Pursuing the Management Track
Pursuing the Management Track
Q: I’ve had a strong five-year career at my company, and now there is a manager position opening that a colleague has recommended I pursue. I’ve never been in a management position—what skills and qualities does a successful manager exhibit? What are the biggest differences from my current non-manager position in the same division?A
: If someone has recommended you for a management role, they see a skill set and capability in you based on what they have seen of your work, temperament, and potential. They probably see an ability to listen and to treat people fairly and with respect, attributes of a good leader. Good managers are people who can effectively balance accomplishing the task with treating team members respectfully and optimizing their skills. Look at yourself and decide if you have these traits based on your past experience. You can also reflect on your past managers—who was a good manager? Who was a bad manager? Why? What did they do or not do that made you feel valued and motivated, or demoralized and ready to leave the company? Which traits would you emulate and which would you avoid, based on the culture they created or how the work did or did not get done?
Organizations often promote great performers to management ranks, but not everyone wants to be a manager or feels qualified for the role. In the past, the only way to grow within an organization was to move into a management position. Most companies have recognized that this is not the case anymore and create two tracks: the individual contributor track and the management track. When technical experts want to move into management, organizations need to offer support. Management is a skill that can be developed. It’s not just taking people who are really good at their current job and moving them up a level; management is something that the organization should invest in through training and development programs to continually grow and support those skills. The more senior you go in management ranks, there is less of a need for your technical skills and more of a need for your leadership skills. In the words of Marshall Goldsmith, “What got you here won’t get you there”—a great book about successful people becoming even more successful.
If you are being encouraged to pursue the management track, managers and your colleagues may have seen you manage a team or project very well. Experiences like that are often a great way to help individuals develop necessary management skills and to see where internal talent might be within the organization. If the company is interested in making you a manager, don’t be afraid to ask for some kind of development: “Thank you so much for this opportunity! I definitely want to do this, and I want to do it well. What kind of development opportunities, books, or classes would help?”
First-time managers like you as well as more senior leaders in the organization benefit from development focused on leading people.
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