How to be a good people manager

My name is Adina Popescu, and I am a Senior Manager in the Technology & Transformation business line.

My life and career span two very different, opposing systems, which I carry with me to this day. I grew up and was educated under Romania’s totalitarian regime where, ironically, I was already “leading” as a child, wearing the red tie and pin as a class representative, and later as head of my university group.

Shortly after graduating and spending a few years at SAP Romania, my values were reshaped entirely when I joined Deloitte, where I have spent over 20 years across Prague, Germany, and Switzerland, with a five-year detour at another highly people-oriented company. I have learned many lessons along the way, and the points below helped me to become the leader I am today.

Be a good teammate
At the start of my career I never personally pushed to become a leader. I simply wanted to earn respect among peers and leaders, support my colleagues, and help create a productive, pleasant working environment. Most of my consulting years were spent abroad on client sites, with colleagues who became like my second family. This closeness built strong bonds within our team, and I like to think that I was one of the people who helped nurture this by being a good team player.

Learn from your leaders
This has been one of my most important growth factors. I have been inspired by my leaders, finding role models along the way and recognizing the quiet “wow” moments when someone’s advice, attitude, or character resonated with me. I was fortunate to have leaders in Deloitte Prague, Germany, and Switzerland who coached and shared their wisdom generously. I benefited from simple advice, like pursuing a certification, and from complex conversations with no clear right or wrong answer. This learning continues to cascade into how I lead my own team. Even after all these years, I’m still learning from my leaders.

Nurture a good team
If this were an awards speech, it would include a heartfelt thank you to my team. Working alongside talented, self-aware people who can assess and challenge themselves makes the job both easier and genuinely enjoyable. They push me to stay sharp, to try the unfamiliar, and to grow alongside them. It’s rewarding to watch them succeed and I take pride when they’re promoted – even if it means saying goodbye, as I did this year to a dear team member who moved into a different team. I’ve learned to let go gracefully — perhaps in part because as a mother of a 20-year-old, I’ve had plenty of practice in giving, receiving, and releasing!

Fail at least once
There’s no simple formula for good leadership — but how you handle failure is definitely a key part of it. I have had my own failure, one significant enough to keep me away from people leadership for a few years. The experience taught me something that theoretical guidelines and trainings alone could not have; that feedback is hard to deliver and often received differently than intended. I came to accept that each person owns their own path, and that confronting someone with an unwelcome reality is genuinely difficult.

Don’t forget the soft skills
My professional background is fundamentally technical and process-driven focused on deadlines, systems, processes, results. This is precisely why people-focused and soft-skill trainings feel like an oasis to me; they reset the human side of who I am. I try to attend such trainings and webinars several times a year. Deloitte offers a rich pool of resources — Deloitte University, webinars, and communities — where I learn not just how to lead, but how to stay human while doing so.

I prefer using tools like Insights Discovery and Myers-Briggs. These helped me to recognize my gaps and to become more empathetic, better balancing my naturally driven style.

I will end with two reflections

1. Learn from your mistakes: I often ask myself what I could have done differently even if sometimes the answer might come later down the line.
2. Stay human: Being authentic, transparent and humane as a leader is more important than ever.