What managing really means — The manager

If managing means carrying within oneself — and if gestation is its truest figure — then what are the qualities of a true manager?

Receptivity. A good manager possesses an inner space vast enough to carry the project within. Not in their tools. Not in their dashboards. Within themselves.

Listening. They place themselves in service of the project they carry — just as a pregnant woman serves the child within her. They go beyond their personal interests.

Protection. They shield the project from external and internal attacks, long enough for it to reach maturity — until it can fly on its own.

The true manager does not act for themselves. They act for the project they carry.

Most digital projects fail because those who carry them carry them for themselves, not for what they are. And a project that is not carried for what it is never becomes what it could have been.