The Chris Voss Show Podcast – The Miracle Manager: Why True Leaders Rarely Make Great Managers by Kevin G. Armstrong

Sep 27, 2025

In this insightful conversation, Kevin G. Armstrong, author and EOS implementer, challenges the conventional views on leadership and management. He explains how true leaders differ from effective managers, highlighting key traits that successful managers possess, like empathy and accountability. Armstrong argues for the importance of processes over goals in achieving sustainable success. He shares intriguing insights on personality traits that affect management roles and emphasizes the need for complementary partnerships between visionaries and managers.

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INSIGHT

Leaders ≠ Managers

Kevin Armstrong separates leaders (visionaries) from managers (coaches) and argues they require different skill sets.
He defines managers as people who get things done efficiently through others and leaders as those who look to the future and do what they believe is right.

ADVICE

Promote For Management Skills

Hire or promote for management traits like empathy, organization, process discipline and courage to have tough conversations.
Avoid promoting top performers solely because they excel at individual contributor roles.

INSIGHT

Managers Are Coaches Who Run Processes

Managers are essentially coaches who enforce processes and develop people within systems.
Following proven processes scales performance and prevents organizations from hitting a growth ceiling.

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The Miracle Manager: Why True Leaders Rarely Make Great Managers by Kevin G. Armstrong

https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Manager-Leaders-Rarely-Managers/dp/1946633003/

Kevingarmstrong.com

KEVIN G. ARMSTRONG – THE MIRACLE MANAGER

“My MBA degree did not teach me what Kevin Armstrong has to say in this book.”
―BRUCE DER, P. ENG., MBA, president and CEO, A.H. Lundberg Systems

Manage A Team That Will Follow You Anywhere!

In The Miracle Manager, Kevin G. Armstrong argues that placing true leaders in management positions has become an epidemic that is destroying businesses.

Armstrong―a successful speaker, business owner, advisor, disruptor, and best-selling author―knows first-hand the consequences of mistaking great leadership for effective management. With knowledge gained from 20-plus years of exclusively advising CEOs, business owners and their management teams, the author presents a revolutionary approach to organizational management.

Utilizing professional researchers and actual case studies of great leaders and coaches of the past, Armstrong illustrates why being a stellar player rarely equates to being a great coach – why businesses have to start rewarding and recognizing their leaders, and valuing the special talents of their managers.

“Throughout history, many influential people have earned the title of leader,” says Armstrong. “Leaders look to the future, oblivious to who or how many are following. Being an effective manager requires you to efficiently and effectively work through others ― to be what I call a ‘manacoach.'”

Armstrong shares his proven strategies for implementing management techniques based upon revolutionary concepts to create scalable and sustainable cultures of accountability.

For business owners and their management teams, The Miracle Manager is your guide to aligning people with your company culture and creating a healthy environment through accountability where politics cannot survive.

About the author
Kevin G. Armstrong is an author, speaker, business advisor, disruptor and authority in implementing simple, proven management solutions – but simple doesn’t mean easy.

In his diverse and accomplished career, he has taught at the high school and college levels, owned and sold small businesses, been an investment firm top seller, and worked in management as a VP at the corporate level, overseeing agencies throughout North America. Kevin has decades of experience helping business owners—from “mom and pops” to Fortune 500s—get more out of their business. Kevin currently leads a group of advisors at the Interdependent Training Group (ITG) which advises business leaders on creating clear vision and implementing strategies to hold their management teams accountable for delivering on their vision.

For the past 20+ years of his career, Kevin has studied the important differences between the roles of ‘leader’ and ‘manager’ in business. His speaking engagements expand on this concept in an interactive, thought-provoking manner which disrupts current thinking and leaves audiences with a new understanding of how leaders can be leveraged through exceptional management to achieve business and personal success.