At some point or another you are going to hit a professional wall. Either a wall of ability or a wall of compensation.
Maybe you developed an itch for pricey scotch or want to golf more often. Maybe you want to get a yacht, or have kids, or become a homeowner.
Maybe you are sitting at work with big ideas and you look down at your fingers and wish “gosh if only I had ten times as many of these!” as you do your job. Maybe someone in your firm got a pay raise, a fancier desk, and a new title of “Senior Director of Not Working Here Anymore”.
Maybe none of this happened but you just want to know what it is like to manage people.
This is a tough subject because when I get asked questions, the odd time I go and talk to people about career choices, people ask me “Do you prefer to manage or do you prefer to get your hands dirty?” and honestly, I fail this question so hard. I even start off my response to people by saying “This is a great question, and I fail at it so hard”.
I don’t have a preference between rank and file individual contributor work and managing. That causes eyebrows to be raised. Sometimes people nod quietly. Sometimes they are mentally deconstructing what kind of monster I am. Sometimes they are trying to figure out how to get me out of the building as fast as possible because some latent insecurity told them that is my way of saying “I AM COMING FOR YOUR JOB NEXT.”
I don’t know. This isn’t about me. Maybe it is, in some strange way. But I want to somehow make this about you.
At some point in your career, whether by magic eight ball or by need to get paid or by random circumstance, you are going to get an opportunity to manage people.
Regardless of whether you want to or not I think you should try a management role. You should do it once, and you should do one very important thing that most people do not do. You should make sure there is an escape plan. The worst thing that can happen to a company is you get promoted into a managerial role and then you leave because you did not like it.
When adjusting their compensation to the new role, I tend to have it built in as something they get to keep, and I make sure that we set a clear expectation to everyone that this is a new role and may not be permanent.
You want to make sure that everyone is supportive and that the person trying out this new role understands they can go back if it does not work out.
That is nearly impossible to accomplish by the way but it is totally worth it if you can. You want to have people understand that this is a risk,that there are rewards for taking risks, and that there is mutual trust here.
I have put people into management roles and had them ask to sunset their managerial responsibilities.
I have inherited people in management roles who needed to return to individual contributor work and had to slowly work with them to make the necessary adjustments to get there.
Regretfully, sometimes, I have done so without being so gentle.
Regardless, there is a lot to learn in becoming a manager and you should invest some time in what you need to know and what you need to do.
You need to understand that one of your primary roles is to make sure other people get their work done. You have to avoid being the heroic firefighter manager who jumps in at the eleventh hour because you know you can do it. Nothing will destroy your team and your individual contributors faster than being a better performer. Even if it is true, you are showing that you are not suitable for being a manager if you cannot enable people to do their jobs better.
Another thing you need to understand is how to communicate with people. I have done a number of things where they went super badly because I framed them poorly. Thankfully it is not a large number. Positive communication is vital to keeping people moving forward and being proactive. If you don’t know what a shit sandwich is, now is a good time to learn. Google has your back.
Finally you need to be able to understand that you have to take the beating for other people’s failures and reward them for their successes.
I have seen too many managers whom I refer to as cannibals. They take credit for their team’s work. They devour their teams. It is horrible to be in that situation soI look for managers who are cannibals and try to stay away from them as much as possible.
A good way to test yourself for management potential is to get involved as a youth sports coach. Soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, etc.. There are lots of great sports out there. You will learn more about managing people from a group of 10-year-olds than your average online MBA program and you probably get a free gift card to Starbucks at the end of the season if your team parents don’t completely hate you by the end of the season (hint: You should try to win *ONE* game).
I am pretty far into this article and I have not said half of the stuff I want to yet. Not even a third, actually. I am not going to be able to tell you everything you need to know or everything you need to do in your first-time management job in the space of one online article.
I sure would like to though. I did assemble a playbook of things I do for a first-time manager and I will do my best to share these in future articles and give them each a thorough treatment. From communication, to trusting your team, to how to make team adjustments with compassion.
And when I say adjustments I mean firing people. That is probably what I will talk about next actually. I find it odd that most people do not get some sort of formal training on how to fire people. It is a hard thing to do and it takes work and effort to do it with grace and class. More on that later.
I would love to hear some of your stories about things you did as a first time manager, good or bad!
