“What is the hardest part about delegation?” I asked. Matthew winced. The more we talked about delegation, the more he hated it.
“Giving it up,” he said. “I was the best technician in the field. I could handle two more stops than any of the other service trucks. At the end of the day, I put my numbers on the wall, and they were almost always at the top.”
After a moment, he continued, “Now, I have to wait. It is really tough to know whether or not what I do, as a Manager, is really having an impact. Numbers will be down for a service tech and I wonder if it is my fault or is he just having a bad day.”
“You are pretty results-oriented, aren’t you?” I asked.
“I guess so,” Matthew replied.
“It’s more than a guess, Matthew. That is why you really liked being a technician. You got results on a daily basis. You could stick them on the wall and look at them. If you wanted, you could even pull your results off the wall, take them home to show your wife. You are in a different game now. The results are not so tangible. The results have to do with growth and development of your team. Welcome to management.” -TF
How does someone make this leap from technician to manager? I see it all the time in IT, and I think it’s why there are so many bad managers out there. Isn’t this the Peter principle, where people are promoted to their level of incompetence?
Sean
IMHO making the leap takes patience, mentoring, and training. I made a similar move 7 years ago. I didn’t become a very good technician overnight, and I wasn’t expected to become a very good manager overnight. I had a supportive manager above me, and the company I was with had internal and external management training available. I don’t know about other fields, but in IT historically the only way to advance was to eventually leave the technical area and become a manager. That’s changing so that technical people can reach a VP level or higher with out becoming a manager.