It has been a few days now that I have been pondering about this question.
When do we know someone is ready to be a manager?
When does your manager know you are ready?
When do YOU know you are ready?
And should you know you are ready before you get the position?
The only thing that is certain around this topic is that there are as many opinions as there are brains in the world. Not only human…
To solve this mystery, I invite you to do an exercise with me.
1. First, let’s talk about your experience. What did the best and worst managers in your life do?
Take a sheet of paper and draw a line in the middle. On the left — add the behaviours of the worst manager(s) you can think of. On the right (you got it!) — list the behaviours of the greatest leaders you have ever seen and heard of.
When I think about this exercise, I am lucky to have more examples of great managers than the opposite. The "best manager" list combines the behaviours of my first and last managers. In the “worst manager”, I thought about an early internship and added some insights from the stories I have heard over the years.