A manager’s job is to deliver results in the short-term and the long-term. There’s a lot that goes into it, but ultimately the manager is accountable for the results, not for the effort. Being accountable does not mean the manager gets credit for them. There’s a contradiction at the heart of being a good manager: if things go well, it’s because you hired a great team. If things go poorly, it’s because you’re a bad manager.

The first part requires a recognition that the manager doesn’t actually do the work. You plan, coordinate, coach, communicate, and so forth, but you don’t make the deliverable. You need the team for that. In addition, if you want credit, you shouldn’t be a manager. Being a manager is about other people not about you.

The second part is because you’re ultimately accountable for the results no matter what. If there’s a problem with someone on the team, it’s your job to fix that problem, work around it, or replace the person. Most failure modes for the team and the deliverable are in some way your responsibility and within your power to fix. If there’s a proximate cause to failing to deliver, there’s likely an upstream failure that you didn’t address or prevent.

This contradiction may seem unfair. Maybe it is. If that apparent unfairness makes you not want to be a manager, perhaps that’s for the best. If you’re willing to accept it, maybe you have the right mentality. Also, it’s not like it’s truly unfair. In most organizations, you can advance further on the management track than you can on the individual contributor track. That means more money and more authority. That makes up for quite a lot.