Do you REALLY want to be a manager now?
One small step for a manager, one giant leap for a team leader
Introduction
One of the most common questions I get asked during development conversations is:
“How do I become a manager”.
Typically, this is from a high performing engineer or team leader, great at their job and obviously thinking of the future.
Whilst I always welcome questions and ambition is an excellent thing within any team, this has always been a difficult question to answer, especially when you consider how many people struggle in their first management position.
Do you REALLY want to be a manager?
My first question is the obvious one.
“What do you think a manager does?”
Most people in my experience will come back with a combination of Alan Sugar and Hollywood, all shouting and telling people what to do.
Alternatively, they will say they don’t really know. Arguably this is more worrying as they clearly are not sure that they want the actual job, so what’s going on here?
There is a common perception that managers earn more money than engineers. In many cases this is true (however to counter that a friend I went to school with stayed being an electrician and is now retired, whereas I am not!).
So, it’s obvious that if you need more money (partners, growing families) going into management is worth considering. Before you do, think really hard.
My next question is normally the killer one.
“Are you prepared to put away your tool kit?”
If you are a great engineer, are you happy to stop doing everything which made you successful and hopefully happy, to do something else?
Put simply, Managers don’t fix things, engineers do.
If the answer to this is either a pause or a definite no, don’t even think about becoming a manger. You will probably hate it; interfere with the team you manage (and they will hate you) and not be good at it (so the boss will hate you).
Stay an engineer, work towards technical leadership of things rather than leadership of people until such time that you are happy to put away the tool kit.
I’m happy to put the tool kit away
For the people who do think they want to put the tool kit away, there is a clear and well-trodden path to becoming a manager, take a management training course, get a job as a manager, congratulate yourself ……. And fail.
We are back to why so many people managers fail and the ones who do succeed will look back and consider how close they came to failing when they got their first management role… yes including me (so I better apologise to my first team, sorry I was a rubbish manager).
It’s not the process which is at fault but the order, and one vital missing part and I would argue the most important part, a mentor.
Having a mentor to become a manager
I would say that most managers who do succeed will point to someone who supported them at this initial stage. This could be a more experienced manager appointed to properly “mentor” or simply someone who can be used to offer good advice. Obviously the first is the most successful.
If your company doesn’t have a formal mentorship program, then find one yourself. I can guarantee there will be someone who will be within your network happy to offer advice. They will not necessarily be the best manager you know but find someone you are happy to share your challenges with and listen to their advice.
Then I do a training course to become a manager?
No. Now is the time to try being a manager. Hopefully this will be before you have a management role, ask your manager if you can lead a project. Discover the challenges of being responsible for the success of others and perhaps most importantly, how you feel about it.
It’s not really about if you succeed or fail here, or even how good you were at the role. This is about you, how you felt, what you noticed about how you went about being a manger.
If management is all about getting others to do what you want, then it’s about emotion and you can’t manage others’ emotions unless you understand your own.
Ok, I have a mentor and I’ve led a project….
Perhaps now is time to look at a training course. There are loads available and I’m not able to tell you which one to look at. That said, I would recommend one that covers the Situational Leadership model (Blanchard & Hersey).
With the experience you have had the training will resonate with you and help you understand both your strengths and areas you struggle. In both cases, formal training will support you with tools to use.
As you are a good engineer, you will understand that each tool has a use and the wrong one will likely make the situation worse. You would be amazed how many very experienced managers fail to understand that simple rule.
The future as a manager
You probably have over 12 months as a manager now and some bits come easily, others are still a challenge. This is where the mentor remains a really support. Maintain the contact, go over your challenges and ask for advice. Most likely you actually know the answer, but you need someone else to help you get to it.
Conclusion
If I can offer one last item of advice, is that the most powerful tool you will have is humility. Good managers admit they don’t know everything, great ones admit that their teams know better than them and are happy to take advice. Sure, there needs to be limits, but this level of humility, or trust can be the building blocks of the best teams I have ever seen.
The future
Well done, management is one of the most rewarding of careers and the most frustrating. People often do completely different things than you expected them to do, different from last year, week or even yesterday. Makes it interesting!
Now you can move on to leadership, but that’s a whole different subject.
About the author
Paul Camidge is an experienced healthcare business manager with a background in technical service and support as well as medical account management in blue chip healthcare companies. Most recently he has been Senior Regional Service Manager for Northern Europe for Cepheid. Cepheid Biotech Research is part of the Danaher Corporation.
Further reading
Spotlight on being a Field Service Leader, Foodservice Equipment
I Appreciate the article. It was informative for as far as it goes, but I think there were some things left out in the consideration process, number one is compensation versus responsibility most if not all field service positions are salary non exempt whereas managers are exempt from overtime, I don’t have a complete status of all sectors but the general rule I’ve seen is about a 15% pay bump going from senior FSE to a first level manager for that 15% you’re now going to be responsible for managing around a dozen people‘s territories along with their career development, personal issues and divergent opinions on strengths and weaknesses within the company. In my humble opinion, technical field management is more of a calling than a career move.
An interesting question, is management a “calling” similar to that of a priest or a nurse? If so, there are a lot of people with that calling.
I think it backs up the point of my article, being a manager is something you have to want to do. If not your both going to hate it and probably not be great at it.
Turning to salary, this is very industry and regionally based. Whilst in many countries individual contributors (engineers) are able to earn overtime, this is not universal. In some, collective bargaining or local laws prevent or restrict overtime in an attempt to address work life balance. As with many centrally imposed edicts, the law of unintended consequences means that it doesn’t work well for the individuals.
The point is well made, that earning is not always increased by going into management….