Managers Do Not Make Themselves
By Andy Heath
I have a hard time hiding my disdain for managers while everyone else talks about how wonderful they are. "We are the professionals!" they will say. "Just look at us. Look at our highly cerebral work. Look at the all the good we do for our companies. (Sigh) We are such GREAT professionals!"
Nonsense.
You are a manager because someone made you one. The president of the company might have made you a manager because you're competent, or perhaps because he owed you a political favor. Maybe you're his daughter. Maybe you bring in more business than everyone else. Maybe you play golf with him. Regardless of the reason, someone else made you a manager, and if that person had not given you that label, you would not be a manager.
That said, managers have a lot of opportunity to do some good, but they are far inferior to nearly any other profession. Artists must make art and then have that art either accepted or spat upon by the public. The same is true of writers and musicians. Entrepreneurs must take inordinate risks with their own - and sometimes others' - money. They must work hard to create a business and live with the consequences if they fail. Front line employees must also be productive. They are often hired because they demonstrate their competence first. But managers - no. Managers are given their label by others often without having earned that label. So yes, I'm a bit hard on managers that are slackers, incompetent, and punish their employees too much. I am hard on them because they have immense responsibility and often do not deliver on that responsibility. I am hard on them because they often fail - without humility or apology.
In the business community, the old saying goes, "It's not what you know, but who you know." My question is this: Why is that? Why can't business choose the most competent people to be managers of people? Why don't they care enough to put highly qualified people in those places? If someone who is quite competent aspires to be a manager, that person often finds it nearly impossible to break into the field of management without first "knowing someone." That is sad.
Not that anyone is out to impress me, but if you want to do so, please don't tell me you're a manager.
