I don’t want you to fail, but… You might need too

Recently a friend reached out saying she had been offered a management position in her company. And although she has worked there for nearly five years, she said she didn’t know if she should take the promotion or not.

When I asked why, she said didn’t know if she could do it.

“Yes, you can,” I said. She shook her head in disbelief.

“Easy for you to say. You’re a great manager,” she said. I wanted to laugh it off and agree with her. But it isn’t true.

“Great is not the right word,” I said. “Experienced. That is the right word.”

“What if I fail at it,” she said.

“You probably will,” I said. She made a face. I smiled.

“Listen, I don’t want you to fail,” I said. “But you might have too.”

She looked at me sideways, questioning my sincerity. I met her gaze and nodded, accepting her challenge.

“Management is one of those professions where failure isn’t only a good thing, it’s necessary.” She continued to look at me sideways.

I thought about telling her about my mistakes and about all the times I’ve been fired (which is five, by the way), but I didn’t want to scare her.

“Failing doesn’t mean you are going to get fired,” I said. “Failing means you are not going to get everything right,” I starting to use my hands for emphasis. “It isn’t a bad thing, honestly; it’s good.”

We talked some more. We talked about her current job. We talked about the team she may be taking over. We talked about the company, and she let me pontificate a bit about management, something I always enjoy.

The whole time we were talking, however, the one question I wanted to ask, but knew she wouldn’t know the answer to was this: “How does the company deal with managers who make mistakes?”

The reason I wanted to ask is because it is becoming harder and harder for new managers to grow, due to companies being so worried about mistakes that they don’t let knew managers make any decisions.

This, of course, leads to a lot of confused and disgruntled new managers.

“Why did you hire me if you don’t trust me?”

If a manager does make a mistake, a lot of companies are seemingly a lot quicker to fire new managers now-a-days, then they are willing to use the mistake as a learning opportunity.

Hopefully, her company is not like that.

As always, I hope I made you think and smile.

Ralph ????

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??? Each week, I write about management, leadership and business as it relates to the Cleaning industry (hence: Talking Dirty) ??

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