Management isn’t what it used to be. The old playbook—where showing up early and staying late proved your worth—has become obsolete. Yet many organizations still cling to outdated practices that create barriers for talented people who deserve a seat at the leadership table.
Christine Sandman Stone knows this landscape well. With over 35 years of steering transformation at companies like McDonald’s, Dell, and Volkswagen, she’s witnessed firsthand how traditional management structures fail diverse talent and modern teams alike.
The Barrier at the Bottom
Here’s a sobering statistic: for every 100 white men who climb into management roles, only 87 white women make the same jump. The numbers drop even further for people of color. This isn’t just a fairness issue—it’s an organizational weakness that drains innovation and limits what companies can achieve.
Think of it as a ladder with a missing bottom rung. No matter how talented you are, if that first step doesn’t exist, you’re not climbing anywhere.
The fix starts with transparency. Companies need to audit their promotion data regularly, focusing on who’s advancing and who’s getting stuck. Structured mentorship programs help, but they need teeth—real sponsorship from senior leaders who will advocate for underrepresented talent when opportunities arise.
Presence Doesn’t Equal Performance
The pandemic shattered one useful illusion: that productivity requires physical presence in an office. Unfortunately, many organizations responded by swinging too far toward empathy without maintaining focus on results.
The truth? Location matters far less than clarity. When employees understand exactly what they’re supposed to deliver—and by when—they’ll figure out how to make it happen. The manager’s job shifts from monitoring activity to defining outcomes and removing obstacles.
This requires a fundamental mindset change. Stop tracking hours. Start measuring impact. Replace surveillance with trust, backed by regular check-ins that keep everyone aligned.
The Theater Must End
Corporate culture loves its theater. The person who stays until 9 PM gets praised, even if they spent three hours scrolling social media. Meanwhile, the efficient worker who crushes their goals by 3 PM gets side-eye for leaving “early.”
This performance wastes everyone’s time and burns out your best people. Real leadership means celebrating actual achievements—the closed deals, the solved problems, the innovations that move the needle—not the visible struggle.
Not Everyone Should Manage
Here’s a secret many organizations won’t admit: promoting your best salesperson into sales management often creates one mediocre manager and loses one excellent salesperson.
Managing people requires genuine interest in developing others. It’s a distinct skill set from technical expertise. Smart companies build dual career tracks—one for people leaders, another for individual contributors—with comparable compensation and prestige on both paths.
The Path Forward
Modern management needs modern tools. New managers shouldn’t be left to figure things out through trial and error. They need practical playbooks, peer support networks, and regular feedback that accelerates their learning curve.
Just as importantly, they need mentors outside their reporting chain—people they can be honest with about challenges without fear of career consequences.
The broken rungs can be repaired. It requires intentional effort, transparent systems, and a willingness to abandon management theater in favor of results. Organizations that make this shift won’t just be fairer—they’ll be stronger, more innovative, and better equipped for whatever comes next.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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