3 myths about management

“You continue to use this word. I think it means not what you think it means. ”
- Inigo Montoya

Working full-time in managerial positions over the past few years, I am increasingly convinced that misconceptions about the role of a manager and about management as a profession are widespread, and these errors spoil life and nerves for many people. The topic of management is full of rumors and myths, here I will only talk about the most vivid examples.

Myth number 1. Management is what managers do.

I noticed a trend in a certain category of companies. Their employees tell everyone who is ready to listen that they have no “management”, they do not plan to ever enter it, and you should not do this either. In my opinion, such statements consist of distortions, naive representations and bad advice. Usually such companies are quite young and relatively small, most employees work there for less than a year, and the narrator tries to convince us that he works for a unique and innovative company because there are no “managers” there. None of them read the Tyranny of Unstructuredness .

Management is an activity for ensuring effective interaction between people, and the manager is the one who does it. Yes, just like that. Typically, this includes sharing information, coordinating areas of work, assigning tasks, and figuring out what to do when a problem occurs. This work should be done in any team, regardless of whether there is a dedicated “manager” there or not. Teams can function without managers , but they cannot function normally without management . Someone (or all) must do the work of providing interaction.

Modern management is a specialized profession, which involves a wide range of skills - communication, psychology, empathy, problem solving, leadership, and so on. These skills are not unique to managers, but it often makes sense to charge some people with more management work on behalf of the team. By devoting their time and attention to this, they unload the other team members, and allow them to focus on their tasks. They can work as coordinators, ensuring the coordinated work of the team. By focusing on management, these people can improve their skills by learning and practicing how people interact.
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Myth number 2. Management is to tell people what to do.

There are many different management styles, each of which is focused on a certain type of team or organization. The factories are not managed like design studios, large companies are managed differently than small ones, and each team has its own management style, which comes from a unique group of people working in it. Some managers specialize in individual management styles, others are more broad-based.

“Telling people what to do” is a management style called “ Command and Control ”. It is characterized by authority, hierarchy, and strict adherence to rules. This style is widely used in military structures, as well as managers, who are shown in movies and on TV. He has certain advantages and disadvantages that I would not like to dwell on now. My thought is that this is just one example, but this example is used to represent the general idea of ​​management. Another example of the management style is completely opposite: self-organization, when there is no specially selected person responsible for making team decisions.

Small self-organized teams are able to achieve amazing productivity. They are easier to manage, since they themselves are relatively simple, and therefore simple tools and techniques work well here. Everyone can be fully aware of what each of them does, and new information quickly spreads as a team. But when a team or organization grows, it often grows to the size at which it stops working, and it needs adaptation. There is no one management approach that works equally well everywhere.

Myth number 3. Management is a career advancement.

You know how it is. When an employee is successful in his profession, someone will eventually offer him the role of a manager as a “reward” for good work. This is complete nonsense. Management is not a career advancement, it is a career change. This means starting as a beginner in a new profession and mastering it from scratch. Knowledge of the subject area is important, as the manager must understand what people are doing in his team, but now they are not paramount. The team, as a system of people, is now becoming the chief manager.

If the organization cannot provide career advancement within the framework of the profession, people can go into management, as this is “the only chance to advance.” And having only realized where they are, they often discover that they are not at all prepared for this new area, or even are not ready for this work at all.

When someone “advances” from the post of financial analyst to the post of biochemist without training and experience, it will probably seem strange to us. But this is the same thing that constantly happens with new managers, and it has become almost standard practice in many organizations and industries.

So what?

Management misunderstand. As well as science, engineering and many other areas. What does it matter?

“People leave from managers, not from companies ... ultimately, turnover is basically a manager’s problem,”
- Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, First, Break All the Rules

Myths similar to the above, lead to large-scale functional impairment in organizations, making it difficult for everyone to do their work. They practically guarantee incompetent management, which beats all those concerned. They ruin days and weeks, poison jobs and ruin careers. They force talented people to leave companies and lead them away from their chosen professions.

I recommend that you stop denigrating or ignoring management, and begin to improve in it.

Original: Matt Zimmerman, Management: a rant