Three months ago, I took time to take a poll of three large management classes. It was a simple question, kept confidential from those who answered. While the answers given were no surprise, after counting the results I was shocked how lopsided the results were. What was the question and what were the results?
“If you could pick just one reason, why did you accept your management position?”
The top three answers were:
- It was more money – 61%
- Dislike their current job – 17%
- Were asked to take the job – 14%
Let’s look at the number one answer given, “It was more money!” Makes sense to me that one of the reasons to take a promotion is that it comes with this one very important element. It gives us the feeling of finally being valued. With the added compensation we can finally upgrade a few things around the house. It also feeds the ego (power), at least they picked someone now who knows how to run this department. I don’t make this stuff up, this comes from the mouths of managers everywhere. I recently had a one on one coaching call with a struggling manager who confessed he couldn’t take it anymore and was contemplating resigning the position as he was working harder than ever before. He added that his manager was starting to press him in his areas of responsibilities
So, I asked him the question, “Why did you take it in the first place?” I’ve been here 8 years, it came with a $15,000 raise and seemed like it was the next logical step. My follow-up inquired if he thought it was worth it. At the time, he admitted, it seemed like a great deal, “…but this job should have come with a $30,000 raise for all I have to do.” (In my mind, I doubt very seriously even with a $50,000 raise it would be worth it to this gentleman.) As the conversation continued we uncovered the fact that he had tried nothing in terms of personal development. He had done nothing to strengthen his managerial skill set and had pushed back in some of the classes his organization had offered. He thought he could just step in and he would be the big man on campus.
We quickly outlined some of the tasks that he would need to do in terms of personal development and we agreed that “To whom much is given, much is required.” After talking a bit more he looked a little long in the face and I asked him if he felt he could execute the plan. He rocked in his seat and expressed that he was really hoping I could give him some advice on what to do. “Well I just did.” He told me no, that he meant whether he should resign or stay. I informed him that was not my job to decide career decisions for anyone. That my job was to uncover gaps in a manager’s skill set and build a path to fill those gaps as quickly as possible. That if he was already getting pressure to perform from his supervisor at some point the decision was most certainly going to made for him.
He took the job for the money. BIG MISTAKE. The interviewing manager should have been able to ferret out that information and whether they didn’t or just chose to overlook it, that too was a BIG MISTAKE. The reason and quite possibly best reason to become a manager is you feel you possess or can with time attain the needed skills to effectively lead a team to perform at a higher level, to get the most out of each employee, to get satisfaction from watching the growth of everyone. While compensation is an important consideration for being a manager it is not and never will be the most important reason to seek leadership.
If you have managers who are struggling or need to add additional skills to be effective leaders, you’re going to want to call us, we can help.
Call 917.930.0801 or email info@tda-mail.com or check out our website http://www.transglobaldevelopment.com