Holding back in management? Be yourself and take a risk or two!

So here you are.  You have been promoted into management or maybe you have been in management a long time and maybe you are not getting the 'buzz' out of the job that you were hoping for?

In my last blog I talked about introducing more of yourself into your role as manager bringing benefits of diverse thinking, individualism, new ideas etc to the team you are leading.

For me, over the years I have seen some amazingly diverse and inspirational people be promoted into a management role and somehow they individuality seems to have been morphed into 'management', perhaps their 'colourful personality' has become a touch greyer.

Why?  Well I touched on this in my last blog but maybe those people have perhaps put their foot on their personality brake pedal too heavily in order to comply with others?

You would probably have been promoted because of your skills and how you influence the people around you, so why would you then start to reduce what probably helped to promote you in the first place?

So here is the challenge for you, answer these questions for yourself;

What areas of your personality are you dumbing down in order to comply in your management role?

Think, how were you feeling before you dumbed down those 'colourful' facets of your personality?

How could you use those personality aspects to make yourself a better manager?

Have a good think about the answers to these questions and I challenge you to take a risk and use your full personality to make yourself a fantastic manager!

Wishing you all the best,

John

Who are you?

I was once told by a good friend of mine that if I wanted to be successful in working as a manager then I needed to aspire to be like the manager who was managing me.

How do you react to that statement? Agree? Disagree?

I have been working for many years now and it does indeed strike me that many people in management strive for that common ground with their managers or directors.  They want their senior managers to know that they are supportive and are ready to stand by them and in return they want to be seen as competent, an 'asset' to the team perhaps, an ideal candidate for future opportunities.
There is absolutely nothing wrong in that, however, what does go wrong in so many cases is how much that person sacrifices in order to maintain that perception.

When we are young we are keen to impress, be seen to be dynamic and because we haven't got much to lose we take risks in being ourselves and then we learn how to be at work and sometimes as we accumulate personal wealth , family, debt, we start putting restraints on ourselves in order to manage risk. 'How can I really stand up for what I believe is the best course of action when I risk losing my position in my company, or respect or future prospects...' etc etc.

Here is the problem.  I believe that we are all different, but in business it feels like we all have to behave the same and shed some of that stuff that makes us unique in order to 'fit in'.

Have you done that?  What does it feel like to not be able to fully express yourself within your work environment?

I believe strongly that when we do a job, we are not like everyone else.  We bring into that job our own unique perspectives, views, personalities etc  It is these attributes that make us inspirational and possibly might actually make you more effective as a manager.

Do you enjoy your role as a manager? Find it satisfying?  If you don't perhaps you have sacrificed too much of yourself to be a person that you are not.  You need to bring new life into your work.

So I challenge you to take a risk, bring more of yourself into your role as a manager and inspire your team.  Yes, there is a risk, it may not go down well and if that is likely to happen shouldn't you question being there in the first place and maybe find an employer that does value you and your 'stuff'.