How Good Managers Save Everything: The Not-So-Secret Key to Organizational Success
Summary:
Most organizational problems trace back to one thing - people managers who don't know their actual job. Nina Jacinto, a people operations strategist with a decade of reorg and management experience, shares her practical approach to fixing the management problem that's quietly sabotaging your mission.
What’s in it for you:
You're frustrated with your team's performance and wondering what you're missing
You have managers who were promoted for being great individual contributors - and are struggling with the management part
You want concrete tools to support first-time managers instead of hoping they figure it out on their own
You need a framework that works for resource-constrained nonprofits and social ventures
Helia’s Perspective
I don’t think Nina and I have talked since we worked together in 2009-ish(!), I’ve been able to watch her career from afar and when I recently saw a beautiful leveling chart she shared with a potential client, I was like, NINA!
Wildly capable, funny, human and if she says she's good at something, I trust in that! She still uses "cheers" as her email sign-off and I only buy water bottles with a good straw or spout (the vessel matters!) - things we learned from each other and have held true even through nearly two decades of not talking.
As someone who's been both a great manager (when I focused on my team at Revolution Foods) and a terrible one (when I tried to just do the work alongside my team at Springboard Forward), I can tell you that the management thing matters. A lot. And the idea of giving people a job description for the management part of their work? I haven't heard that specific offer and was like, YES, CLARITY!!!
Nina gets to the heart of something we don't talk about enough in our social sector - any for-profits, non-profits, creatives, start-ups and companies working to make our world better. When we add organizational complexity (levels, management structures, systems), we make things harder.
While this might be necessary to make our visions come true, it also comes with a responsibility to work within them in ways we feel good about, with integrity, and that honor that our organizations are made up of humans who need to work well together to succeed.
What I love about Nina's approach is how honest she is about these being hard AND her responsibility to do them well. She understands that good managers are the foundation for all things - they're the difference between organizations that thrive and those that struggle, between missions that get accomplished and those that get lost in dysfunction.
Nina’s Story
Nina's path to people operations wisdom came through the back door. She started in fundraising and grant writing but quickly discovered she "did not love asking people for money." After pivoting through grant management, contract management, and risk management, she found herself drawn to internal operations and process work.
But her real insights came from being an employee first. "I was a job hopper. I changed jobs almost every two years and I felt like that was the only real way for me to professionally grow in my career," Nina explains. "And I realized that a lot of that came down to my own experiences at work. Like, who are the managers that I gravitated towards and wanted to follow? Who are the managers where I'm like you're making my day-to-day excruciating?"
This employee perspective shaped everything: "I know what it's like to be an employee and to have a shit process that you just feel like is creating more work with no results and we're doing this dance that doesn't actually mean anything." She learned to push against leadership from the outside, then joined leadership herself to try to change things from within.
Then the breakthrough came: "You do the work long enough and you realize it really comes down to all the simple things that you hear over and over - people tend to leave bad managers, if people do not feel valued in their work they tend to leave. I had a lot of personal anecdotal evidence that suggested this and then after working with a lot of different types of organizations found that in fact that is also true for most people."
Her expertise deepened through managing five layoffs in five years - brutal experiences that taught her how change management really works. But at the core, Nina learned that "one of the special things about people operations is you really get to connect with a lot of people in some of the trickier times of their career and you get to hear from managers who are resentful about their teams and teams who are resentful of their managers and who don't feel seen."
This dual perspective - understanding both sides - led to her fundamental insight: "I meet with and have worked with a lot of leaders and managers, experienced and not, who are just like, 'I don't understand why my team isn't doing the job that I want them to do.' And I am generally someone who responds, it sounds like you have a management problem."
Her philosophy is simple: "If you're looking around for the adult in the room and you can't find one, you're the adult."
Two years ago I got back into ceramics. Throwing pottery at the wheel teaches me so many lessons that I bring into my work life.
What this Looks Like in Practice
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Nina's most powerful insight is that management isn't an add-on to your "real" job - it's substantial work that requires dedicated time and clear expectations. "There's a lot of work that goes into it and it's not as ambiguous as people think. It's actually a pretty clear set of parameters."
This isn't just about having a job description - it's about recognizing that management fundamentally changes what your job looks like. Nina breaks management into six key areas:
Building an exceptional team (hiring, retaining, giving feedback, addressing performance issues)
Setting vision and goals
Managing execution (monitoring progress, staying engaged, debriefing work)
Being an organizational leader
Evaluating performance
Mitigating risk
But she goes beyond the basics to include things like supporting team communication, coaching and staff development, embracing equity and inclusion, and establishing regular check-ins. The reality is that management is "very much wearing all the hats and figuring things out as you go along."
"So many managers that I've worked with I'm like, how did you become a manager? And they're like, well I was a really strong individual contributor and then I got promoted and the promotion path was management," Nina explains. Without clear expectations, people end up confused: "I didn't know it was my job to do it."
The solution isn't just clarity about what management entails - it's helping organizations understand that they need to restructure roles to make time for this work. Management isn't something you do in addition to your individual contributor work; it's a different job entirely. And it’s not always for everyone!
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Nina starts her work with struggling managers by looking at the fundamentals - not because everyone needs an audit, but because basic management practices reveal so much about what's actually happening.
"I'll usually do an intake with the manager one-on-one and try to understand what the issues they’re seeing are. One thing I almost always recommend across the board is to do a meeting audit with them. We go into their calendar and I’ll be like, 'Oh, where is your weekly one-on-one with your employee? How are you running your team meetings?'"
