The Misadventures of a Supermanager

Who’s your favorite superhero? Batman? Superman? Maybe Wolverine, or Wonder Woman? These days, there are more than enough options to go around.

Personally, I grew up on the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies. I was just the right age when those movies came out to be captivated by his high-flying, web-slinging heroics (and perpetually confused by that dancing scene). Those films still hold a special place in my heart, all these years and Spider-Men later.

You know which hero never caught my attention? Not as a kid watching cartoons, not as a teenager going to movie theaters, and not as a parent streaming movies from home with kids asleep upstairs.

That would be Supermanager, of course!

The name may not ring a bell, but you surely know this superhero quite well. Supermanager doesn’t swing through the skies of New York City, but they swing by desks to answer questions, solve problems, and save crucial projects right at the deadline. Supermanager has all of the right answers, knows all of the stakeholders, and can write the perfect “just following up” email to get a response. Employees everywhere rest easy knowing that their friendly neighborhood Supermanager is keeping watch.

Starting to sound familiar? I thought it might.

So why doesn’t Supermanager have a movie deal? I don’t recall seeing any Supermanager lunch boxes or t-shirts growing up. Maybe Supermanager has a show on one of those lesser streaming platforms?

I have a theory: Supermanager is super in name only. In practice, Supermanager may start as a high-flying hero but inevitably ends up exhausted, looking around for some help.

To understand why, let’s look at the common origin stories of Supermanagers, the inevitable foe that rises to oppose Supermanagers, and posit a better path for new managers - an alternate universe, if you will.

The Origin Story

Supermanagers aren’t born on a distant planet and sent to live here on Earth. No, much like Spider-Man they start off as earnest, motivated, and sometimes younger employees who are eager to help the people around them. Then, just like Spider-Man, they are bitten by the bug - the leadership bug, and imbued with a promotion to management.

Like every new manager, our budding Supermanager is bound to hit a few bumps in the road. They start fielding new questions, attending new meetings (so, so many meetings), and taking on new and challenging conversations. Cue the overwhelm. But, just as they are starting to question their new role, an employee reaches out, “Can you help me with this?”

The new manager is more than ready to jump in and prove their worth, to revisit the familiar, to feel helpful. Leading is new and uncomfortable, but doing is what got them promoted in the first place.  Dopamine rushes in as they successfully help one team member, then another. More and more opportunities to help seem to pop up each week. Soon, the new manager is answering questions, jumping on calls, assigning work, picking up slack, organizing team meetings, and so much more. Their calendar is booked full, and it couldn’t feel better.

Supermanager is here.

The Villain Emerges

Supermanager usually starts off really strong. Thriving, even. Under their watch, projects are moving along, metrics are on track, and nothing is falling through the cracks. When something does crop up, Supermanager offers a simple “I’ll handle it.” And they do. This might even go on for a while - months or years may pass as Supermanager masters the constant juggling act.

Unfortunately, this prosperity never lasts forever. Employees learn that Supermanager has all of the answers, so they bring them all of their questions. The rest of the company recognizes Supermanager’s impressive capabilities, and suddenly Supermanager’s inbox is full of ideas, invitations, and requests. The occasional late night wrapping up a project turns into 50- and 60-hour work weeks. 

Eventually, and without fail, Supermanager’s archnemesis arrives to spoil the party. Here comes Burnout.

Like a great supervillain, Burnout doesn’t arrive all at once. No, it’s much too clever for that. It creeps in at the edges, in the quiet moments between meetings and projects. It shows up in the details that get missed, in short emails sent from an unrelated meeting, and in the occasional refrain of, “I’m sorry, something just popped up and I need to drop off of this call to put out a fire.”

To make matters worse, none of Supermanager’s old tricks seem to get rid of Burnout. No amount of overtime or multitasking or crunch work will lighten the load - in fact, those only make things worse. The cape starts to feel heavy, and Supermanager is left wondering if they really can do it all.

The Alternate Universe

The unfortunate truth is that Supermanager will never fully defeat Burnout - at least, not without an evolution in their approach. Burnout will always be there, lurking around the corner after a busy quarter or a new set of performance goals. There is too much work to go around, even for Supermanagers.

Every new manager must undergo a fundamental shift, from doer to leader. As Simon Sinek says, “We have to go through this transition of being responsible for the job, and then turning into somebody who is now responsible for the people who are responsible for the job.”

Once we move into management, we have to fight the urge to lean into our familiar expertise and keep doing the job we used to do - even when it solves an immediate problem or helps the employee in front of us.

Following the superhero metaphor, we have to evolve from the hands-on hero, defined by their strength and raw capabilities, to the advisor who sees everything and operates from afar. In practice, this looks like going from Captain America to Nick Fury, or from Wolverine to Professor X.

This change requires a substantially different set of skills. Instead of instructing, we must ask questions and provide coaching. Instead of solving or taking over, we have to become teachers and enablers.

Here’s a mindset shift that might help you with the transition:

Every time you rescue an employee, you take away an opportunity for them to grow.

Keep in mind, this is a difficult transition, but you don't have to make it alone. Put together a team, and draw a support from the leaders around you so that you can grow and evolve into the great leader that your team needs and deserves. After all, with great power comes great responsibility.