What’s your mindset for making decisions?
Here’s something boomer managers could get away with: keeping information about themselves “close to the vest.” That’s because the pace of change was glacial compared to today, and AI didn’t exist to force managers into a never-ending series of choices about how a team evolves and what trade-off choices need to be made.
Today’s managers spend about 40 percent of their time making decisions, according to McKinsey. That’s about 16 hours a week, if you only work 40 hours. It’s likely more than 20 hours a week making decisions. I led a team of more than 250 people globally with a nearly $100 million budget at Cisco less than a decade ago — and there is no way I was spending nearly half my week making decisions. We could execute our plan largely quarter-by-quarter for the entire fiscal year.
What about you? How much time every week are you spending making decisions?
WHY: So much decision-making?
1. The End of Top-Down Decisions
Past (boomer era): Command-and-control structures moved information slowly up and down the chain. Decisions were frequently batched into quarterly plans and annual budgets, and standard procedures covered most decisions.
Today: Flatter organizations and real-time communication push decisions down. Because AI is about reimagining work, many choices are made without a playbook.
2. More Data, Harder Choices
Past: Managers had little data and operated on assumptions based on a few core financial or production metrics.
Today: Dashboards and real-time metrics flood managers. More data means more variables to weigh, consider and make judgements about.
3. From Supervising to Collaborating
Past: A manager’s value came from overseeing repeatable or routine work with incremental productivity expectations.
Today: Managers can spend nearly 60 percent of their time in collaboration meetings getting things done, as companies focus on layers of best-in-class functions to deliver a product or service.
WHAT: Your people want to know how you’re “wired.”
My research into the future of managing showed that today’s workforce cares deeply about the way a manager makes decisions. It makes sense: the velocity and volume of change affecting people on a team demands a degree of transparency that boomers simply didn’t need to deal with.
We’re all unique as people, so here’s what first-time managers should focus on: tell your people how you think and make decisions.
If you like facts, they want to know it. If you like to listen about problems by talking directly to customers, they want to know it. If you have a game plan when you have to make a trade-off decision, they want to know it.
People really care about the way a manager is wired; it helps a team anticipate the way a manager approaches budgeting and performance management — such as who gets promoted and who doesn’t. Your best people want to shine on your dashboard of responsibilities, but they know the way you think as a decision-maker will influence who gets recognized and rewarded.
Back in the day, people actually spent time trying to reverse-engineer how their manager worked. There’s no time for that today as a manager.
Managers become managers — and later leaders — because they’re effective decision-makers. It’s also part of your brand and career story. Spend time on how you tell your story, the lessons you’ve learned, when something is a first-time experience for you. My experience has taught me that letting your team see this part of you endears them to you in some way. And we all know the value of discretionary effort.
HOW: 25 quotes from 15 amazing people
A manager’s mindset for decision-making is one of the Six Drivers of Consistency — the behaviors my research found predict whether someone recommends their manager to a friend or colleague.
1. “Be clear on your purpose as a manager.” — Michelle Bowman, author of the Purposefully Yours newsletter and Ahead of the Current
2. “I’ve seen too many young professionals accept jobs for the wrong reasons.” — Oscar Munoz, former CEO, United Airlines; author of Turnaround Time
3. “Are you managing the work or are you managing the meaning of the work?” — Kari Zeller, author of Re-Placed: Answering the Call of Leadership in the Age of AI
4. “Ambiguity, adaptability and authenticity define the leader’s role today — it’s why self-awareness matters so much.” — Loretta Stagnitto, creator, Self-Aware Leader assessment
5. “Curiosity can be learned; it’s not innate.” — Dr. Deb Clary, author of The Curiosity Curve
6. “Focus on what you can control.” — John Chambers, former Cisco CEO
7. “You can give your team purpose by sharing your thought processes and help them anticipate future direction.” — Leslie Rubin, former communication advisor to John Chambers; author of Filling the Leadership Gap
8. “Your mindset starts with wanting people to hear you. What you say in any group setting is how you differentiate yourself as someone who matters.” — Cassie Divine, former senior operational leader, Intuit; writes Career <Hack> on Substack
9. “It’s easy to lose your voice.” — Cassie Divine
10. “How do you convey ‘I’ve got this’ even if you don’t have all the answers?” — Cassie Divine
11. “What do you want to be known for as a manager?” — Michelle Bowman
12. “Accumulated judgement is the opposite of AI. Your experience informs your direction.” — Michelle Bowman
13. “I’ve always been about the next thing before I finish the last thing.” — Jan De Kesel, author of the Thinking Time newsletter
14. “When you are bridging from the past to the future, look outside your own industry.” — Jan De Kesel
15. “A career story is like a person being a product, and your product is the way you think and the way you work. It’s your reputation.” — Patti Sanchez, co-author of Illuminate
16. “The students aren’t necessarily ready for the mock interviews or for the resumes yet. Students need to take a step back to start thinking about their unique identity and forming that distinct identity.” — Jen Elena Romano, co-founder and CEO, Cura
17. “To be marketable, you have to be current. Make it work for your favor, use it for your advantage.” — Erin Bergamo Tacy, communications and marketing leader at Cisco, VMware, Lenovo, AWS and Couchbase
18. “AI can change the keywords in your resume, but it can’t introduce you to people.” — Rene Siegel, Silicon Valley mentoring voice for recent grads
19. “Everyone is starting from the same place.” — Rene Siegel
20. “I call knowing yourself, ‘knowledge of contribution.’” — Oscar Munoz
21. “Something I’ve always done in my life is start with yes.” — Jim Ellis, former CEO, Porsche Design; former business school dean at USC
22. “You’ve got to take stock of your strengths and weaknesses all the time, be honest with yourself.” — Jim Ellis
23. “Most people don’t realize we are ‘context creators.’ They assume context is just inherited, something that happens to you, when it’s actually something you have the power to construct.” — Kari Zeller
24. “You have to stop thinking about the word boss — it just shouldn’t even get into your vocabulary. You are a partner in trying to be successful. You’re managing the process. My job as a manager is to take a lot of the friction out of your job.” — Jim Ellis
25. “In small businesses, managers work right next to their people — side-by-side versus delegation. It’s a flatter structure, and you need to train people for a different kind of work environment.” — Rik Jones, owner, Cicero’s Pizza
How good a manager are you?
Where do you rank on the Six Drivers of Consistency? Take the Self-assessment.
How to be a Great First-time Manager: The Culture Platform
The only purpose-built mentorship system for first-time managers of people.
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 I 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 mentorship 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.
ManagerMentor • All Rights Reserved • The Culture Platform, Inc. • 2026