Manager Mentor
Inconsistency is the biggest mistake first-time managers make
Inconsistency is the biggest mistake first-time managers make: 5 ways teams lose trust and feel neglected
Summary: The hardest part of being a consistent manager is walking the talk. The consistency between your words and actions is always the most difficult part of the job. Setting expectations is hard. Following through is even harder. Even more difficult is the fact that the pace of change inside organizations is accelerating with the adoption of AI — making it even harder to have all the answers as a manager, especially first-time managers. Inconsistent management impacts trust and creates a sense of neglect. Five mistakes to avoid.
WHY: Consistency as a manager matters
Ok. I wasn’t originally thrilled with writing about my “mistakes”.
It’s my nature to be positive and optimistic, but I got a message from a subscriber asking about mistakes I’ve made as a manager. So I’m breaking down and sharing them today(!)
Looking back, my mistakes are universal in this way: all of them are based on my own inconsistent behaviors. Readers of this newsletter know my research into the future of managing found that consistency is the number one reason millennials and gen-z recommend a manager.
That’s the upside of being consistent.
But inconsistency cuts deep, much deeper.
When you are inconsistent as a manager, it affects people in two fundamental ways:
It erodes trust — because your people are asking: will you do what you say? This is about reliability of your word.
It creates neglect — because people are wondering: can I count on you? This is about people feeling they can’t depend on you.
Ouch, literally. But this is the point: learning from mistakes is how managers, especially first-time managers, can avoid them.
My research showed consistency is a set of behaviors, not a personality trait. Each of these behaviors is learnable — because I hope no one repeats any of these five mistakes.
WHAT: Five Ways Inconsistency Shows Up on Your Team
1. Being inconsistent about who’s doing what
Early in my career, I developed a reputation for being a “line of sight” manager — asking the last person I saw to do the same thing I’d just told the person before them, sometimes spinning up two or three teams on the same problem. It was literally the definition of “management insanity.”
How I was inconsistent: I should have focused on which roles are most aligned to the problem I wanted solved — instead I kept problem solving with everybody.
2. Creating a position out of weakness
Many of my worst mistakes as a manager were when I tried to “save someone” who wasn’t performing in one role by creating a role just for them. Every time — every time— I did this it led to hurt feelings and failed expectations.
How I was inconsistent: I didn’t hold someone accountable — and I wasn’t telling them the truth about their performance. I confused accountability with feelings. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
3. Thinking stuff was more important than facts
In my first operations review at Cisco, I tried to hand out some of the content my team created to the leaders in the room. Cisco’s CEO at the time and my boss, John Chambers, waved me off. I was proud of my team’s output, but that isn’t the same as an outcome.
How I was inconsistent: I wasn’t setting my team up for success — I didn’t realize senior management only cared about outcomes. I hadn’t yet learned how to communicate with facts.
4. I struggled with difficult conversations
I didn’t like confrontation, especially with my peers over bad behavior or when a trade-off decision needed to be made. As a first-time manager, I actively avoided those conversations, which never, ever worked.
How I was inconsistent: I hadn’t yet developed my approach to managing — so I often didn’t have a point of view of what mattered to me. Early on, managers sometimes see tough conversations as winning or losing. Later I learned that logic and data defuse emotions and manage tough discussions.
5. Not understanding how pressure affects me
Later in my professional life, I learned from listening to John Chambers in a meeting we were in together that “you learn the most about someone when they are under pressure.” Earlier in my career, I learned this lesson first-hand where I got emotional when the heat was turned on. It didn’t happen a lot, because I realized how important controlling your emotions is to being a good manager.
How I was inconsistent: Getting emotional is the definition of inconsistent.
HOW: Take Action This Week
As you can see, I learned from feedback and my own failures that inconsistency is the enemy of being a great manager.
As a result of my openness to learning how to do better, I was ultimately given the opportunity to lead the largest sales enablement team at Cisco with hundreds of people and nearly $100 million annual operating budget, including data centers, sales labs and experience centers around the world.
Can you say the same about yourself? If you look at the Six Drivers of Consistency as the foundation of managing the next generation of talent, where are you? Ask your trusted advisors for feedback on yourself. Where do you need to get better with the Six Drivers?
This Week: Take the Self-Assessment
Take my free self-assessment and see where you stand on the Six Drivers of Consistency.
This Month: Ask Your Team Directly
Share your results with your team and your mentors. Tell your team: “I took an assessment on the Six Drivers of Consistency. Here’s where I see myself. Here’s where I want to get better. I need your feedback — where do you see me differently?”
How to be a Great First-time Manager: The Culture Platform
The only purpose-built learning and development system for first-time millennial and gen-z managers.
The corporate ladder has been dismantled rung by rung by AI. For millennials and gen-z, the predictable career path has vaporized — and most managers are navigating it alone, without any formal training.
I’ve managed about 5,000 people in my career, and was consistently ranked in the top quartile of all managers at Cisco, one of the world’s best places to work. I’ve walked in your shoes as a manager.
I left Cisco to answer one question with research and evidence: what does the manager of the future look like?
My research — conducted with thousands of young people at companies like Amazon, Google, Disney, and DoorDash — identified Six Drivers of Consistency that separate great managers from the rest, with a 95% confidence interval.
That research became The Culture Platform: a complete learning and development system — Framework, Feedback, and Tools — purpose-built for first-time managers who want to separate themselves and be a great manager of high-performance teams.
The Six Drivers of Consistency — Managing in the Age of Uncertainty
A research-backed series for first-time millennial and gen-z managers by Ron Ricci
[Overview: How to Be a More Consistent Manager] · [Accountability: How to Hold People Accountable Without Micromanaging] · [Process: How to Share Your Management Process With Your Team] · [Alignment: How to Align Your Team to Your Priorities] · [Listening: How to Listen to Your Employees Effectively] · [Mindset: How to Develop Your Management Style] · [Facts: How to Use Facts to Manage Your Team’s Performance]
ManagerMentor • All Rights Reserved • The Culture Platform, Inc. • 2026