Adelaide, we need to talk about Management and Leadership roles...

Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène?Wenger OBE are two names that anyone who watched the EPL in the late 90s and early 2000s would instantly recognise.

Both had a couple of similarities:

Apart from being two of the most successful football/soccer managers in the modern era, neither were as successful in their playing careers.

Never in the course of human history have there been so many people called ‘manager.’ (The Economist)

Here’s an odd thing.?

Given everything happening in business and the changes to the ways we work, surely one of the assets companies need more of is strong and capable ‘people managers.’?

• Managers who have run teams in customer facing or operational environments.?
• Managers who are experienced and skilled in organising, motivating and mentoring their people - resolving the people issues that crop up on a regular basis.

Strong people management is clearly something critical to the success of a company.?

• Gallup regularly finds that how an employee managed is a key determinant of how engaged they are at work.
• They also find that one of the main reasons for staff attrition is the individual doesn’t trust or get on with their manager.

And yet, why do companies fill these roles in such a haphazard way?

Is people management the only function in a company where you need no relevant qualifications, training or experience?

For the many professionals who have their eye on a top job, their ‘rite of passage’ will involve being promoted to roles where they manage people.

For many, it will be like fitting a round peg into a square hole.

It just won’t be a good fit.

A lose-lose situation.

• People management roles have long been thought of as a necessary step for upward progression.?
• But most managers are promoted to their role because they were an outstanding individual contributor.

Your star operational performer probably won't be your best people leader.

A study of 40,000 salespeople in 2019 found that companies have a strong tendency to promote their best sales performers to people management roles. But the ability to persuade others to buy goods or services isn’t the equivalent of having the competence to lead a high performing sales team.?

• Indeed, the study found that past sales performance was a negative indicator of managerial success. So, promoting the star performer results in an overall weaker team.

To be a good people manager takes time, effort, honesty, empathy and self-awareness.?

For some, being promoted to these roles, may be the start of a long road of unhappiness. All too often individuals swap a role where their output and impact are measurable for one where things aren’t as clear. At the end of a long day of meetings, one-to-ones and dealing with people issues, they wonder what they have achieved.

As we move into the new future of work and are faced with wide reaching and ever-present change, people management is one of the most important, and under-rated, tasks in any company.

Leadership isn't something you should aspire to for personal gain.

We need to talk about the responsibility of leadership seriously...for all our sakes.