Members of our team spent the past week at AfroTech, the largest gathering of Black tech professionals in the world founded by Morgan DeBaun and honestly, it felt like a family reunion. Imagine the energy of homecoming season at an HBCU, multiplied by 40,000 people. It was a celebration of creativity, ambition, and the brilliance of Black excellence in tech on full display. But beneath the music, panels, and networking buzz, one conversation kept surfacing, especially among younger professionals: no one wants to be a manager.
And they weren’t shy about it either. Many saw the management track as a necessary evil on the path to promotion, something to survive, not aspire to. Given the models most of us have seen, I couldn’t blame them. Still, standing in the largest Black tech gathering in the world, it was sobering. My colleague and I kept wondering, if we won’t step into management, who will?
I talked to two young men who shared their familiar story of a experiencing a bad manager. They didn’t want to repeat the same pattern for others. They also really enjoyed their work as engineers and saw management as a distraction. The thinking was, I’m good at my job, why would I stop doing that to try something I’m not sure I’ll be good at? They couldn’t see the forest for the trees (and who could blame them- these are some pretty obstructive trees blocking their view!).
Now consider the additional pressures managers are facing right now, particularly in the tech industry where they’re being scapegoated for every problem right now. Go ahead, google what’s wrong with managers and you’ll find all kinds of theories. But if you do the same search for how to fix bad managers, the advice is usually aimed at the employees they lead.
That’s why we spent most of our time at the conference offering a different message.
What if management wasn’t the end of your creative journey, but the next chapter?
What if leadership wasn’t a detour, but your legacy?
One woman I met told me how she started managing reluctantly. She didn’t have great role models, and in the beginning, she hated it. But she stayed and worked at getting better at the job because she saw what was at stake. She thought about the young Black women on her team who reminded her of her younger self and realized she could offer them something she never had: an example of what good leadership looks like. Ten years later, her team is thriving and she’s proof that when we get management right, we don’t just lead teams we shape futures.
At ManagerEQ, we believe better bosses build better businesses and better legacies. If you’re a manager (or want to be one) who’s ready to build that legacy, we’re inviting a small group to test our product before it launches.
Join the waitlist or sign up to test ManagerEQ
Let’s build the future of leadership — together.
