I live in Melbourne, Victoria where this week we saw the resignation of our premier, Dan Andrews. He’d been in that leadership role for 9 years. Love him or hate him, that’s a decent stint. Certainly not a role I’d relish doing.
“When it’s time, it’s time,” he said.
I’ve seen many managers come and go over the years. Sometimes they were so good I told them they had to return to the role. That it would be a huge waste if they didn’t.
Each of them laughed and said, “No chance. I’ve had enough. Managing people is a pain in the a*se. I just want to do a job without the hassle of staff.”
What a shame. But, I get it. Indeed, I believe every person has their very own BEST BEFORE date: an expiry date when it comes to managing people at work. For some, it can be 20+ years. For others, a few months of looking after beautiful staff and they cry: enough!
If you’re a manager right now, it helps to know this. You probably won’t know the exact date. You may even be new to management and feel incredibly positive and excited about your role – I sure hope so – and think I’m talking nonsense. That’s fine. After all: managing people, creating a fantastic team, achieving great things together … can be one of the best jobs in the world.
But to extend your use-by date here are some helpful tips:
👉 One day it’s likely you will wake up and say, “It’s time.” Just like Dan did.
👉 Knowing this is actually a relief: realising you won’t be in the role forever should make you smile. It should also make you approach management with a wonderful maverick spirit: be fearless, be daring, stand out from the crowd and become one of the special ones. Whatever you do, please don’t become a corporate yes-man/woman … we need less of them, not more.
👉 Because “all good things come to an end”, make damn sure you enjoy the manager journey.
👉 You’ll need to make tough decisions along the way. You won’t always be right, either.
👉 Hindsight is a bugger of a “told you so” friend that nobody really likes, so who cares? Make those tough decisions anyway.
👉 This means you won’t be liked by everyone you work with. And you know what? Such is life (use Twitter/X for a few days, if you want to get confirmation of that). You’re not in a management role to be liked.
👉 Respect? Ahh, now that’s other thing entirely. Work on that one.
👉 Focus on the important end goals. Always. Ignore the bleatings, the daily noise, the yelling, the naysayers, doubters and back-stabbers. Push ahead regardless.
👉 Find a moment of joy in every day.
That’ll keep you going, especially the last one. You might even end up being one of the outliers: a (good) manager who keeps looking after teams till the very end. I hope so. But I get it if one day you wake up and call it quits.
Until then, stay on the shelf and proudly announce to the world: I’m fresh, I’m available … and I’m one of the special ones who manages with a maverick spirit.
