Most New Managers Fail For One Unique Reason

You need to know it to protect yourself and succeed as a manager.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Becoming a manager is a dream for many people. Whatever the field, many make the role of manager a career goal. I imagine they have the image of the all-powerful leader leading his employees with an iron fist by giving them a whole bunch of orders. This vision of the role of managers is rather retrograde, but unfortunately many people still have it.

Often it is these people who dream so much of becoming managers who will fail in their first experience as team leaders. Worse still, some will probably never be able to take the necessary perspective to understand the reasons for this failure.

This is a pity and that is why I think it is important to reflect together on the main reason behind the failure of most new managers. The goal is to find the solution to protect yourself and succeed as a manager in order to become a motivating and inspiring leader.

Becoming A Manager Gives You Great Power

In my opinion, becoming a manager gives you great power. I include all types of managers in my discussion. So it starts with managers from a small team of five to ten people to go to the manager who leads his growing startup in which nearly a hundred employees will work every day to help the startup achieve its objectives.

For people becoming managers, it is therefore essential to understand that this is accompanied by great power. Once this point is integrated, I will remind you what Benjamin Parker says to his nephew Peter Parker in Spider-man:

“With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.”

With this great power you have just inherited, great responsibilities will therefore appear. You will have to be aware of this and adapt accordingly when you interact with your employees.

Great Power Implies Great Responsibilities

If your only goal in becoming a manager was to be able to give orders for your employees to work hard for you, you will fall down. Let me tell you that becoming a manager is really the opposite.

By becoming a manager, one of your biggest responsibilities will be to set up the right framework for your employees to develop individually so that they want to give their best for you and the company.

You will therefore have to go beyond the status of a manager to become a real motivating and inspiring leader. This will be done by developing their motivation around three key axes: autonomy, control and purpose.

A good manager will simply be a facilitator. First of all, he will promote the autonomy of his team members, which will give them the confidence to take initiatives and propose ever more beneficial things to the company.

Then, the manager must allow his employees to gain control over their tasks so that their work is done in the best possible way. Finally, a manager must show the purpose in what he asks of his employees. Without this purpose, there is no way for an employee to surpass himself.

The Manager Must Work For His Employees

Most managers who fail in their first experience, and sometimes in their subsequent experiences, have not realized that when they take up this position, they must now work for their employees.

This work may be demanding sometimes but it is necessary. It is even the sine qua non condition for success as a manager.

Successful managers are therefore those who take care to work for their employees with the willpower to promote their personal development so that it reflects on the company afterwards.

When a manager succeeds in his mission, his employees naturally work hard for him and the company without the need to show authority. This one is self-evident and that’s how we recognize excellent managers who are above all motivating and inspiring leaders.

This is the only secret you need to know to succeed as a manager.