Manager = Promotion?
I recently finished Julie Zhuo’s book “The Making of a Manager”. In this book, she talked about her journey in Meta on becoming a manager, the bumps, challenges and hiccups she had and the lessons she learnt. She covered quite comprehensively on management or the tasks and duties of a team lead in a technology company.
Manager in Industrial Age
In the Industrial age, being a manager is seen as a promotion as you are leveled up to oversee a larger group of people. Together with the status upgraded comes the increase in salary as well, know as “The Raise”. In an age where material comfort are what most workers are striving for, the status upgrade and THE raise is definitely welcomed and worth striving for. Moreover, the manufacturing process is a conveyor belt where each worker just have to focus on a repetitive task, the manager has an easier time to manage quality and consistency easily.
Manager in Knowledge Economy
There is no difference in the sense that manager in the Knowledge Economy as in it is still overseeing a team. However, I felt the scope of the overseeing has definitely changed a lot. In the Knowledge Economy, businesses are using technology to solve different problems or leverage technology to increase its scale of operation. Each “product” that is “manufactured” by the team are very different from each other.
In the Industrial Age, each product produced by the manager’s team will always be exactly the same for instance laptop X with the same configuration. Whereas in the Knowledge Economy, each team build a software to solve Challenge A, then move on to build another software that solve Challenge B. Each team member will focused on writing codes in the designated programming language and contribute to the overall software. The manager will need to have certain proficiency in the different programming languages, be able to read these codes, debug if needed, coordinate and communicate, and resolve conflicts where needed, as compared to an Industrial Age manager.
The point is managing in the Knowledge Economy is a lot more demanding as compared to the Industrial Age manager. And it requires certain skill sets such as conflict management, coordination work, mentoring and coaching, etc.
So here lies a question I have: Should becoming a manager be seen as a promotion these days especially the raise that comes with it, if any, does not really commensurate with the larger demands from the managerial position.
Discussion
My opinion is becoming a manager should not be seen as ‘rewarding’ someone who has performed well in his/her current role. Rather, being put on a managing position is seen as giving someone a change of environment and/or new challenges. The raise should still come given the increase in scope/tasks/challenges that comes with managing. This changes the paradigm and selection criteria for putting someone in a managing position.
We have seen something similar happening in the workplace, especially if you are working in the tech industry. I am sure you have seen fellow colleagues who refuse a managing position because the colleagues prefer to write programs or design software where they are in their element and really enjoying what they do. Also you can see from this article shared by a friend and business partner of mine, that the millenials coming to the work force are now more keen on what they do and not being promoted.
Long story short, I feel the managing position should not be dangled as a form of promotion anymore which will change the lens on how we select people for managing position.
What are your thoughts on this?
I highly recommend Julie Zhuo’s book, “The Making of a Manager”, especially if you have just been out in a managing position and if so, I wish you all the very best! :)
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Being a manager is so tough!