Why Your Best Employees Don't Deserve To Be ManagersLearn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Why Your Best Employees Don't Deserve To Be Managers article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
After all, the skill set required to practice a specific profession -- whether it's plumbing, hairdressing, engineering, selling, teaching, accounting or whatever -- is entirely different from the skill set required to manage people. Yet organizations persist in promoting 'doers' into management roles. These promotions come with better-sounding titles, more money, more perquisites, more prestige and... more responsibility. And they involve doing less -- perhaps none -- of the 'technical' work that the manager did previously, and more (or all) of the work of managing others. In one sense it's logical -- a manager who used to do the work himself or herself should understand what his staff need to do the work now. And yes, there are many managers who are just as good, if not better, at managing others as they are performing the actual work. In fact, many managers prefer to manage rather than do. But, as indicated above, there's no reason to assume that a good doer will make automatically make a good manager! Now, this isn't to say that a pyramidal organizational structure -- where the many are managed by the few -- is necessarily a bad thing. As a delegation or management structure it works fine for many companies. But when getting more pay and other rewards is contingent on becoming a manager, it's inevitable that people will try to get, and will get, promoted into management roles -- regardless of whether they have the talent or passion to manage. The result? Plenty of unhappy and ineffective managers. Plenty of frustrated people working for ineffective managers. And an organization that isn't performing at its optimum. Doesn't it make more sense for people to do the work they enjoy and are good at? To reward them for getting better and better at that work, rather than only paying them more if they step 'up' to management... where they may generate less value for the organization? Isn't a top salesman better off staying in the field selling... than floundering in the office, struggling to organize and motivate his staff? Doesn't a terrific teacher do more for her students, herself and the school by staying in the classroom, than spending her time doing paperwork and trying to manage other teachers? Fortunately, some organizations have seen the light. They do tie greater rewards to greater responsibilities and greater performances within the same role. In fact, some companies, like investment banks, are renown for paying traders and sales people much, much more than the people who manage them, simply because, in the eyes of the bank, the traders and sales people generate more value. Of course, as a 'manager's advocate' I would never suggest that managers shouldn't be compensated well, especially given the challenges of managing people. But to be as productive and profitable as possible, organizations should tie greater pay and rewards to greater responsibilities and performances, whatever the role. That way, they'll have people doing and being their best. So if you're responsible for 'promoting' people, I urge you to think twice before promoting your best people into management roles... and out of the jobs they love and do well at. Instead, consider whether you can enlarge, or give them more challenges in, their current role? Or, if they've performed exceptionally well, can you give them a bonus or some other special reward to recognize their efforts?
Of course, if you work for someone else, you may be limited in terms of what you can do... but if that's the case, and you're committed to staying with your current employer... it may be time to start a revolution! |
More Articles:1. Diversity Training: The Worst Possible Reasons to Request Executive Funding By Tim Dawes You’re on your organization's diversity committee. You have the best of intentions.And that's the problem.It leads you to appeal for funding for all the wrong reasons.Take healthcare for example.The US foreign-born population comprises a larger segment than at any time in the past five decades. And this trend is expected to continue(1). People of diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural heritage suffer disproportionately from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and every form of cancer. In … 2. Lower the Bar By Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." Ralph Waldo EmersonI'm so excited. I got a cool new power point template with orange and yellow flames. It's not too much (well, maybe it is), but I don't care. I like it.So I transferred my regular presentation to the new template. I got some mesmerizing slide transitions like Jim Edwards used (spinning boxes and such that the audience at Big Seminar were oohing and aahing about). My handouts were ready to go.Then I find out -- they don't … 3. Your Business Success Checklist As a business coach, I spend a lot of time working with people who want to improve different aspects of their business. Many times these aspects are merely symptoms of a more fundamental, underlying issue. If you want your business to truly shine, then there are some basic principles that, if not present, can lead to sub standard performance in other areas. And here they are: 1. Crystal clear purpose The most common reason companies run into trouble is losing sight of the customer and their n… 4. Choosing the Right Corporate Training By Jeff Turner According to a Gallup Poll, 80 percent of employees said the availability of company-sponsored training programs was a factor in deciding whether to accept a new job or stick with a current one. And yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the average number of hours of formal training per employee per year is only 10.7.More companies are starting to realize that it's smart to invest in training, but faced with so many choices, how can an organization make sure it's getting the most out of… |
||||
