Managerial leverage
A manager's output is the output of the organisation under them, and activities differ in how much output they produce per hour spent. An hour spent making a delegation clear pays back across every hour the delegate then spends on it.
Evidence grade: practice A widely adopted practitioner model with clear provenance.
Use it when
Deciding where a manager's time goes; explaining why a manager's performance is read from their team; making the economic case for explicit delegation.
Where it stops working
Leverage can be negative, as when one hour of a manager's time interrupts ten people. The framing also says nothing about which outputs matter.
Where the standard uses it
- PL-1Delegation, ownership, and decision rightsMatching scope to capability, making authority explicit, not taking work back.
- PL-4Performance managementExpectations, support, honest consequences, and fair process.
- CC-6Self-managementThe manager's own time, energy, boundaries, and resilience.
Sources
- Andrew S. Grove. High Output Management. Random House, 1983. In the bibliography
Used alongside it
- Burnout as a job condition research
- Calibration practice
- Ego depletion and decision fatigue contested
- Fair process practice
- Levels of authority and intent-based leadership practice
- Managing your own time practice
Cite this model
Chicago, BibTeX and licence →Engineering Management Academy. (2026). Managerial leverage. In Engineering Management Academy Body of Knowledge (Version 3.1, TEC.managerial-leverage). https://www.engineeringmanagement.academy/body-of-knowledge/techniques/managerial-leverage