Career Path

Have you had any training in people management, business management, and leadership? Regrettably, many firms promote talented individual contributors into a management role with little to no management and leadership training. You might find that being a great manager, alleviating organization headaches and the causes of those headaches, and developing your team into a team of stars is far more rewarding than doing your best as an individual contributor.

As a manager, you have the ability to do things that individual contributors can't do. You can lead, mentor, solve problems, institutionalize best practices, skill sets, and domain knowledge. You not only manage and provide leadership to your direct reports, but your peers, and superiors as well.

People management is quite a bit more than managing people. Not knowing more of your situation, it all sounds like the first line manager blues. Not to say this is your case, but most new first line managers have very little management skills, training, experience, and perspective on what people management is really about. And, it takes time to become a good if not great people manager. And believe me, there is no such thing as more of the same when it comes to people management at higher levels of the company. I could go on and on and on.

By all means, follow your passion. But, consider stepping out of your comfort zone and being the best you can be. You might find that with significant experience, training, and mentoring by an executive, you might very well become a great manager, have lasting impact and life-long appreciation from your direct reports and others, and in the process find it the most rewarding and enjoyable endeavor that you have had the opportunity to be pursue.

If you have ever had a truly awful manager, then you know the lasting value that good managers bring to their direct reports and their company. And there is tremendous reward in that, far beyond just a few extra dollars.

1. Is managing different kinds of people [and business units] different?
   
   
   
   • Yes, it is. The wide variety of people management roles can be, and almost always are, quite different.
   
   
   • For many, the challenges and rewards (internal accomplishment not just money) increase exponentially with the size, span, and mission of the team.
   
   
   • People management involves not just managing people, achieving the objectives of the unit, and solving problems, but also providing leadership, coaching, counseling, appraising, ranking, mentoring, and fixing the unit level and organizational mechanics that create and/or enable problems in the first place.
   
   
   • People management consists of a long list of capabilities and skills that the people manager must exhibit. These skills do not come about overnight, just because someone has been named a manager.
   
   
   
   


2. How do I know before stepping into this role, when offered, if this is really the right career choice for me?
   
   
   
   • Discuss this with your manager and career mentor. Good companies identify management candidates and offer career development to prepare you for your role as a manager.
   
   
   • Additionally, many companies seek ways to give management candidates exposure to first line management, such as being the acting manager on a temporary basis for a manager on leave or for a open, yet to be filled position.
   
   
   • There are those that advocate that every business professional should read one business book per week as part of ongoing, career long learning and development. In additional to basic people management books that you can find in any library or book store, you can also find people management gems on such topics as Situational Leadership, Servant Leadership, Effective Performance Planning Coaching and Evaluation, etc.
   
   
   • You can also attend seminars and training (classroom and online) on just about every people management topic. Years ago when I first became a manager, I attended an incredible Situational Leadership class that was augmented by showing the timeless movie classic, "Twelve O'Clock High" starring Gregory Peck and studying the situational leadership techniques as demonstrated, both effectively and poorly, by the various characters in the movie. Training like that both prepared and inspired all those in attendance to be not just good but great managers.
   
   
   
   

Is people management right for everyone? Of course not. But the broader points are twofold. First, without proper preparation, training, and time for development, most new managers will fumble through it somewhat ad hoc and on instinct and they will likely perform at a marginally acceptable level finding more reasons to dislike it than reasons to like it. And second, with proper professional development and "years" of experience (IMHO at least a decade), a management role and/or career can be extremely satisfying.

Generally speaking, I typically encourage project managers to consider stepping into management, for a number of reasons. For one, project managers are natural servant leaders and typically have good communications and teamwork skills. Also, project managers come to the table with planning skills and business maturity, even if they haven't ever had to manage a operational budget, hire and fire, or make tough strategic and operational decisions. And of course, project managers get things done and enjoy passing the credit and spotlight to team members, not themselves. These are all great attributes from which to begin a management role and perhaps career.