“Great managers are made, not born.”

Why it was said

Julie Zhuo states this in the opening pages of The Making of a Manager (2019), introducing it as a belief she holds "as deeply as I believe anything." She wrote the book from her own experience of becoming a manager at Facebook early in her career, with little preparation for the role.

What it actually means

The sentence is aimed at the new manager who suspects that leadership is a temperament they either have or lack. Zhuo's answer is that most of the job consists of learnable practices: running a useful one-on-one, giving feedback that lands, hiring well, making meetings worth the time, delegating without disappearing. Like any skill, these improve with deliberate practice and honest feedback, and early clumsiness says little about later ability. The claim has limits worth stating. It does not say that everyone should become a manager or will enjoy it, and Zhuo is clear elsewhere that management is a different job from the expert work that often leads to it. What the line removes is the excuse that a poor start proves a lack of talent.

How to use it

1. 1Pick one management practice you find hardest, such as giving critical feedback, and ask a trusted colleague to observe and comment on your next attempt.
2. 2Ask each person who reports to you what one thing you could do differently to help them, and act on one answer within the month.