Leadership Paths: Become a Manager?

How much additional Freedom will you attain?

If you were a manager in the past and you are still working in a corporate environment, some people think “once a manager always a manager.” To some people, management is the only way, or perhaps, the ideal way to achieve power and self-expression.

In the last 5 years of musing on the various paths of professional growth, there is some truth to what many corporate employees, headhunters, spouses, other people’s spouses, engineers, former subordinates, and people with nothing better to do may think. However, there are many aspects to power and not all reside in the position of a corporate manager.

Manage a gondola in Venice, Italy

Being a Corporate Manager cannot be genericized and is only one way

Recently, I was recommended to take on a management position in a high tech electronics company. I cannot and will not go into specifics to save the identity of the innocent.

An increase in salary, an opening in the income ceiling and a certain amount of prestige stepping up the corporate ladder are the low hanging fruit of stepping up to being a manager from a non-management position. I have written several articles on being a manager and have shared many of my beliefs when it comes to managing.

There are some general responsibilities I like about any management position, for instance, one can be a position to exert some influence in guiding and promoting the people under you. You have to exercise the need for effective communication and endeavor to create more effective methodology to save people time. In my view, work should be done more efficiently so people can make the most of their time at work to preserve as much of their free time as possible. A well regulated system should be in place in order to make maximum use of people’s creativity for productive use and not to recreate the wheel. Moreover, a manager ought to be able to act as a buffer and mediator between the “company” and his or her subordinates interpreting and communicating key strategy so the department and company are more or less in synch.
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However, I experienced strong resistances in pursuing this particular management opportunity. For starters, I accomplished much through being coached over the last half a year in focusing on being at peace with my current circumstances and my current engineering position, and made great progress in understanding the importance of creating a “happy home.” Subsequently, this helped me accept the many positives of my current engineering position that I was previously only finding fault in. That’s a kind of power, that is, having flexibility and the ability to go home in time for dinner.

Another important thing to consider in taking on a management position, be brutally honest with yourself to get past the ego-pumping. It helps if you understand what your higher Purpose or role is and how making a move fits your longer term goals. What you think would be a step forward could end up becoming a step backwards into a position that does not truly meet your needs (Well… maybe for you it may very well be the right step forward!).

What is your Purpose? How do all the experiences you have had in the past come together to manifest into something greater?

F-14 Tomcats. image credit: airvoila.com. Why did I use this photo here? Just looks cool. You might also say a fighter pilot has his own realm of Freedom managing his aerial arena.

“Management” per say, even if you are in the same field as you have experienced success before, encompasses a very broad range of life experiences and circumstances. A job we once had in the past may have been ideal when you were younger, but perhaps not now.

For example, being in a management position where you are starting from scratch in a startup company is quite different from having to adopt an existing group in a warmed over bureaucracy.

Managing as a single young person is different than when you are married with children.

Managing single people is different from married people, or parents with children.

It’s different when everyone speaks a common language compared to when every other person is English as a second language.

It’s different in a startup company than a company where the potential cash rewards and the extra hours are accepted compared to the compensation potential being of little or no consequence.

It makes a difference when you share a history and working style with the CEO and President… little things like these make a difference.

How much Freedom will you have?

As we get older, we get a little more aware of how we use our time and we sometimes seek ways of drawing the best of our previous experiences together into something new.

Surveying my professional past, I find some experiences that although each may have had their imperfections, they had some was I could experience some autonomy – freedom within the job.

What I’ve discovered is there are skills, abilities and experiences that are very valuable as a result of my corporate managing experiences in a startup company that was able to go IPO. Developing a methodology or work infrastructure that made it easy for new qualified people to jump in and start being productive was very rewarding experience. Working closely and openly with other key personnel who are motivated and capable in their arenas is a big plus. Developing a system where project leaders had autonomy and could confidently take a project to the end with minimal oversight from me gave me and them a sense of accomplishment. Professionally, it was completely engaging and a great value to the company and the every member of the department. A win-win situation.

There were also very valuable experiences of being a supervisor in the Navy onboard a submarine, when patriotism, camaraderie and the sense of personal sacrifice has a much different tenor and where faith and confidence in leadership becomes a matter of life or death. The stakes are very high, commensurate with youthful disregard for ones mortality.

Being a landlord and having to make decisions based on laws that affect my family and those of tenants, while not always easy or fun, are much easier done with autonomy and with the ability to make prompt judgments. Making connections with able professionals in many sectors from realtors, general contractors to attorneys plays an important role.

Being self-employed and helping people with their electric vehicle problems (when electric cars were not yet in fashion) to, as a Licensed Acupuncturist, helping people with their health problems has been valuable, because they all point to something inside of me that gets turned on being capable to help others even if the monetary reward is not that great.

Envision in Grand Style: Photo by Challen Yee. Hearst Castle, the playground of Hollywood legends.

Enough about me, WHAT ABOUT YOU?

What experiences have turned you on? Why did they? What need in your life did they fill at that time? What about now?

What I’m suggesting is, in the long run, what is more important than the money is the relative freedom and autonomy in exercising your personal values in daily decision making. What can you put your heart into? What will keep you motivated when things are not going well? If you ever find a way of monetizing your passion, that’s what could allow you to liberate yourself from an unsavory desk job, an ungrateful employer or an industry you’ve become dispassionate about.

Even though a particular corporate management job may be ideal for some people (or even you), consider if what you are pursuing results in more Freedom in the expression of you.

If you got some value, please LIKE SHARE and COMMENT

I’ll see you… on the next page

Challen Yee

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