Reason NOT to be a Manager: Deliver Bad News
Recently, I have these questions asked by friends who are senior/lead levels at their current company:
- “Should I become a manager?”
- “My boss wants me to become a manager, should I?”
In general, one should spend time considering this change. Once you become a manager, everything changes
My Path to Management
I was an individual contributor for about 20 years when I became a manager.
I studied the managerial arts for a long time. I have my MBA, served as a leader at Toastmasters. (Did you know Toastmasters has a leadership track as well as a public speaking track??) Reading all the issues of Harvard Business Review or Peter Drucker) books I could get my hands on.
When I finally became a manager, I couldn’t believe it. Wow, actual direct reports. Authority! POWER!! :-)
Shift in Perspective
The one thing I did not learn about management that is different from being an individual contributor:
To my directs, I represent the company. Good news or bad news.
With good news, it’s easy to deliver. Who doesn’t like good news, especially when it’s about them? Examples:
- giving promotions/raises
- praise for work
- starting new projects
- granting additional resources
Delivering Bad News
With bad news, that’s a different situation. None of resources I learned from told me how to handle:
- deny request for raise/promotion
- executing performance improvement plans
- stopping projects
- managing out team members
After serving as a manager for almost five years, I can tell you, a great reason to not be a manager is: delivering bad news.
Delivering bad news is so hard, it motivates me to be the best manager possible. I will do everything possible to avoid delivering bad news I have control over, especially executing a performance improvement plan OR managing out team members.
How to Deliver Bad News??
The only resource I found that even talks about delivering bad news as a manager: Manager Tools - (thanks JM!).
Episodes from their podcast that has been wonderful:
Conclusion
In general, I would advise you to become a manager if you are comfortable with delivering bad news such as:
- denying raise/promotion requests
- executing performance improvement plan
- managing out team members
The life of a manager is not as glamorous as the majority of resources available make them out to be.