Don walked into my office and told me he wanted to be a Manager. Although surprised, I was also excited to help my most dependable Senior Software Engineer make this transition, because I once stood in his shoes. We mapped out a transition plan and it only took a few weeks before the perfect opportunity surfaced to get us started. We carved out a small Professional Services team to customize our products and I put Don in charge. As the team leader, Don would work directly with each customer to gather requirements and plan out the corresponding development work for his team. He would then function as part of the development team. In this capacity, he would still do the technical work he was comfortable with while getting some exposure to management, fulfilling the first step in our plan.
The very first day of this assignment, Don was in my office complaining about it. Don almost never complained. He told me he disliked being separated from the rest of the software team and he wanted to work on New Product Development. I asked him if he had changed his mind about transitioning into management and he said, “No.” We discussed leadership opportunities in New Product Development, but that would have required a 100% management commitment and Don was not ready to “transition” that fast. He decided to stick with the Professional Services assignment.
Don was back in my office complaining at least three of the next five days. I finally said, “Look, Don, if you just want to be technical at this point in time, that’s fine. Let’s get you re-assigned back to New Product Development as an Engineer. But if you really want to explore Management, you need to give this assignment a chance and look at it for the opportunity it is rather than seeing it as some sort of jail term. What do you want to do?” He shuffled his feet and finally decided he would stick with the current assignment. I said, “Ok. In that case, I don’t want you back in here complaining about this until at least one month has passed.” In one month, Don walked in my office to complain.
We finally re-assigned him back to New Product Development and he settled in happily and productively in his Senior Software Engineer role.
The fact is that not everyone is cut out to be a Manager. Many technical people believe they need to become Managers in order to make more money and have more respect. Both are debatable. I know many Engineers who make more money than the Managers they report to, and having respect depends more on who you are and how you behave than your job title. If your new Manager hates managing, then nothing you do (even throwing money at him/her) will make that arrangement work.
Offer your potential Managers-to-be the following self-test to help them consider if Management is something they would enjoy.
Management Compatibility Self-Test
Are you management material? Take this self-test to help you decide:
