Making it in management: some do, some don't. why?

• Author: Wiesner, Pat
• Position: On Management

MANY YEARS AGO, I GOT MY FIRST JOB IN management the way many salespeople do: I sold more advertising than anyone else, and the management at my company at the time thought that was the key to discovering new management talent. I was given the P & Ls for the last three years and told that I would be expected to be up to speed by the next monthly management meeting. That was pretty much the extent of my training--probably the rough equivalent of whatever else passed as management training then (in the late '60s) and now.

What I learned from my "training" was that numbers were more important than anything else. Sales numbers, profit numbers, cost figures, etc. Management presided over these numbers and managed what made them go up and down. I traveled a lot, and when I saw customers with our local sales guys, I would help them by sort of taking over like some kind of "super-salesman." I suppose the local salesman was happy when we were successful, but it didn't do much for his self-confidence. At the same time I worked the numbers so that we would have money left over and be profitable.

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I wasn't really a very good manager because I was stuck on managing things.

It wouldn't be until two jobs (and accompanying mediocre performances) later that I began to see that really good managers spend as much time with people as they do with things. You can't ignore things and be a great manager but neither can you ignore people and be a great manager.

So here's how to make it as a manager:

Managing is a lot more than score-keeping. A friend of mine once characterized his rapid rise in the corporate structure as starting as a player (salesman), moving to coach (sales manager) and then to scorekeeper (management). If you are in a management job that makes you primarily a scorekeeper, change your job or change your employer. Any plan for a manager that doesn't include a plan to make the people you manage successful has little chance for more than average success, if that.

Have a good plan for your group and make sure that...