I believe that great managers are made, not born.
And there are some minimum qualifications to become a great manager.
A while back I wrote about one of them, the ability to delegate and trust people to achieve results.
The other entry criteria is liking to work with people, or at least being willing to work with people.
I recently listened as a manager introduced himself by declaring: “I don’t like working with people, and I’m not good at it. I want to be alone with my computer.”
He continues out of a sense of duty. He believes that he’s helping to keep the company going.
I wonder how much better off the company would be if he stepped out of his management role. This manager is miserable, and I’m fairly sure he’s making the people who work for him miserable, too.
If you want to be a great manager, learn as much as you can about working with people. Make it your major field of study.
If you don’t want to learn about working with people, there’s no dishonor in saying management isn’t a good fit (for you, at this time, in this situation).
