What Managers Tend to Dislike Most About Being a Manager

In the garage over the weekend with a few friends and the subject came up relating to managing people. My buddy stated "management would be a piece of cake if it excluded people". I thought that was an interesting perspective, then another friend stated "I love the money, hate the loafers and liars", again, I thought, interesting perspective, the the doozie, "if it were up to me I'd get rid of 1/2 the people they stuck me with".

With that I took exception.

A little color on this, my experience is most non-managers on some level want to be a manager. For most of them it's the money and prestige associated with the job, looks impressive on a business card, and moms and dads love to hear it.

In real life up to 80% of managers fail in the first 18 months of the job. Some with good and logical reasons why which I will itemize in a bit, but think about what 80% really means. That's a whole lot of employee turnover, a whole lot of lost business, and a whole lot of negative Glassdoor comments. A company, I don't care which company, needs to create a culture of opportunity, and bad managers cut right to the soul of that actually happening.

I was told two very important things along the road that I have kept clear in my mind for a long time, they are;

1. The primary job of a teacher in a classroom is to meet learning outcomes for that class, and ensure students have a reason to come back tomorrow (thank you again Dr. Wheeler - Grossmont Community College)
2. Management is getting things accomplished through other people (thank you to the guy that wrote that and I remembered it)

They both apply to every job and company today and will likely for decades to come.

For one, give people a reason to come back tomorrow is essential. I will add though that those people need to want to come back tomorrow because they have faith in both their immediate leadership and the company they work for. So, so many people don't like the company they work for or the people they work for. Most of them have a resume floating around, but this is a country where 97% of the people are employed, good jobs, or even any jobs are scarce. People are a bit funny as of late, jobs are there, they don't want them. Or jobs are there and they want to hire the one person who hits every box with a triple check mark (they are harder to find as they are likely already working). In most companies, if a manager is peaking at 97% staffing, they really can get by just fine. Now here is the real rub. And I know this because I asked CHAT GBT (joking), I seriously did ask a group consisting of 23 managers this question " being honest, of the staff you manage, what percent of those people would your be open to replacing right now if you could?" Ready, the low was 20% the high was 65%. So an average of let's say 40%. That's a lot of unproductive people. Smiles on the faces for sure, larceny in their heart likely.

So what's the cure. Back to management as a "job".

Some managers have very high expectations for people, sometime so high that the employee feels that "good is never good enough". Right about the time that creeps in, things tend to get a bit edgy. I do actually believe that most people who leave companies either on their own or terminated leave managers and not companies. Sure there are exceptions, buy they are rare. So if people want out because of their managers(s), companies pay a steep price for that. In most cases, even with human resource intervention, the manager has their own version of unproductively, discipline, insubordination, lazy, etc., etc. And in many of those, they are likely correct. But what went wrong from the hire date? They were obviously good enough to hire, they were likely trained, assuming they had a good attitude at the get-go, so what happened?

Well who knows. what I do know is that turnover is costly and sends the "other shoe falling" message to many. That too tends to take on a life of its own.

Now are manager's responsible to fix it - yes they are.

Many new managers are battle-field promoted because quite frankly someone higher up thought it would be a good idea. And in some companies, they pride themselves on hiring from within so even if a better candidate is looking and willing, they won't be hired.

David Ogilvy once said "A people hire A people and B people hire C people". Most companies have way more B and C players than A players

But managers have to be exceptional talent from day one. Maybe they can be taught many new things, but the gut personal traits have to be there. They have to posses the willingness to be all things to all people at all times. Sorry, that's the rules. You don't learn how to be a manager in the battlefield, you learn how to become a better manager through experience and attitude.

So before I jot down some things, this is important. If you are the current manager, are you a good one? Yardstick in management is two pretty fundamental things (1) are you reaching the company goal/budget? (2) are your people growing and doing better this month vs. last month? If both are yes, congratulations, if they are no, pull the emergency brake and get some guidance and listen and follow it. When one gets at that crossroad, like Alice when she met the Cheshire Cat and asked "what road should I take?" and was asked "That depends on where you want to go" and she stated "it doesn't matter" she was told "then it really doesn't what road you take". Know what road you want/need/have to be on to win.

As the manager with any tenure, know exactly where you want to go and why! It is much easier to make and follow a plan than to just to wing it. Wing-it managers usually fail.

Managers who need to make friends, generally fail. Friends on a leadership level rarely work out. People don't work harder for friends. Sorry. And it always causes suppression in work flow and productivity over a short period of time. Sorry again. Trust this - you cannot break some rules and expect because you think you are an exception it ill work out better for you - because - let's face it - you think because you're "you" and somehow "you" are different - you're not. Measure only productivity as a manager - be supportive, motivational, honest, earnest, and a good role model - don't deviate because you had a particularly good or bad day - stay always on track, be firm fair and consistent always.

Mistakes leaders tend to make

• Not focusing on developing talent, how do you expect them to grow and gain confidence?
• Not giving regular feedback about performance, they must know how they are doing and how they might even do better.
• Not taking emotions into account, learn to know your people and adjust accordingly
• Managing conflict ineffectively, conflict will disable a good team, nip it in the bud quickly
• Not driving change, support change with growth possibilities
• Not encouraging others to take risks, help people understand the balance act in risks and get them hear that you cannot steal second base with your foot on first
• Misunderstanding motivation, it is only intended to make people feel they are able to effectively contribute individually or for the team effort
• Managing activities rather than leading people, people make profits, not companies or activities.

See you next time - thanks for visiting the Garage