Before I climbed the ladder of management, I had so many false expectations and preconceptions about the position of leadership as a manager at a big firm. Little did I know that in as much as the job is enticing regarding perks and privileges, some large hurdles and frustrations come with the position of which if one is not careful and have sufficient mental strength, they may quickly buckle and resign.
I secured the promotion at Merida company as an operations manager dealing with supervision and checking quality compliance for all the products manufactured by the firm. Comparing my experience with Hill’s article on “Becoming a Boss,” I can draw many similarities of the challenges presented by Hill and the hurdles I grappled with before I attained stability at my new position. I realized that management is entirely similar to the success I have had before.
Just like Hill points out in his article, organizations face the risk of encountering huge financial and human costs during the early days of the new management, more so if the new manager earned their promotion on the strengths of their Steller qualifications and individual performances. Before I fully adjusted to new responsibilities as per the expectations of an operational manager, Merida lost four senior employees who worked as heads of department of quality control, technical department head, the procurement manager and logistics officer. Now with hindsight, I attribute the loss of such talented and experienced human resource to my naive leadership style and untested philosophy regarding the managerial role.
Before my ascendance into the managerial role, I had false expectations of how a manager should run the affairs of the organization. Such misconceptions are similar to what Hill calls myths. Instead of seeking to earn the trusts and commitment of my subordinates, I focused much on gaining compliance and control of the employees who worked for me. Furthermore, I started off under the illusion that since I had gained the promotion to an operations manager, my job would entail ensuring that the operations run smoothly. Later, I concurred with Hill’s view that the reality of the matter is, a manager is responsible for initiating changes and policies that would enhance the performance of the employees.
Learning to Manage Is So Hard
Working as an employee whereby the only expectation they have is to discharge their duties and observe accountability. By having risen through the ranks at Merida company to become a manager, I can attest to the fact that it's easy working as a junior staff member with no administrative duties. Reading the article of Hill also reinforced that realization that the first few things that managers find out in their new assignment of leadership that the job is more demanding than their previous positions and even more than they had anticipated. Managers learn by surprise the techniques required for individual contributions to success as well as those needed for success as a manager have stark differences (Hill, 2007). Additionally, there is a huge gap between the demands of the new position and the current capabilities of an individual who has just earned promotion into a senior position. Until I received my letter of promotion, I had not appreciated the connection between teamwork and forging cohesion and organizational success. The first months of dismal performance woke me up to the realization of adjusting to the new reality and strict demands of my new job (Hill, 2007).
Kegan and Lahey three-phase theory
Lahey and Kegan describe the stages that constitute the three-phase theory as a way of moving away from underscoring the individual’s deeply held beliefs and ideas. The authors vouch for the gradual ability to align individual beliefs to a broader context known as self-authoring. Further, the authors advocate that people should nurture the capacity to identify the shortcomings in their system of belief as well as acknowledge the virtues in other people’s belief system commonly known as self-transforming. Therefore, the purpose of the authors is to give the professionals particularly in the field of management a broader and developmental framework for finding positivity in their colleagues and subordinates. Managers should know how to empathize with their junior staff members and discern new ways of understanding the diverse and valuable contribution that the junior employees bring into the organization (Hagström " Stålne, 2015).
Kegan and Lahey state that individuals grow through different meanings of leadership based on their stage of development. Kegan’s theory describes three different main stages of development. The three stages are imperial, interpersonal and institutional. According to Kegan, the imperial stage involves people focusing on their personal goals and needs. Achieving individual goals must have been the mindset that I appeached the managerial position at the expense of collective needs and goals. At the interpersonal stage, the leaders focus on the needs of others as well as their individual goals. The institutional stage now makes the person put the collective needs of the organization before their own. Working with the needs of the subordinates in mind helps to inculcate the spirit of teamwork that is vital to the success of any organization (Hagström " Stålne, 2015).
References
Hagström, T., " Stålne, K. (2015). The Generality of Adult Development Stages and Transformations: Comparing Meaning-making and Logical Reasoning. Integral Review: A Transdisciplinary " Transcultural Journal for New Thought, Research, " Praxis, 11(3).
Hill, L. A. (2007). Becoming the boss. Harvard business review, 85(1), 48.
