How to Lead a Team as a New Manager? Three Words Forged in Three Months

Lin Yue walked out of his office, half the corridor lights already off. He glanced at his phone: 11:40 PM.

Three months into his role as department director, he was always the first to arrive and the last to leave every day. He revised proposals himself until the early hours, took client calls personally, and was always the first to rush in to fix crises. Yet at weekly report meetings, the three supervisors would all stare at him waiting for assignments, and the work they submitted kept looking worse and worse—"I might as well do it myself."

How do you lead a team as a new manager? He thought the answer was to work hard and set an example. After three months, he’d become the busiest person in the whole company, but his team had grown quieter and quieter. What do you do when your team won’t take initiative? Subordinates waited for his orders, too afraid to act, so all the work piled right back on his plate.

A friend asked him why he didn’t delegate. He put on a tough front: "If I hand work off, I still have to clean up the mess when it comes back—who’s on the hook for client complaints?" What he didn’t say out loud was this: he was afraid to admit that someone on his team was better than him at something. He saw himself as the all-around capable one, and the team had become just hands and feet waiting for instructions.

On the weekend, he went to visit Lao Wu. Since retiring, Lao Wu had been growing orchids on his balcony. He handed Lin Yue a thermos cup when he arrived: "You look worse than you did last month."

Lin Yue laid out all his troubles. Lao Wu listened without saying a word for a long time, then finally asked: "How did Liu Bang win the empire?"

Lin Yue was caught off guard.

"He held a banquet for all the court officials in the Southern Palace of Luoyang, and in front of everyone, he said three times 'I am not as good as'—I’m not as good as Zhang Liang at strategizing from within the tent; I’m not as good as Xiao He at stabilizing the state and comforting the people; I’m not as good as Han Xin at leading a million troops. After saying those three 'I’m not as good as' lines, no one in the court thought less of him."

Lao Wu set down his thermos cup: "Why? Because he followed it right up with: 'I am able to use them.'—I can put their skills to work. That’s his real ability."

"What you’re doing right now is still entry-level work. Back then, you competed to see who could do more; now you compete to see who can get others to do more. Liu Bang dared to say in public 'I’m not as good as him at this', and you can’t even say 'Xiao Wang knows more about this than I do' in a meeting without feeling like you’re losing face."

"And there’s another saying: same tones resonate with each other, same energies attract each other. Whatever vibe you give off, that’s the kind of people you’ll have around you. You stay up working until midnight every day, and your supervisors see it: the boss can do everything, so we can just wait around. You’re not leading a team—you’re leading an audience."

Lin Yue didn’t reply.

"飞龙在天 (Flying Dragon in the Heavens)—it doesn’t mean the dragon does everything in the world by itself. 利见大人 (It Furthers to See the Great Person) means you go find people, you bring people together. Clouds follow dragons, wind follows tigers; each does their own part. When you learn to see people’s strengths and delegate work, that’s when this dragon truly takes flight."

On Monday, he did three things.

He handed over the two core clients he’d been managing for three months to two supervisors, went with each of them on a round of client visits, then let them take over from there. At the weekly meeting, he was unsatisfied with one supervisor’s proposal—but instead of taking it and revising it himself, he circled two issues and sent it back: "You revise it, get it to me by Wednesday." He sent a message in the department group: "From now on, supervisors make the call on project matters first. Come to me only if you can’t decide—I manage the timeline and resources; you all decide on the specific plans."

The second week, one supervisor’s proposal was rejected by the client. He held back from taking it over, led a 40-minute review session, and had the supervisor revise it and resubmit. Another week later, the client replied: "This version is good."

On Friday evening, he left work on time for the first time. His phone pinged: a supervisor asked in the group, "I’m planning to go with a new direction for next Tuesday’s proposal—do you want to take a look?"

He typed three words and sent them: "You decide."

How do you lead a team as a new manager? Three months ago, he thought the answer was to work as hard as possible. Now he knows: let the people who are good at it do the work.