Why some are stuck as Managers?

Before going into the topic let us first understand what is the definition of a manager as per Wikipedia.

Managers are supervisors or front-line team leaders - who oversee the work of employees and provide direction on their work. Do you know only 20% move from the manager to the next level or the executive management? First of all, it takes a significant amount of relentless effort for someone to reach manager level by exhibiting various positive attributes, but many get stagnated with lesser horizontal or vertical growth at that level.

As always to understand this better, let us see some examples of people in different industries who not necessarily have titles as managers but have grown from similar levels to achieve much more in their career.

The first example is the dance or singing reality shows we are all used to Many start and reach a stage we could term as mid-level in competition & from there very few make to the final.

One could argue its due to the limited numbers who could make to the finals – Its foolish to assume that's the real reason, if not this they could make it to finals on many other reality shows and succeed but we don't see that happening unless they do what’s suggested below.

The second example is of cricketer Sachin Tendulkar (Career 1988 - 2012). In the year 2000, he was well-recognized batsmen and his performance for the next 10 years (2000 - 2010) made him a legend with many more awards - with simple minor corrections to his batting from 2000, one such correction is as below.

Sachin received a feedback from Taj security guard in a lift who told him his elbow guards are not placed correctly many a times and he noticed its causing discomfort to Sachin and gets out sometimes.

Sachin could have 2 things – The first one which many do - Become defensive on feedback saying what a security guard would know about cricket or Second is Ignore the feedback saying someone would be always saying something and move on. But Sachin chooses the 3rd option - he listened to that feedback and redesigned his elbow guard which Sachin recognizes later in his career, that it improved his batting skills tremendously.

In the above 2 examples, singers or Sachin who made it are the people who listened and valued the feedback even if it's very small or minor alteration suggested and made those changes.

People who like you or want you to improve gives direct feedback and people who don't like you give feedback about you to your manager or somewhere else. 

So next time if someone gives you feedback - Feel Great & Be Thankful. At the manager level, it's not going to be big like the ones above - but many such could turn as a game-changer for your careers.

People who discount that as a complaint or demotivating stays there and people who understand this difference grow up tremendously and many feedbacks like these helped me as well grow and sharing here so it helps many more.

Are you ready to listen and act on the feedback with an open mind, if so then you are definitely on the roll!!