Be the best at what you do or the only one doing it.
Jay Samit – Manager, Writer & Entrepreneur
Many fresh MBAs want to go into management thinking that’s the way to power, perks, and bucks. I don’t want to seem like a Cassandra, but …. There are lots of COVID disruptions occurring in management. This is great if you’ve got the emotional maturity and ‘right stuff’.
A new ailment is running through organizations: management phobia. Many VUCANs don’t want to be managers and existing managers want to jump off the track. The reasons vary: ‘I want freedom’, ‘I don’t want to attend so many #@% meetings!’, ‘I want a life’, ‘This is bullsh*t’, ‘I want time with my kids’, I have 30 nits working for me’, or ‘I don’t want the pressure’. So, VUCANs are saying ‘no’ to the promotion or to the move.
Management is much tougher than it was even 5 years ago due to globalization, COVID work disruption, outsourcing, off shoring, flat growth, pressures on cost margins, me-too, regulations, and possible recession. In addition, management authority has diminished. Salary compression results in fewer financial benefits for the professional manager?
Another challenge: a founder of a startup may be an asocial engineer – great with tech and lousy with people. The VC firm may hire a professional CEO, who has been there and done that to ensure IPO success. You can find new management arrangements such as co-presidents, outsourced CEO, founders and sole practitioner leaders.
What’s going on? COVID is an eye opener for many. Techies, engineers, coders, and creatives don’t want the headaches of compliance, people, identity politics, and legal wrangling. They can get all the money they want through an IPO without the accompanying organizational headaches. The founder says: ‘Who cares’? I’ll stay around until I get my shares, go public, and say sayonara. In the meantime, I’ll play around with tech.
Work Lesson Earned: There are other Working It ways, including being a highly paid individual contributor, influencer, maker, maven, or founder. What work do you want to do? Do you have the right stuff to be a good manager? Do you want or are you aware of the sacrifices you may have to make? And, is this the right track for you?