Should I be a manager?

March 2020

Many people reach a point in their careers where they must decide whether to stay on the individual contributor path or become a manager. More often than not, people face this decision without a clear idea of what the job entails or how to figure out if it is right for them.

The decision to become a manager should not be taken lightly. A bad manager can make an employee's life miserable, drain their motivation, and drive them to quit. We have all heard, or experienced, horror stories of awful managers.

A great manager, on the other hand, can translate talent into performance, inspire excellence, and touch an employee's life in a meaningful way. Stories of great managers are harder to come by. Outside of a few legendary football coaches, many have never seen what great management looks like.

Management is difficult. Most organizations do not communicate the job description clearly. New managers are often thrown in the deep end with little training or support. Worse, managers are often evaluated on the wrong criteria, giving them little incentive to improve.

So what is a manager's job? A manager's job is to develop their team. Someone with a "Manager" title may need to balance other responsibilities like driving results or delivering ongoing individual contributions. But in their management capacity, their job is to hire great people and help them reach their highest potential.

Far too many managers, unaware of what managers do, go into the role for the wrong reasons. Some bad reasons to become a manager:

The top-performing contributor is not necessarily the best candidate to become a manager. Thoughtful organizations recognize this fact and provide a parallel ladder for employees to advance in seniority while remaining an individual contributor. If no such path exists in your organization, switching companies may be a better career move than switching to management.

As a manager, you will have direct reports, but that does not mean that it is the only or best way direct other people's work. It is important to distinguish management from leadership. Leadership is about guiding the work of a team toward a successful outcome. As individual contributors grow in seniority, they should be given more responsibility to lead teams and projects. Again, if this is not happening, it reflects an organizational shortcoming, not a good reason to become a manager.

Finally, while it is common for managers to make more money than their employees, becoming a manager for the money is short sighted. If you end up hating the job, the money will not be worth it. Also, you may be setting a ceiling on your career if you are unable to excel in the role. So even if you are motivated entirely by money, growing as a senior individual contributor may be better in the long run.

Here are some good reasons to become a manager:

Shipping a tentpole feature or hitting a quarterly sales target can be exhilarating, but also a bit abstract. In contrast, a management success, like helping an employee overcome self-doubt or coaching someone through a tough conversation, is viscerally real. You can look into the eyes of the person across the table and experience their relief and gratitude. If you are motivated by this depth over breadth of impact, management may be for you.

Workplace culture is an important part of job satisfaction. While everyone contributes to the culture, the management team takes responsibility for steering it. If you want to work at a great place, and you are capable of managing well, you may feel some sense of duty to become a manager. The motivation is not unlike running for PTA president because you want to see the job done right.

In many ways, managing people is very different from technical work. People are complex, emotional, sometimes irrational, and endlessly fascinating. A move into management challenges you to develop new skills and to grow in your empathy and maturity.

Management is largely about psychology. If you are curious about what makes people tick, the role might be a good fit. Do you read parenting books? Do you like Malcolm Gladwell? Did you read Alchemy or Influence or Freakonomics and immediately tell your friends about it? These are not requirements for management--just a few clues that you might enjoy it.

If you want a tool to gauge your interest, I have a specific book recommendation: Changing on the Job by Jennifer Garvey Berger. The book goes deep into adult development. It helps managers assess an employee's "form of mind" and guides them in coaching the employee to take on more complex and ambiguous challenges. A great manager could hate the book. But if you read it and feel motivated to put the ideas into practice, it is a sign that you might thrive in management.

Management is not for everyone, but too many great candidates are dissuaded by naysayers. One variety of management grinch treats every move to management as a regrettable loss of technical talent. In my experience, great managers are far more rare than great individual contributors. (That is a good thing, because we need more ICs than managers.) But even a great technical contributor has the potential to deliver more value by turning to people management.

Others dismiss management as the drudgery no one wants to do. They may call it "babysitting". They may consider it overhead to be minimized. To the contrary, helping people to become the best versions of themselves is worth doing and therefore worth doing well.

I was reluctantly thrust into management by a manager who saw potential in me that I did not see myself. I am grateful to him for the push, because many of my proudest career moments have come in my role as a people manager.

If you are considering management, motivated by the rights reasons, with signs that you might be good at it, then give it a shot. You stand to develop valuable skills and insights about yourself. There are plenty of examples of people who have switched to the management track, back to IC, and even back to management again. Remember that it is a big decision, but not necessarily a permanent one. Best of luck.