Silicon Valley’s ‘player‑coach’ fantasy misses the point of good managers

Good morning. Few things transform a career or a company like an excellent boss. Most of us have had them and we know what it looks like in others. Here are five CEOs who have low turnover and inspire people to do their best work: Marvin Ellison of Lowe’s, Patagonia’s Ryan Gellert, Linda Hubbard of Carhartt, Daniel Lubetzky, founder of Builders and KIND Snacks, and Hamdi Ulukaya of Chobani. I moderated an on-stage discussion with them about purpose-driven leadership at Milken this week and was struck by how their values permeate their organizations and drive growth. We talked about dignity, opportunity, agency, creativity, and creating a shared mission.

Contrast that with the rhetoric we see around Silicon Valley’s latest push into “player-coaches,” along with its continued vilification and misunderstanding of managers. We saw Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong telling workers to be more “front footed” as he flattens the organization or Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg saying he needs to cut back people-oriented things to invest more in compute infrastructure. (Shout out to folks like Aaron Levie of Box for trying to “bring reality to the valley.”) Do we need to reimagine work, leadership and how we structure companies in the age of AI? Yes. Should we look to companies like Coinbase and Meta to lead the way? Not necessarily. Here’s why:

Don’t criticize what you can’t understand. Nurturing great managers and creating layers of bureaucracy are two different things. Bayer CEO Bill Anderson understands the difference as he restructures the company. I’m less sure when I see Armstrong of Coinbase, a company that posted a 22% drop in revenue and net loss last quarter, dismiss “pure managers” as people creating layers that slow things down. You know what slows people down? Being misaligned on objectives, diminished, micromanaged, rudderless, disengaged, and isolated—not to mention being stuck in roles where they don’t advance or learn. There are certainly CEOs who are introverts or neurodivergent tinkerers who would rather chat with a robot than a room full of employees. But the best leaders appreciate the importance of leadership at all levels and in all forms across their organization.

Technology changes how, not what. GE’s laborious talent-management system was showing cracks long before Jeff Immelt left as CEO. AI can radically personalize how we mentor and engage employees, build our brands, create our products and delight our customers. We may need fewer managers or maybe AI will free us up to become better managers, roaming around the office like Socrates and Plato. But some fundamental truths don’t change. Managers matter. Earlier this week, I was speaking with Gallup CEO Jon Clifton, who just released a global study of 350,000 employed adults, showing that work enjoyment is strongly linked to wellbeing and longevity. And the key factor determining that enjoyment: how they feel about their boss.

Start at the top. You know who is a pure manager? The CEO. Those who lack the self-awareness or tools to be good managers in that role tend to create environments where people don’t want to work. I’ve met more whistleblowers and disgruntled former employees from Meta over the years than people who say it’s the best place they’ve ever worked. With the escalating war for top talent, maybe those people-oriented things matter after all.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

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