I’ve been through the management track. You know me (or the person like me). I was very good at getting the work done – always the person management went to when they needed something done. I always worked with a team of top performers.
As I look back on it now, I can honestly say I might have been the right choice, but I was woefully unprepared for the management role.
My team worked well when we were all working towards a common goal, and I was the point person. But once I assumed the management role, I was less able to be the point person and had to perform the management duties.
My college degree really did not prepare me for dealing with staff. Staff cover a range of performance levels, many of which do not match the college management course roll play scenarios. Eeek! What was I to do.
As I am now sure is commonplace amongst high-performers turned in to managers, I floundered. I was too proud to seek out training (my fault, not the companies). I was too young, dumb, and full of swagger to take subtle hints from well intentioned mentors.
Looking back now, I can say that I feel that I should not have been promoted into management without taking some company sponsored internal management classes. I’m not saying I was smart enough to have known that now, or if I would have embraced the training then, but I surely would have absorbed the knowledge, and it would have influenced me positively.
I did take the required management “process” classes. You know, “our” performance appraisal process, how to fill out forms for this and that. But I really needed a how to motivate, inspire or even relate to your staff type classes.
Obviously it is too late now for me to excel at a company that I left years ago. But, it’s not too late for me to make sure that the next manager I promote from within is more prepared to succeed and fail.
I’ve been researching management training in the UK, and one of the companies I found is Right Track management training Birmingham. Nice approach, and they cover many of the topics they cover seem like they would have helped me.
