By Abhijit Bhaduri
Many job titles have not changed over the years but the expectation from these jobs has evolved rapidly. One such job is that of a manager.
I’m referring to anyone who has the responsibility of managing a team of people to achieve a goal. Today, managers cannot use command and control like their predecessors did. Instead, they need to use empathy and exceptional communication skills to influence diverse team members, who may be located in different geographies.
Successful managers need to spend at least 20% of their time coaching and mentoring people.
Sometimes managers have to head teams where members are much older than they are.
They need to build their team’s capability so that members can handle routine projects effectively and take on tasks that they have not done before.
Overall, a managerial position can be exciting and heady. But are you the right person for the role?
Consider the case of one of the best software engineers we had hired from an Indian engineering school. His ability to write software code was exemplary. He was rated as a top performer and got the highest merit raises.
In three years, he was recommended for promotion as a team leader. He was given the task of managing 40 software engineers to deliver a project for a prestigious client.
Within the first six months of taking charge of that team, three out of his 10 direct reports had quit. He attributed this to the high performance standards he had set. By the end of the year, the project was behind schedule and another four of his direct reports had left the company.
The team made a formal complaint about his style of managing people, saying he was autocratic and dismissive. His team members found him to be uncommunicative, and they felt he only spoke to them when he had to reprimand them. They also complained that whenever they would have a question about their compensation, career or a company policy, he would refer them to the Human Resources department. And the team complained about not having structured weekly reviews, and of not getting proper direction for their tasks.
His own manager told him that this was not acceptable. At the end of the second year, things worsened. His manager finally gave him a choice: go back to being an individual contributor, or get rated as a poor performer for the second year in a row.
His dilemma was one which many managers have faced: He enjoyed the status and power of being a manager. What he was not good at was managing people. In an informal chat, he confessed to me that he did not enjoy managing a team, but did it just because he thought that was the fastest way to get a promotion.
The inevitable happened. Two years after taking the team leader’s role, this manager quit the company. He joined a startup as an individual contributor, and is now one of their star software engineers.
Similar stories have played out in other streams of work, be it the outstanding sales person promoted to sales manager, or the brilliant scientist who is asked to lead a scientific mission.
The bottom line: someone who is good at a specialized job does not necessarily make a good manager. The skills needed to succeed, for instance, as a sales person are very different from what is needed to run a successful sales force.
So, both recruiters and employees need to do a careful assessment of who is fit to be a people manager.
I know a leader who used to evaluate his star performers’ managerial ability by giving them charge of a team and a small project that would run for, say, two weeks.
Once the project was done, the leader would ask the employee about the project and how he or she felt about leading the group. Some would say that they found it enjoyable and would love to lead another project soon, while others would say it was like herding cats and they were glad the project was over.
It was clear who was capable of taking the managerial leap.
Meanwhile, employees should also consider their capabilities before raising their hands for a managerial position. Here are some examples of questions an employee should ponder:
1. After completing your own task, do you enjoy taking time to help someone else with their tasks so that they can learn to do it better?
2. Do people find you to be an effective coach or mentor?
3. Suppose you are working with some colleagues on a project, and everyone has done their share of work except your best friend. Would you be able to confront your friend and yet retain the friendship.
4. The company has just rolled out a new sales incentive system that affects your division. Some of your colleagues find it to be too complex and think it’s a ploy by the company to deny people their due. Would you enjoy being able to dig deep to understand the incentive system and explain it to your colleagues?
5. Are you able to see the big picture that connects the roles of your organization’s different teams, and understand how they fit with the company’s vision?
If the answer to the above questions is yes, then you have the makings of becoming a successful manager. If not, you are better off being an individual contributor.
Abhijit Bhaduri is the chief learning officer of Wipro Ltd., and author of “Don’t Hire The Best.”
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