There was a great article in Harvard Business Review called When Your Manager is Afraid of You that tells the story of Kate, a young overachiever who’s done more before her one year anniversary with her company than her boss has done in the last several. In conversations with an HR professional, she realizes that her boss is intimidated by her achievement, explaining his awkward behavior in not supporting her success.
Kate walked away rather unharmed by this situation, but the comments on the article tell a different story, with more than one person sharing how they had been pushed out of jobs by managers who undermined them out of their own fear of inadequacy.
Most people are promoted to management positions because they’ve been successful in their job, not because they have any training or experience managing people. And therein lies the problem. In their road to their position, they’ve been taught tactics. Not leadership. They’ve fought to prove themselves, with the goal being to outshine others. Leadership requires just the opposite.
The best managers out there do two things really well:
- Provide their employees with the support and resources they need to be rock stars.
- Help to get the obstacles out of their way.
If you don’t make these two items your priority, then you have no business calling yourself a leader.
It’s a funny thing – when you give your employees the empowerment, the resources and the support they need, and then show them that you expect greatness, more often than not they will step up to the plate and surpass your wildest expectations. And when they do it, sing their praises from the rooftops. When they succeed, you succeed.
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