As the unknown becomes known, a choice is to expect it, welcome it, embrace it, and make choices that create a new competitive advantage.
Chet Pipkin, Founder Belkin International
Fresh MBAs want to go into management thinking it’s the way to power, perks, and bucks. I don’t want to seem like a Cassandra, but …. There are lots of disruptions occurring in management. This is great if you’ve got the emotional maturity and the ‘right stuff’.
Story: A new ailment is running through organizations: management phobia. VUCANs don’t want to be managers and existing managers want to jump off the track. The reasons vary: ‘I want freedom’, ‘I don’t want to attend #@% Zoom meetings!’, ‘I want a life’, ‘This is bullsh*t’, ‘I want time with my kids’, ‘I don’t want to herd cats’, or ‘I don’t want the pressure’.
VUCANs are saying ‘no’ to the promotion or to the move. Why? WSJ opined:
“Uncertainty is the monster that lives under the bed of each CEO. It waits until the door is shut and the lights are out, and even then, it bides its time. Pulses race, sweat beads, no move seems like the right one.”(1)
Management is also tougher than it was even 5 years ago due to globalization, work disruption, outsourcing, lack of spending, off-shoring, flat growth, pressures on cost margins, regulations, and recession.
Management authority has diminished. Salary compression results in fewer financial benefits for the manager. Another challenge: a creative, MBA, or founder of a startup may be asocial – great with ideas, lousy with VUCANs, and poor on execution. The point of this jab is that more bosses and employers are focusing on the do, than the pedigree. Elon Musk recently said:
“There’s the M.B.A.-ization of America, which I think is maybe not that great. There should be more focus on the product or service itself, less time on board meetings, less time on financials.” (2)
Work Lesson Earned: What’s going on? COVID was an eye opener for techies, creatives, and managers who don’t want the headaches of compliance, VUCANs, and legal wrangling. They can get all the money they want without the accompanying headaches. There are other Working It ways to thrive including being a highly paid individual contributor, influencer, maker, maven, or founder. Look at these questions:
• What work do you want to do?
• Do you have the ‘right stuff’ to do this work or be a good manager?
• Are you aware of the sacrifices you have to make to do the work you want to do?
• Is this the right work/career/job track for you?
(1) ‘Hug the Uncertainty Monster,’ Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2020.
(2) ‘Elon Musk Decries ‘MBA ization of American’, Wall Street Journal, December 9, 2020