Your Promotion Could Be the Problem
Karen is a very lucky woman. She got promoted and gave it back. Here's how it happened.
Karen was a top performer as an individual contributor. Her company rewarded her great performance by promoting her to manager. One day she was doing work she loved, controlling her own destiny. The next day she was a boss.
By the end of that first day, Karen knew that she'd made a very bad choice.
People came to her all day long with issues she was sure they could handle on their own. She knew many of the people on her team and she knew how they worked. Around four o'clock, she realized that her evaluation would be based on their performance. That's when she called her boss.
Her boss listened as Karen shared her tale of woe. She didn't like telling people what to do and she dreaded talking to someone else about their performance. She just wanted to do her job as well as she could and let other people do their job.
Then she listened while her boss explained that those things were part of her new job. Karen slumped in her chair, wishing someone had said all that before then promoted her. She wished she'd asked to take some time to think it over. She really wished she could walk the whole thing back.
But, her boss reminded her, they had promoted her. He didn't know if it was possible to put her back in her old job. He didn't know if anyone had ever asked that before. He reminded Karen that if it was possible, she'd go back to her old salary. She said that was OK. He told her that the company probably wouldn't offer her another promotion. She said that was OK, too.
Karen got lucky. Her company was savvy enough to realize that they didn't want someone in a manager's job who hated the work.
The way Karen was "promoted" is the way it happens for lots of people. They get promoted for their performance in a different kind of work. No one helps them understand what a manager's work is like. And it all happens very fast.
When you get the offer you won't have much time to think about it. So do your thinking ahead of time.
Volunteer for something where you'll be responsible for the performance of a group. That will let you try on a manager's role and figure out whether the work is for you.
Think about whether you like helping other people succeed. If you get promoted your job will be helping the team and team members succeed.
Consider the fact that a boss's job involves having uncomfortable conversations with team members. Figure out if that's something you're willing to do frequently.
Being a manager is a different kind of work than what you do as an individual contributor. Take the time to decide if it's the kind of work you want to do.
Wally Bock is the writing force behind the Three Star Leadership Blog and the author and co-author of many books, including Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, and Ruthless Focus: How to Use Key Core Strategies to Grow Your Business. You can reach him at wally@threestarleadership.com or on Twitter.