team-management

name	team-management
description	Team management for startup leaders — 1:1s, performance reviews, goal setting (OKRs), delegation, feedback culture, remote team management, team rituals, and scaling from IC to manager. Use when building team processes, managing first direct reports, or scaling management as the company grows. Triggers on: "team management", "1:1 template", "performance review", "OKR setting", "delegation", "managing remote team".
license	MIT
compatibility	Claude Code, Jesse, Codex, Hermes, Windsurf, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Copilot, Zed, VS Code, Goose
metadata	{"version":"2.0.1","author":"LeadMagic","category":"management-leadership","tags":["management","team","1-1","performance-review","okrs","delegation","remote"],"related_skills":["gtm-leadership","sales-coaching","first-hires-playbook","hiring-by-role","employment-compliance"],"frameworks":["Andy Grove — High Output Management (1:1s, task-relevant maturity)","Kim Scott — Radical Candor (care personally, challenge directly)","John Doerr — Measure What Matters (OKRs)","Molly Graham — Giving Away Your Legos (delegation)","Patty McCord — Powerful (Netflix culture, talent density)","Claire Hughes Johnson — Scaling People (Stripe COO)"]}

Team Management

Overview

Management is a skill, not a promotion. Most founders become managers by default — they hire someone and now they have to manage them. The mistake: treating management as "telling people what to do" instead of building a system that enables autonomous, high-quality work. This skill covers the core management practices every founder needs: 1:1s, feedback, goal-setting, delegation, and scaling yourself as a leader. Based on the operators who built the best-managed companies in tech.

Authoritative Foundations

• Andy Grove — High Output Management (1:1s, task-relevant maturity) — High Output Management (1:1s, task-relevant maturity)
• Kim Scott — Radical Candor (care personally, challenge directly) — Radical Candor (care personally, challenge directly)
• John Doerr — Measure What Matters (OKRs) — Measure What Matters (OKRs)
• Molly Graham — Giving Away Your Legos (delegation) — Giving Away Your Legos (delegation)
• Patty McCord — Powerful (Netflix culture, talent density) — Powerful (Netflix culture, talent density)
• Claire Hughes Johnson — Scaling People (Stripe COO) — Scaling People (Stripe COO)

When to Use

Trigger phrases: "team management", "how to run 1:1s", "performance review template", "how to delegate", "OKR setting", "managing direct reports", "remote team management", "feedback culture", "new manager guide"

Step-by-Step Process

Phase 1: 1:1s (The Foundation of Management)

Cadence: Weekly. 30 minutes. Same day/time every week. Never cancel. If you cancel, you're saying "you're not a priority."

Agenda (owned by the report, not the manager):

1. What's going well? (5 min)
2. What's challenging / blocking? (10 min — the most important part)
3. What do you need from me? (5 min)
4. Career / growth discussion (5 min — at least monthly)
5. Feedback (5 min — both directions, every time)

Manager's role in 1:1s: Listen 80%. Ask questions. Don't solve problems immediately — ask "what do you think we should do?" first. Take notes. Follow up on action items from last 1:1.

Phase 2: Feedback (Continuous, Not Annual)

Radical Candor framework (Kim Scott):

	Challenge Directly	Don't Challenge
Care Personally	RADICAL CANDOR	Ruinous Empathy
Don't Care	Obnoxious Aggression	Manipulative Insincerity

Feedback formula: "When you [specific behavior], the impact was [specific result]. In the future, I'd suggest [specific change]." Example: "When you presented the metrics without context, the board spent 20 minutes confused. In the future, include a one-sentence summary of what each number means."

Phase 3: Goal Setting (OKRs)

Objective: Where do we want to go? (qualitative, inspiring) Key Results: How do we know we're getting there? (quantitative, 3-5 per objective)

OKR cadence: Set quarterly. Check weekly. Grade at end of quarter. Target: 70% achievement (if you're hitting 100%, you're sandbagging).

Phase 4: Delegation (Molly Graham — Giving Away Your Legos)

The delegation ladder: Level 1: I do, you watch. Level 2: You do, I watch. Level 3: You do, I review. Level 4: You do, you own. Level 5: You teach someone else.

What to delegate: Anything someone else can do 80% as well as you. Your job is to work on things ONLY you can do.

Phase 5: Remote Team Management

Asynchronous-first: Default to async. Meetings are for decisions, not status. Written culture: Write everything down. Decisions, context, plans. Overcommunicate: In an office, people overhear. Remote doesn't. Say it twice.

Implementation Checklist

• Weekly 1:1s with every direct report (30 min, never canceled)
• Feedback given in the moment (not saved for review cycle)
• Quarterly OKRs set with 3-5 KRs per objective
• Delegation ladder used for every new responsibility
• Team rituals documented (standup, retro, planning, all-hands)

Common Pitfalls

1. Canceling 1:1s. "Nothing to discuss this week" = you're not asking the right questions. Fix: Never cancel. Agenda belongs to the report.
2. Saving feedback for review. 6 months of saved feedback = "why didn't you tell me this in January?" Fix: Real-time feedback. Radical Candor.
3. Doing instead of delegating. "It's faster if I just do it." True today. False tomorrow. Fix: Delegation ladder. 80% as good is good enough.

Output Format

The agent delivers a management artifact matched to the user's specific request:

• 1:1 Template (when requested): 30-minute agenda with ownership notes (report owns the agenda), a 10-question bank for blocking/challenge discovery, and a follow-up tracker for action items
• OKR Draft: Objective statement (qualitative, inspiring) + 3–5 Key Results with measurement method, baseline, target, and rationale for the 70% achievement threshold (Grove/Doerr standard)
• Feedback Script: Behavior → Impact → Ask phrasing using Radical Candor quadrant placement (Kim Scott framework) — includes one positive and one corrective example
• Delegation Plan: task-relevant maturity assessment per direct report using Grove's spectrum (low-medium-high autonomy) and recommended delegation ladder level (Molly Graham)
• Team Ritual Calendar: recurring cadences (standup, retro, planning, all-hands, 1:1) with duration, facilitator, agenda format, and async-first alternatives for remote teams

Quality Check

Before delivering, verify:

• All required sections complete
• Output matches the user's stated need
• No vague or unsupported claims
• Frameworks cited where applicable

Execution Artifacts

• references/framework-notes.md — Named frameworks and reference tables
• templates/output-template.md — Deliverable shell for agent output
• scripts/check-output.py — Lightweight deliverable validator

Related Skills

• sales-coaching — Coaching framework for sales teams
• first-hires-playbook — First 10 hires
• hiring-by-role — Role-specific interview guides
• employment-compliance — Legal requirements for managing
• gtm-leadership — GTM-specific hire/fire, PIP, difficult conversations, comp approval