Managing Your Team, Managing Your Self, Be flexible and ready to move on!

There will come a time when it's time to move on. Other jobs are waiting to be done. Other teams are waiting to be led. You may have to pack up camp and hit the trail. So keep your eyes open for opportunities. As Thomas Edison once said, 'Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.'

Remember your long-term plan and I bet it didn't include stuff like, 'Stay here until I retire and/or turn to dust' and keep looking to distant horizons.

Being a good manager, a fantastic manager, often means you get sought out, head-hunted, poached. Be ready to be enticed away. Doesn't mean you have to go, but be open to offers how flattering.

Stay on your toes and be ready to move sideways; be prepared to look at unusual opportunities. Be ready perhaps to go it alone if that is in your long-term plan.

Should you feel guilty about abandoning your team? No. You have a career and that involves moving on. Your team may benefit from a breath of fresh air coming in after you to blow the cobwebs away. I've left managerial jobs where the staff seemed genuinely surprised that I would dare to leave, to spread my wings and go 'elsewhere', as if it was a dark and dangerous country that would gobble me up. Of course, once I had left I gained a reputation as a 'deserter' for leaving, but better that than 'good riddance'.