Would Rand Fishkin Hire Your Managers?

For a long time, I thought I was a great manager.

Ten years in agency SEO. Four to five of those leading teams. If you asked me back then, I would have confidently said I was a solid B+.

I was wrong. Not completely wrong, but wrong enough to matter.

The first time I read Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin, I was fully bought in.(Rand is Founder of Moz (sold), now co-founder of SparkToro, Snackbar Studio, and Alertmouse.)

Reading it again years later hit differently.

This time, it was after getting fired, having a role eliminated, and spending five years running my own consulting business. Same book, completely different lens.

Back then, I read it and nodded along. Now, I read it and see the gaps.

This post is a gut check. For me, and for teams that promote their best individual contributors and hope it magically translates into leadership.

We’ll get into IC roles in a later post.

How Teams End Up With Bad Managers

Most companies don’t struggle to find smart people. They struggle to turn those people into effective managers.

So they fall back on the default move. Promote the best individual contributor and assume the skills will carry over.

I’ve seen it. I’ve been part of it.

Sometimes it works. More often, it creates a manager who was never trained to manage, leading a team that slowly feels it.

That’s when things start to break. Performance dips, frustration builds, and good people leave while leadership tries to figure out what changed.

This is exactly what the “8 behaviors consistent across great people managers” from Lost and Founder are meant to address.

8 Behaviors Consistent Across Great People Managers

These are the behaviors that consistently show up in strong managers:

1. Good coach

2. Empowers the team and does not micromanage

3. Expressed interest or concern for team members’ success and well-being

4. Productive and results-oriented

5. Is a good communicator

6. Helps with career development

7. Clear vision or strategy for the team

8. Has important tech skills that help him/her advise the team.

This is how I would have graded myself then vs. now.

A few held up. A few didn’t.

W2 vs 1099 Nick Grades

The past five to seven years changed how I see search, business, and how people actually operate inside companies. The politics, the incentives, the games that don’t show up in any job description.

So this felt like the only fair way to approach it. Grade 2018 me when I first read Lost and Founder versus how I’d grade myself today.

For context, I’m now a solo consultant. That shift didn’t happen by accident. It came out of this kind of reflection back in 2020, along with losing my job… again.

Here’s the honest version.

Where I Fell Short

A few stayed consistent. The ones that didn’t are the ones that matter.

These are the areas where my perception didn’t match reality.

Good Coach (B- → C+)

I thought this was my strength.

If someone showed interest, I’d invest heavily and teach them everything I knew.

The problem is in that sentence. :if someone showed interest.”

I struggled to coach people who were just there to do the job. Not bad employees, just not all-in on SEO like I was. I wasn’t prepared to meet them where they were.

Empowers the team / avoids micromanagement (A → B-)

This one stung.

I always thought I was flexible in how work got done. In reality, I was prescribing the path. Step-by-step, with check-ins, to protect quality and deadlines.

The truth is I didn’t fully trust others to deliver work tied to my name.

Micromanagement isn’t hovering. It’s limiting how people operate instead of holding them accountable to the outcome.

Communication (B+ → C)

This one hurts the most.

As an IC, I’m a strong communicator. As a manager, I wasn’t.

I over-invested in high performers and avoided being direct with everyone else. Feedback was softened, delayed, or unclear.

If you were doing well, I was a solid manager. If you weren’t, I made it harder for you to improve.

Pro tip: if feedback needs to be given, be direct.

Clarity beats comfort. Every time.

IC vs Manager: Make It a Choice, Not a Default

My solution? I leaned into my control issues and went out on my own.

Do you think any employer is signing off on these weekly newsletter takes?Not a chance.

For everyone else, here’s the practical version.

Most companies don’t have a manager problem. They have a decision problem.

They treat management as the next step instead of a different role.

That’s how you end up promoting your best individual contributors into jobs they were never trained for, and often don’t actually want.

If you want to avoid that, a few things need to change:

1. Separate career paths earlyGive people a way to grow without having to manage others. Not everyone should be responsible for people, and forcing that path creates bad managers FAST.

2. Define what “good management” actually looks like within your orgTenure isn’t a signal. Neither is being good at the work (unfortunately). If you can’t clearly define what makes a strong manager, you’ll keep promoting the wrong people.

3. Test before you promoteDon’t hand someone a team and hope it works out. Give them opportunities to mentor, lead small projects, and handle feedback conversations first. See how they show up.

4. Reward outcomes, not opticsBeing busy, being liked, or being the “go-to” person doesn’t mean someone can lead. Measure how their team performs, develops, and retains.

5. Train your managers, or expect inconsistencyMost companies invest heavily in hiring and almost nothing in management training. Then they’re surprised when results vary wildly across teams.

You’ve got this.

Don’t worry, if not, you’ll hear about it in your employee exit interviews.

~Nick