Close your eyes.
Take a slow, deep breath.
Let your shoulders drop.
Picture the people who report to you — your team.
Not as a list of names, but as human beings.
See each face. Remember each voice.
Now, think about the mandate they’ve been given.
The problems they are here to solve —
for the customer,
for the organization,
for the world.
Hold these two things in your mind:
your team, and their purpose.
Notice all the other things swirling around them:
Schedules. Meetings.
Process frameworks. Management dashboards.
Stakeholders offering advice — or demands.
Policies. Plans. Projections.
Some may be useful.
Others may not.
Let’s return to first principles.
Let’s strip it all away.
One by one, imagine removing these external items from your team:
Wipe away each process — Scrum, Agile, sprints, estimates, forecasts.
Wipe away each policy.
Wipe away culture and tradition.
Keep going until there is nothing left —
no charts, no frameworks, no rituals.
Just people, and a goal.
Sit in this emptiness.
Now, return to each person on your team.
What energizes them?
What are they uniquely capable of?
What do they need from you to succeed?
What do they want for their own career —
and how can that connect to the team’s purpose?
Notice where their personal goals align with the work.
Notice where they don’t — and what you could do to bridge that gap.
Only now may you begin to add things back.
Choose the processes that supports them in reaching their goals.
Choose policies that protect their time and focus.
Choose tools that amplify their strengths.
Do not slap a pre‑made process over the top of your team —
as if it were one‑size‑fits‑all.
Design the process around the people.
Tailor it to each unique individual.
Around their skills.
Around their needs.
Around their growth.
This is what it means to be a manager.
Open your eyes.
Jot down what came to mind.
Set yourself to achieving it.
And every so often, return to this place —
strip away the noise,
and remember what is essential:
People.
Purpose.
And the space you create for them to succeed.
But, but ... standards, best practice ...