Do a great job in your profession and sooner or later you'll be offered the job of manager. It may be the best opportunity of your professional career or you may be tempted to make the biggest mistake of your life. The difficulty in determining whether or not management is a fit for you arises from two simple facts: Great managers make it look easy and bad managers are often so bad that you think that you can't possibly do worse.

Here's the lowdown on the love/hate job called management. 

1.  Managers have to wear multiple hats:
No longer can you be a specialist.  You have to be able to deal effectively with people, process, accountability and business issues.  You have to be a jack of all trades.  You are expected to do more with less.  This requires an expanded understanding of management strategies and tactics.   

2.  Managers exist in a rapid fire environment of constant change and upgrades:
Technology and today's fast paced environment forces you to keep growing and improving.  No one can stand pat with existing management practices.  There is a new generation of employees coming into the workplace that need to be handled in the right way.  Concepts, ideas and formulas that worked just a few years ago are now obsolete.  Old methods of hiring, motivating, delegating and compensation are being replaced and updated on a regular basis.  The only consistent thing seems to be change.  We must adapt or become extinct. 

3.  Managers must deal with four-year old behavior:
Many managers seem to have lost that adult to adult basis for communication with their team.  The reason is they face a team that over-promises and under delivers.  They make excuses, defend their right to fail, reject responsibility, complain, lack commitment and have a great sense of entitlement.  Managers feel exhausted from running a day-care center.  They fear delegation because of the static they receive when they challenge their team. 

4.  Managers must deal with multiple personalities & skill levels:
Manages have to play with the hand they have been dealt.  We find the core issue of most organizational problems is gaining an understanding of human behavior.  Most have operations manuals on everything but their people.  Managers will tell me they "love" being a manager except for all the people issues.  Manages are not trained enough on how people operate and how to interact with them to produce the desired result.  They must learn to build their people, and their people will build the business. 

5.  The Manager's future is based on the performance of his/her team:
A manager's long term future is no longer based on his/her individual talent and ability.  Their ability to motivate, inspire, teach and support their team is the basis for their tenure.  This tends to create an environment of constant fear of change instead of excitement and opportunity.  The skills needed to be an individual producer is different from the skills required to lead a team.

6. Managers are often delusional:
Managers frequently suffer from the mistaken impression that they must teach their team everything that they need to know, that they must motivate them, and that they must personally create a supportive and inspiring sales culture. The mistaken belief that in order to get these things done one must do the work one's self is the root of most management misfortune. The secret of success is causing good things to happen, not actually doing the work itself.

Mark Fitzgerald publishes the Entrepreneur's Club News letter each week and his business is based in Tampa, Florida.

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2008 - 2009 Eureka! Leadership Series in California

Andrew is excited to be returning to California to present his program on Leading Teams for Infopeople in November! Here are the dates that are confirmed:

November 6th - San Jose Public Library

November 7th - Sacramento Public Library

November 10th - San Francisco Public Library

November 12th - Fresno Public Library

November 19th - Encinitas Branch Library (San Diego area)

November 20th - Buena Park Library District

November 21st - Los Angeles Public Library

To sign-up for any of the workshops listed above, follow this link to the Infopeople website: http://infopeople.org/workshop/394