Building Self-Managed Teams: A Case Study from Riot Games

Episode Overview

• The episode explores how to transition from a directive leadership style to one that fosters autonomous, self-managing teams, drawing on Mike Seavers' experience as the former CTO of Riot Games.
• It introduces the concept that a leader's true effectiveness is measured by their team's ability to perform and improve in their absence, framing the manager's role as that of a coach, not a player.
• The conversation provides a practical framework for empowerment, centered on shifting team members from asking for permission to making their own informed decisions.
• Key analogies, such as the "coach on the sidelines" and the "monkey on your back," are used to illustrate how managers can avoid becoming bottlenecks and instead focus on developing their people.
• The ultimate goal of leadership is defined not just as achieving results, but as growing individuals into future leaders by providing them with vision, context, and ownership.

Key Concepts

• Leader as a Coach: A leader's role is to prepare the team, set the vision, and provide feedback, but not to "play the game" by making all the decisions or doing the work for them.
• Dependency vs. Autonomy: A key indicator of a high-performing team is its ability to function without the leader's constant intervention. If team performance declines when a leader is absent, it signals the leader was a dependency, not an enabler.
• Permission vs. Empowerment: The language used by a team (e.g., "Can I?" or "Should I?") reveals its level of empowerment. An empowered culture is one where individuals feel they can take initiative without seeking constant approval.
• Coaching Through Questions: Instead of providing answers, effective leaders ask questions like, "What would you do if you were me?" to force critical thinking and transfer ownership of the decision back to the team member.
• The "Monkey" Analogy: When a manager takes on a problem or decision that belongs to a team member, they are taking that person's "monkey," which disempowers the employee and overloads the manager.
• Intent-Based Leadership: A practice where team members shift from asking for permission to stating their intentions (e.g., "I intend to..."). This allows leaders to guide and correct course without micromanaging.
• The Power of "Why": A leader's most critical job is to ensure everyone understands the vision and goals (the "why"). This context empowers the people closest to the problem to determine the best way to execute (the "how").

Quotes

• At 2:10 - "I made a lot of mistakes when I was a young manager... one of the reasons I'm passionate about management and leadership is because I hope to help other people avoid a lot of those mistakes." - Seavers explains that his passion for leadership is rooted in his own early career challenges.
• At 4:05 - "If a leader leaves a team and performance declines, that's a pretty good sign that that leader didn't actually create the conditions for the team to manage themselves." - Seavers explains how a leader's true impact is revealed when they are absent.
• At 5:31 - "The point of a leader is to get the best performance out of everyone else... not to go do the work and make all the decisions." - Seavers uses a sports coach analogy to illustrate the role of a leader in an empowered team.
• At 9:59 - "What would you do if you were me? If you were in my shoes, what would you do?" - Seavers shares his go-to coaching question to shift team members from seeking permission to making their own decisions.
• At 22:10 - "Those aren't words of empowerment. Those are words of authority. Can I, should I, am I allowed to... can I have your approval? Like, those are words of authority." - Seavers contrasts the language of an authority-based culture with one of true empowerment.
• At 22:56 - "Stop making decisions for them. So when they come to you and say, 'Can I?'... a very simple question to ask in return is, 'What would you do if you were me?'" - Seavers offers a practical technique to shift responsibility back to the team member and encourage them to think critically.
• At 26:58 - "He talks about... he taught people to, instead of asking for permission, to say 'I intend to'." - Seavers references the core concept from the book Turn the Ship Around, which reframes decision-making from seeking approval to declaring intent.
• At 33:24 - "That's the difference, I think, between like a good manager and a great manager. A good manager can get results. A great manager can get results and grow their team and grow their people and and help them all do that for somebody else someday also." - Seavers defines the ultimate goal of leadership as not just achieving outcomes but developing future leaders.
• At 42:54 - "The reason they're doing something is because I want it. I said, what I would prefer is that they understand the vision and the goals... and someone's taken the time to explain to them why a thing is important, not because I want it." - He explains that motivation and good decisions should stem from understanding the "why" behind the work, not simply from following orders.

Takeaways

• Diagnose your team's level of empowerment by listening for permission-seeking language like "Can I?" or "Do you approve?" as these are indicators of dependency.
• When asked for a decision, resist the urge to provide an answer and instead coach your team member by asking, "What would you do if you were in my position?"
• Intentionally avoid taking on your team's responsibilities (the "monkey") to prevent becoming a bottleneck and to create growth opportunities for them.
• Reframe your primary role as a leader to be the provider of context and vision (the "why"), trusting your team to figure out the execution (the "how").
• Measure your own success not by your individual contributions, but by your team's ability to consistently deliver results and develop their skills, even when you are not there.