I’ve worked with a lot of Delivery Managers (DMs).
Some were absolute structural engineers of sanity, logical creatures with emotional understanding.
Some were baffling, erratic and odd.
And some felt like they’d been deployed by the universe purely to test my patience and make me question everything in my life thus far - I still have the scars (metaphorically of course).
A DM can tilt a whole team’s universe, toward cohesion or chaos and most of the time, they don't even realise they're doing it.
The brilliant ones? They serve the team. They make themselves invisible, like a hidden Fat Controller. It’s trite and rolled out on podcasts to say ‘servant leader’ - but there’s something to it.
The awful ones? They see the word “manager” in their title and decide that they're the boss. They give off the the frantic, ego-driven stench of someone who applied for The Apprentice, didn’t get in, and has been performing to an imaginary camera crew ever since. Their business tiktok is gonna blow up any day guys.
The Best DMs Are Guardians of Culture
A good Delivery Manager doesn’t just keep the trains running. They are the guardians of the conditions the work needs to survive, they’re focusing on delivery and working with and for the team.
They’re the quiet custodians of the unglamorous essentials:
Psychological safety
Clarity of purpose
Conflict hygiene ("What we do when things go wrong")
Emotional temperature (noticing when someone sounds "off")
Ensuring the team have the right tools (I apologise profusely for getting locked out of JIRA…)
These people understand that culture isn’t a trite motto poster on a Teams background or an AI informed workshop. It’s the day-to-day weather. And they keep the skies clear like some kind of celestial bulldog.
You’ll find them:
De-escalating tension before anyone realises it existed (even me, the poster child of overthinking)
Blocking toxic noise from senior leaders who want to derail the team as it might stop their empire building.
Reminding everyone why we’re doing this, not just what we’re doing.
Setting a tone that the team naturally synchronises to.
A great Delivery Manager is a tuning fork. They don’t impose culture, they hold the frequency steady so the rest of us can lock into the work.
The Worst Ones Are Apprentice Rejects
Then there are the others. Yes I have list - no you can't see it.
The ones who treat delivery like an aggressive performance review conducted by Lord Sugar. They are the main character in the story of the project.
Their trademarks are loud, confident, and destructive:
Performative urgency (all caps emails).
Weaponised Kanban boards (boards used to shame, not inform).
Buzzword-driven ceremonies (meetings for the sake of metrics - No, I will not take this offline).
"Managing up" while the team quietly burns beneath them.
Treating impediments like plot twists they must dramatically announce - a 30 minute staff wide meeting to announce you’re not going to be in on Friday? True story.
They bring that Apprentice energy: loud confidence, minimal competence, and the deep belief that process is something you inflict on people. These DMs don't guard culture—they erode it by making the culture whatever mood they happen to be in that day.
The Best Ones Don’t Centre Themselves — They Centre the Work
Here’s the secret pattern I’ve seen again and again:
The brilliant ones aren't invisible - but they're not the main character. They're the amazing support character that makes everything click.
The terrible ones make themselves the main character and they think they’re in ‘Peaky Blinders’ or ‘Sex and the City’.
Great Delivery Managers don’t need to be the loudest voice in the room because they’re too busy listening and fixing. They don’t need to rack up personal "wins" because the team’s success is the only win that matters. They don't chase influence; influence naturally accrues to people who make other people calmer and more effective.
The Real Test: What Happens When Things Go Wrong
If you want to see the difference instantly, watch a team on a bad day: a massive bug, a sudden pivot, a critical deadline missed, Jason shouts at someone…
With a great DM:
Blame disappears.
The pace steadies.
Communication sharpens.
People lean in rather than scatter.
With a poor DM:
Chaos accelerates.
Decisions freeze.
Meetings multiply to assign "ownership."
"Ownership" becomes a weapon.
One is a culture keeper and a stabilizing force. The other is an accelerant of chaos.
The Big Takeaway
Don’t look at their frameworks. Don’t look at their dashboards. Don’t even look at how the sprint is going.
Look at the team.
Ask yourself: Do these people feel safe, clear, supported, and able to do their best work?
Or do they look like contestants bracing for Lord Sugar to point and say “You’re fired”?
That’s the difference. A great Delivery Manager makes the team feel more capable. A bad one just makes them feel observed.