The diagnostic is revealing: "Are one-on-ones happening? Are they being driven by the manager or the direct report? Are you skipping them and doing them once every two months and why is that? There's a lot of diagnostics that can come from understanding meeting cadence for a manager."
This isn't about being prescriptive - it's about helping managers see patterns. "That tends to open up a lot because they'll be like, oh, I don't have meetings dedicated to management. You're like, okay, well, let's sort that out."
The same applies to performance conversations: "How are you thinking about your direct report's performance? When you say, 'Oh,they’re doing a good job,' how are you telling them this?"
For everyone else, Nina's approach suggests paying attention to your own management experience. Are you having regular one-on-ones with your manager? Do you know how your own manager thinks about your performance? Are team meetings actually useful? You can reference tools like Jesse's 1:1 framework to see what good management support looks like and advocate for what you need.
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Nina has a counterintuitive insight about what employees really need: "Often when I have met with disgruntled employees, managers think that the problem is they're providing too much oversight or micromanagement. But most of the time I've noticed that the opposite is true. Actually people want direction. They want clarity. They want to know why their work matters. They don't want to be an afterthought."
The sweet spot isn't less management - it's better management that helps people feel seen, heard, and valued. This connects directly to having clear organizational direction (as explored in Helia's Strategic Planning and OKRs resources). When managers understand the bigger picture, they can help their teams see how their work connects.
This is especially important in resource-constrained organizations where people are wearing multiple hats. "We don't have people who are full-time managers where their entire job is just managing a team all day,'" Nina notes. "But what I want organizations to know is that good management really does start at the top - with a leadership team who are often managers communicating a strategy or alignment to their managers who are then communicating and defining things and outcomes for their team."
The solution is strategic clarity that flows through the organization: "You are not trying to control your team. You are trying to empower them by offering guidance and support, clarity, process, and feedback."
When people feel like afterthoughts - when they don't understand how their work connects to bigger goals, when they rarely get feedback, when they're left to figure things out alone - that's when resentment builds and good people leave.
Secret Sauce & Takeaways
The problem is almost always management: "I’ve yet to run into a situation where it's the team - it's always the manager. When you're looking for the adult in the room and can't find them, you're the adult"
Every organization should outline what management means: Rather than generic job descriptions, teams need clarity on what management looks like and clear expectations about what managers will offer AND what folks will receive
Pay attention to the basics: Look at calendars, one-on-one schedules, and how performance conversations happen before trying to fix culture issues
Goldilocks zone matters: People want direction and clarity, not micromanagement or being left alone as afterthoughts
"It's not your fault, but it's your responsibility": Nina's go-to phrase for helping managers own their role without inappropriate guilt
Management culture shapes everything: "So much of culture, so much of process and honestly so much of achieving business objectives comes down to how good your managers are"
Fun fact, I'm a big Peanuts fan, so this photo was a core memory
Questions to Ask Yourself
As a manager:
Do I have a clear job description for the management part of my work?
Am I having effective weekly one-on-ones consistently, or are they getting skipped when things get busy?
How am I helping my team understand how their work connects to our bigger goals?
As a leader:
When team members aren't performing, am I looking at the management first?
What would happen if I audited my organization's calendars for "management time"?
Are we providing the direction and clarity people need, or hoping they'll figure it out?
For everyone:
Am I getting the direction and clarity I need from my manager?
Do I have regular one-on-ones with my manager, and are they useful for both of us?
Do I understand how my work connects to our bigger goals and mission?
Want to Try This?
Lots of great goodies here - and all are recommended to be considered and planned around in partnership with a legal advisor!Templates & Guides:
Nina's Manager Job Description - an actual JD that outlines what management means - so there’s a resource for every “what do I do now” moment
Helia's Why Interview Template - one of our favorite tools for building your exceptional team
Nina's leveling matrix example - helps folks see how expectations shift across levels - great tool for managers AND team members to see how everything fits together (and read more on leveling charts with Rachel Kleban’s Drama to Clarity: The Power of Leveling Frameworks)
The Gift of Honest Conversation: How to Make Transitions Work - for handling transitions when the same old isn't working
Recommended Reads:
Ask a Manager by Alison Green - Nina’s been a reader for decades now and consistently recommends this as a resource
Management in a Changing World: An incredible read that provides in depth guidance on managing in social-impact organizations
Harvard Business Review: Some great articles about managing people can be found here (subscription required)
Connections:
Nina Jacinto for people operations strategy support, reorg planning, and manager development (reach out with subject line "Helia Help")
The Management Center’s Management Training is consistently a BRILLIANT starting point
About the Library Contributor
Nina Jacinto has spent a decade leading people operations in nonprofits and startups, and now provides strategic consulting to organizations and teams. After managing five layoffs in five years, she figured out how to help organizations and their leaders make changes without losing their humanity. She earned her people operations expertise the hard way - and now helps others do hard things with integrity.
Nina started the Long Beach Crochet Club for "introverts who like hobbies" when she moved to the city, has attended members' weddings, and earned 117 five-star reviews for creating community where people actually want to show up. She still uses "cheers" as her email sign-off.
Interested in working together? Email her directly at ninarjacinto@gmail.com, connect with her on LinkedIn, or learn more about her services at ninajacinto.com
This article comes from a coffee chat with Nina in June 2025. These conversations form the heart of the Helia Library – because we've learned the most from doing and from talking with other doers willing to share their wisdom. We don't need to start from blank pages or do everything alone.
As always, take what's helpful, leave what's not, and make it your own.
