Fire the Managers. Promote Mentors

When we were a dozen or so at Walcu, I knew that one day, if things went well, we’d grow and eventually need a hierarchy.

I dreaded that part.

I’d seen this movie too many times: companies whose managers don’t actually do the work, aren’t particularly respected, and compensate with spreadsheets, dashboards, goals, and meetings about all that non-sense.

Today, at 50+ employees, we still don’t have managers. Instead, we have mentors.

This wasn’t accidental. From day one, we never used the word manager. We focused on growing exceptional individual contributors—people who were already doing excellent work and had the natural ability to influence others.

These individuals were already respected and admired by their peers. Mentees wanted to listen to them, to follow their lead.

Mentors know work, they do not need to reach for metrics. Quality and pace is obvious to them. They know how their team is doing. They see it. They hear it. They recognize it.

Having people that both know the work and have strong influence on others is our culture, our rocket fuel.