Letter from a "Powerless" Manager

Source: Pixabay, CC0 Public Domain

In each installment of this daily series, I respond to a composite letter that asks for my career advice.

Dear Marty,

I don't know why so many individual contributors aspire to become managers. Sure, you get a higher salary but as a manager, you can't get overtime.

Worse, you get more responsibility but little real power over the people you supervise. Usually, you inherit most or all of them and these days, it's hard to fire anyone without them suing or alienating their coworker friends. And if you criticize them, they're more likely to get defensive than to improve, and to badmouth you to coworkers and even your boss. Meanwhile, my boss is always demanding more from my workgroup. I hate it.

Any advice?

Mia, a Miserable Manager

Dear Mia,

First of all, up isn't the only way. Would it be too risky to tell your boss that you feel you could make a better contribution as an individual contributor and would enjoy that more?

But before doing that, remember that many managers don't find it so frustrating. Might it help to do one or more of the following?

• If you have a supervisee who's doing a bad job and is likely irretrievable, before trying to fire the person, see if you can get him or her to leave voluntarily by counseling the person out. Let me explain. After making reasonable efforts to improve the employee, if s/he still is doing poorly, take him or her out to lunch and explain that while s/he has real strengths (list them,) in total, s/he's not a good fit for the position and that while you're not terminating her, you'd be pleased to help him or her find a better-suited position. That sometimes can work.
• If that doesn't work, while it isn't easy, it's often possible, with documentation, to terminate that person. If s/he is that bad, the coworkers hopefully will understand why s/he was asked to leave.
• With regard to giving criticism, is it possible that your feedback isn't specific enough, stated in a face-saving way, and accompanied by praising the positives? Or conversely, have you been so sugar-coating that s/he doesn't get it and you need to lay out the facts more directly?
• Are you managing your boss's expectations? You may not have to be a yes woman. Have you provided sufficient backup for your claim that your boss's demands are unreasonable?
• Have you set up efficient processes and clear-enough expectations so more of your supervisees can do their job well? And conversely, have you given at least some of your employees freedom to break the rules if they can think of a better way? The great manager does not treat all supervisees equally. S/he treats them as individuals so as to bring out the best in each. One size doesn't fit all.

Those are keys to becoming a manager who likes her job, maybe even who becomes beloved.

I hope that helps.

Marty Nemko

Marty Nemko's bio is in Wikipedia. His 8th book, just published, is The Best of Marty Nemko.