You may have your eyes set on the corner office (and the
bigger salary that comes with it), but you’ll never get there if you’re not
management material. Getting promoted at work isn’t just a matter of paying
your dues. If you want a position with more responsibility and better pay, you
need to prove you have what it takes.
The best candidates for management positions are motivated
and have strong leadership skills. They’re also good with people and have
business expertise, according to a survey of executives by The Creative Group.
“Being an effective manager means more than giving orders
and making sure projects are completed on time,” Diane Domeyer, executive
director of The Creative Group, said in a statement. “Leaders must inspire
their teams and boost employee engagement to steer their companies to greater
heights.”
Even employees who excel in their current position may not
have the talent to be great bosses. And many of those worker bees are OK with
not being management material. Only one-third of people surveyed by
CareerBuilder said they were aiming for a leadership position at work. Just 7%
were hoping to become a C-level executive.
Some people, however, are itching to work their way up the
ladder at work and are wondering why they haven’t yet been tapped for a
management position. If you’re one of them, your own behavior may be to blame.
If you recognize yourself as one of these five types of employees, you may not
be management material.
1. The control freak: The micromanaging, control freak boss
is the stuff of employee nightmares. This perfectionist manager wants to be
involved in every decision, from approving the font used in the big
presentation to choosing which snacks are stocked in the break room.
Control freak bosses make for unhappy employees who can’t
reach their full potential. Of people who’d worked for a micromanaging boss,
68% said the dynamic was bad for morale and 55% said it decreased their
productivity, a survey by “Accountemps” found.
Being unable to let go is not only annoying for your
employees, but it’s also stressful for you. If you can’t trust your
subordinates to make the right decisions, you might not be management material.
2. The responsibility dodger: Passing the buck is harder
when you’re the big boss. Employees who are in the habit of blaming their
failings on others won’t fare well once they’re in a management position, when
it’s much more difficult to shift responsibility. Though bad managers may try
to point the finger at employees when deadlines aren’t met or a critical
mistake is made, they’re ultimately responsible for making sure the team meets
its goals.
“[Being a manager isn’t just a matter of getting a pay raise
and getting to boss people around. When you’re the manager, there are no
excuses,” Liz Ryan, the founder and CEO of Human Workplace, wrote in a blog
post for LinkedIn. “If someone goofs up, it’s on you, because you hired them
and you trained them.”
3. The wishy-washy leader: Do you hem and haw over the
tiniest of decisions? Are you guilty of making choices and then changing your
mind? Is setting clear goals difficult for you? Then you may not be great
management material. While good managers listen and adapt, they must also be
strong leaders who can guide their team to success.
“Can you lay out a vision for your team, set goals and
timelines around it, hold people accountable to meeting those goals, and be
disciplined about saying no to activities that won’t drive you forward toward
your objectives? Many managers struggle with pieces of this — especially saying
no to projects that sound worthy but belong lower on the priority list.” HR
expert Alison Green wrote in an article for U.S. News & World Report. If
the idea of having people looking to you to make big decisions gives you a
headache, a management position may not be the best choice for you.
4. The slacker: People who are already having trouble doing
their current job aren’t likely to set the world on fire as a manager. Being
the boss means more responsibility, not less. Thirty-two percent of CFOs
surveyed by Robert Half said balancing individual duties with the need to
oversee others was the most difficult part of being a manager. Slackers need
not apply, in other words.
While chronic laziness may not make you management material,
it won’t always stand in the way of a promotion at work. You might get a bump
just because your current boss wants to get rid of you.
“We see a lot of organizations where managers will even
promote a low performer just to get them out of their department,” Leadership
IQ CEO Mark Murphy told NBC News.
5. The too-nice team member: Jerks get promoted for a
reason, and it’s not just because they’re bullies. Making difficult decisions
and being able to criticize others is part of being a manager. Those are tasks
the more tender-hearted tend to shy away from.
Managers who are too nice “don’t give tough feedback, shy
away from going to bat for their teams, and give in too easily to demands,”
according to the Harvard Business Review. As a result, the conflict-averse boss
can drive away good employees and jeopardize the success of big projects.
Research has also shown that nice people – especially nice
guys – are paid less than those who are less agreeable. “We believe we want
people who are modest, authentic, and all the things we rate positively to be
our leaders,” Jeffrey Pfeffer, a business professor at Stanford, told The
Atlantic. “But we find it’s all the things we rate negatively … that are the
best predictors of higher salaries or getting chosen for a leadership
position.”
Courtesy: CheatSheet.
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