Why all new managers want to quit
The first big inflection point of management and how to handle it
Over the years I’ve had a lot of coaching conversations with managers. Whether they be managers I’ve appointed, managers I’ve been coaching, managers I’ve trained or managers I’ve inherited. One of the common themes running through these conversations among managers who had been in the role less than 18 months was they all told me the same thing.
“I don’t want to be a manager any more”
This happened at earlier or later stages depending upon the person but was a near universal reaction to discovering that managing humans is not a happy fluffy bunny land with cotton candy and unicorns. I say near universal because there are a tiny number of people who don’t say this and they fall into one of three categories:
- Sociopaths who are getting a kick out of telling people what to do. It’s important to identify if this is the case because this is a near future (or even present) problem waiting to happen.
- People who were afraid to speak up because it would mean admitting failing. Initially it may be hard to separate these from the sociopaths who you shouldn’t have made a manager in the first place. Skip level meetings may help identify this or direct coaching. If there’s low psychological safety with your managers then this group…
