager does IC work and has several workstreams they are responsible for.
The IC has no people responsibility.
The director+ is protected by layers that absorb the mess of the day-to-day complexity (i.e., the frontline manager).
The frontline manager has line management responsibility and needs to absorb it and protect higher levels from the messiness.
The IC mostly executes and can claim they did not decide.
The director+ can say no.
The frontline manager both executes and bares responsibility for decisions.
The IC has one discipline to master.
The director+ remains at a high level and handles escalations.
The frontline manager has several dimensions to do well in.
The IC has low power and low stress.
The director+ has high power and high stress.
The frontline manager has low power and high stress.
Frontline managers are the collision point of everything.
The organization highly depends on them
Frontline managers directly influence:
- the people doing the actual work
- delivery
- team performance
- employee retention
- culture
- alignment
- engagement
Frontline managers oversee about ⅔ of the workforce and sit at a critical point in the company, and often, the most neglected.
Invest in your frontline managers!
As a manager of frontline managers, there is a lot you can do:
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