Most managers fail this 10-point test
Will you?
Hey team,
The BIG update this week is… we’ve officially set a launch date for Custard 🎉 And it’s coming sooner than you think.
After months of building, testing, breaking things, and rebuilding things (classic startup life), we’re so close to opening the doors. But for our first launch, we’re only opening the doors to 50 businesses at our exclusive launch day pricing, so we can work closely with everyone.
More details coming very soon. Make sure you’re on the waitlist so you don’t miss out.
ALSO, I have a very fun announcement coming for you on Thursday, something we’ve been wanting to do for a while, but keep putting off, so keep an eye out 🎙🎙
But, back to the matter at hand…
Most managers fail this 10-point test
I’ve spent the last 10 years in leadership roles, and the last 3 of those years, training managers across SMEs, huge corporates and beyond, and I’ll tell you something SO interesting…
Most managers can confidently tell me:
Their revenue target,
Their client deadlines,
When their boss is next on annual leave.
But ask them:
“How healthy is your team?”
“Who is quietly disengaging?”
“Who hasn’t had meaningful feedback in three months?”
And silence.
And what makes that so frustrating is that second list… That IS the job. Get that right, and the first list pretty much takes care of itself. Miss it, and you'll be chasing targets, plugging gaps, and wondering why nothing quite sticks.
This second list, the great leadership list, is a checklist. And most managers are running their teams without one. So let me give you mine.
The 10-point test
Ten points are available. Be very honest with yourself.
1. Every person on my team can explain exactly how their performance is measured
Clear roles & expectations. Clear success measures that they reguarly report on. Not “they know, roughly”, but actually, explicitly clear.
2. I have a consistent 1:1 rhythm
Every person has protected time in the diary and when you’re in it, you’re covering development, blockers, feedback, and workload. Not just project updates.
3. I know what each of the individuals in my team are struggling with the most
The biggest mistake managers make is assuming no news is good news.
Your team often won’t tell you they’re overwhelmed, they won’t tell you they’re losing motivation, or that they don’t trust a decision that was made. They’ll just quietly disengage. And by the time it surfaces, it’s already a problem.
So even though we can’t ‘fix’ every struggle and fear, we can know, ask and listen.
4. I give feedback before frustration builds
Great managers don’t wait for annual reviews. Feedback is a regular, low-stakes conversation, not a formal event that everyone dreads. The longer you leave it, the more loaded it becomes.
5. My team knows the collective priorities and vision of the team
Right now, today could every person on your team name the three most important things you’re collectively focused on? If not, they’re probably all working hard. Just in slightly different directions.
6. I have accountability without chasing
If you’re constantly reminding people, you’re the bottleneck. If everything relies on you remembering, the system is broken.
Signs it’s not working: you’re chasing the same things every week, nothing moves without you, and you’ve quietly stopped delegating because it feels easier to just do it yourself.
Accountability should be a shared expectation, not a chase you run every Monday morning.
7. My meetings feel purposeful
Every recurring meeting should have an objective, an owner, and a clear outcome.
“Catch-up” is not an objective. “To align” is not an outcome. If you can’t articulate what’s different after the meeting than before it, reconsider whether it needs to exist.
8. People feel safe disagreeing with me
Your culture isn’t measured by what people say when you’re in the room. It’s measured by what they say when you leave. If disagreement is rare, it’s not because everything’s going brilliantly, it’s more likely that people have learned it’s not worth it.
9. I’m building a team that can operate without me
One of the biggest traps managers fall into is becoming the person who holds everything together.
If every decision comes through you, every question comes to you and every problem needs your input.. It might feel like ‘good’ leadership, it makes us feel needed.
But eventually we have to realise we haven’t built a high-performing team… we’ve accidentally built a team with a single point of failure: you.
The big goal always need to be: To build a team that succeeds, without me, because of the systems I created.
10. You regularly check if your leadership is working
Regular pulse checks. Asking. Listening. Adjusting.
The best managers treat their leadership the same way great companies treat a product: always in iteration, never assuming it’s finished.
How many did you answer ‘yes’ to?
Let me know in the comments…
But, what do I do about it?
If you went through this checklist and ticked less than 7… good. That means you’re ego isn’t too high and you found the areas where you can improve. You’re in the making of a pretty great leader.
Most of us managers get promoted because we’re brilliant at our job. Then, overnight, we’re expected to understand motivation, performance, difficult conversations, delegation, culture, and everything else that comes with managing humans.
Usually with no instruction manual.
So go back through your answers and find what you believe to be your biggest gap.
Don’t try and fix everything at once. Pick the area that would make the biggest difference to your team, and start there.
You got this.
Final thoughts
Most departments have dashboards for sales, marketing, finance, and operations. There are metrics, reviews, targets, and tracking for almost every function in a business.
But the thing responsible for all of those results, the people, is usually managed on gut feeling. And gut feeling doesn’t scale.
The managers who get this right aren’t necessarily more talented. They just have a system. But there’s no early warning system for disengagement, no prompt to check in before the wheels come off.
That’s exactly what Custard is built to fix.
Custard gives managers the exact system for managing their team that they were never given, surfacing what your team aren’t telling you, before it becomes a problem.
Make sure you’re on the waitlist for all the juicy details.
H x
score - 4