Our team is smaller now. Should our managers become player-coaches or should we remove the management seats?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Separate the need for management from the need for a full-time management position. Fewer direct reports may reduce management workload, but it does not eliminate the need for priorities, feedback, decisions, and accountability.

Design the required functions first. Identify what leadership and management work remains, then determine whether someone can carry that work alongside an individual contribution. Do not preserve a management seat just because its current occupant has a senior title.

For a proposed player-coach arrangement, make both kinds of work explicit:
- What outcomes must the person deliver directly?
- What outcomes must they achieve through the team?
- Which decisions can team members make without approval?
- What happens when delivery work conflicts with coaching or supervision?

Define approximately five core accountabilities for each distinct seat. If one person occupies both, assess the combined demand rather than evaluating each seat in isolation.

Watch for a predictable failure: direct work is urgent and visible, while management work gets postponed. If feedback, coordination, and decisions repeatedly slip, the arrangement is not functioning as designed.

Remove unnecessary layers, not necessary accountability. A player-coach structure is appropriate when the work is manageable and the person fits both responsibilities. If it depends on constant tradeoffs that leave the team unsupported, reduce their delivery load or redesign how management is provided.