People in Management

Many bright individuals are capable of supervising a small group of people, but the Peter Principle is alive and well. The best person for a supervisor position is NOT necessarily the person that does that job better than any of their peers. Certainly, that talent would put them in the extremely comfortable position where they as the boss can always instruct their staff in how to do a particular job. From there, a merely adequate ability to express themselves and a little bit of self-confidence are usually sufficient to achieve success.

The self-confidence requirement is essential, however, and I have personally overseen promotions of people without that. Its absence has resulted in definite management failure. I have not yet been convinced that self-confidence can be taught.

The next step in management, where you are supervising supervisors, takes a much larger view of the world. Most people do not excel at this. You must be able to instruct others, especially your next level supervisors, only here you are instructing them in how to lead others. You also must be an even better listener. The rule of exception (where you as manager deal only with the things that your staff is not used to seeing) comes into play much more strongly the higher up the organizational chart you go. The self-confidence requirement shifts from the need to be able simply to answer a question, to the need to really make a decision. A decisive manager, who takes the incomplete information at hand, the conflicting reports from different parts of the department and is still able to find a path to the truth, or at least his/her version of the truth, is a rare commodity. The best managers will also have the willingness and ability to go forward and implement that truth, with the understanding that if it doesn't work, he/she can and will try something else.

If you find yourself needing a manager, look for the person with self confidence who is not afraid to make a decision, even if they aren't the absolute best at doing whatever it is their staff will be doing.