Why Would You Want to Be a Manager Anyway?

For those who want to manage others – have you thought about why you want to do so? Is it for the supposed “power” that comes from telling others what to do? Is it because you want to control situations? Is it because you always what to put forward your own ideas and implement your own practices? All really, really horrible reasons to manage others. And, frankly, will ensure you fail in a management role. However, some people believe that to climb up in an organization you have to manage people. This is not necessarily true in every organization. I have a number of friends who are great individual contributors but would not do well managing a team. They know that and, because they know that about themselves, excel at their roles and are real assets to their organizations and are regularly promoted into roles with increasing responsibilities.

If you truly want to be a manager of others, you need to be doing so for the right reasons, keeping in mind it is not an easy role nor something that everyone needs to or should aspire to. Here are the right reasons for being a people manager:

• You care about people and want to help others succeed as you have by providing guidance and direction.
• You are eager to share your own knowledge and expertise, but also to learn from others.
• You know you don’t have all the answers and want to partner with your team to provide the best work product.
• You enjoy working with others collaboratively.
• You want to be a mentor to help others develop professionally, helping them to get what they need so that they are successful.
• You love working with people! They engage you and keep you motivated and you do the same for them.
• You put your team’s needs ahead of your own.
• You help to align your individual team member’s goals with the organizational goals and goals set without your department or work group.

If the above doesn’t sound like you – no worries! You don’t have to be a manager to succeed in business. For those that undertake a people management role and don’t really enjoy it – all it does is create stress, frustration and make going to work a depressing event.