Are you a good manager?
I have been studying and observing business and business people for more than two decades. During that time, I have seen more than my fair share of personalities that find themselves managing people. Some are perfectly suited to leading people, creating a business strategy, and artfully executing that strategy. Others are miserable in their positions. They complain privately about their disdain for managing people and conflict, and have no idea how to create a strategy, and find themselves reacting to every brush fire. They drive their teams, colleagues, and their own boss batty.
I think there are many reason for this, and I have come up with four personality types of leadership that I think demonstrate why some succeed and some fail. The first personality is the winner, the next two are neutral and pass as managers, but the fourth is a disaster.
Before explaining that, I want to first to discuss something called the Peter Principle.
The Peter Principle
The Peter Principle is a book written by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hill that theorizes that every employee will eventually rise to their own level of incompetence. The point is that any human being, talented or not, will be promoted throughout their career until they finally reach the level that they no longer have what it takes to do the job, thereby reaching a level of incompetence.
The concept is intended to be humorous, not scientific, but does have merit. Many of you have undoubtedly heard of or even experienced where an excellent employee doesn’t automatically make for an excellent, or even good manager. Some managers are even cross promoted from one unrelated department to manager another. Maybe an engineer without experience is promoted to run the warehouse. That rarely works.
Let’s take for example, the case of Bob the Super Salesman.
Bob the Super Salesman
Bob is 37 years old. He is the best salesman that Acme Dynamite has ever had. He has sold millions of dollars of dynamite to Wile E. Coyote in Mr. Coyote’s never ending quest to end the run of the ultra-fast Road Runner. Bob is loved by all of his customers, his co-workers, and the boss. He basically can do no wrong in his job as super salesman.
One day the VP of Sales has an opening for a sales manager. Everyone, including the president of the company believes that the best man for the job is good old Super Bob. The VP approaches Bob, who has significant reservations about going into management. He loves being a salesman. He loves the chase, the planning, the execution and the close of each sale he makes. He just isn’t sure and feels he is a born salesman.
The VP is positive that Bob is his man. He too is a former salesman and essentially “sells” Bob on the idea (side note: the easiest customer to sell something to is another salesman). Bob relents and becomes the company’s new head of Dynamite sales.
What Happens?
In less than a year, Bob completely fails as a sales manager. His employees, the team that used to love him, now hates him. He no longer gets to go on the road selling his wares, but instead is all but chained to his desk. He feels as if he has been sentenced to a prison term and has started looking for a new job. Things are terrible until the VP finally realizes his mistake and puts Bob back into a selling position, where he thrives once again.
Bob was promoted to his highest level of incompetence.
This example of the Peter Principle plays out every day all across the business world. Some people are natural leaders and great managers. They are the “go to” guys in the department, or what some people refer to as the “glue”. They don’t even realize they are leading because it is almost a God given talent as natural as eating or breathing. Others could not lead if you gave them a map and painted a solid gold stripe on the road to follow, but they are fantastic in the support role in which they have excelled for years.
Four Management Peronalities
I think there are four significant management personalities. Each is briefly described below. Which one are you?
The first management personality type is the manager who wants to be the boss, and once there, likes being the boss. This personality type is normally very qualified for the job. They have a comfort level around their employees and around their peers. There are very effective managers.
The second and more neutral personality is one that wanted to be the boss, but once there, they hate it. They campaigned or pursued the job for much of their career, and in fact may have spent many years preparing for it. But, once there, for some reason they found that they really dislike or hate the job. Maybe they don’t like the politics. Maybe they don’t like dealing with or directing people, maybe they were very good at the job they had, but found management was not what they expected. This manager is effective, but not great.
The third management personality is also neutral to negative. This a boss who doesn’t want to be the boss, but once there finds they like it. For example, they like the trappings of power and the perks, but don’t really feel qualified for the position. This person is not very effective because while they love the job, they don’t really perform very well and their staff is more qualified technically than they are.
The fourth and most disastrous manager is the one that never wanted to be boss, and hates the job. This is the boss that was forced to take the job because they were there the longest or were quite possibly the most qualified. But, they never tried for it, and were comfortable doing whatever they were doing before they became the boss, and once there, they hate it. This manager stays in his office and the office just runs itself. This personality type is our Bob, the Super Salesman.
The goal for you is to either be the first personality type, or minimally one of the next two. If you are not in management, you need to hopefully find a manager who seems to want to be the boss and actually enjoys being the boss, and is happy in it.
If you are pursuing management, try to understand the Peter Principle and the Four Management personality types to see if you are suited to leading people. Don’t be in a hurry to get there. It takes talent and time to develop some of these skills, but if you are Bob, just say no if you really want to stay on the road you are on.
Hope this helps!!
Email me at mike.anderson@directyourcareer.com or you can leave a comment
Mike