Leave managers alone!!

It’s de rigueur at the moment to bag managers.  Scroll through your LinkedIn feed and see how far you can get before you find a post that someone has shared that essentially says…

Managers Suck.  Leaders Are Awesome.

People posting these things are not doing so because they are mean.  They genuinely want things to be better….they want their organisation to be better.

And when they look at perhaps their own organisation, they see 1) thing suck.  2) there are managers.  Then you see the latest tweet from Richard Branson, who is considered to be a ‘leader’, and that all seems to be AWESOME!

(Il)logical conclusion….Managers Suck.  Leaders Are Aweseome.

This is rubbish, and so insulting to hundreds of thousands of good people all around the world just trying to do a difficult role called ‘manager’.

How many people posting ‘Managers Suck’ posts would send them to their own manager?  To their CEO?  

None of the managers I work with (and I’m talking the spectrum of CEOs of multi-divisional businesses to people running teams of people on lawn mowers)  come to work to do evil.  They don’t want their people to suffer.  They want their people to do well and to celebrate achievements with their people.

‘Manager’ is an honourable and important role.  Just like being an airline pilot…they have the wellbeing of a group of people in their hands, and their job is to return them home safely.   Pilots and Managers are neither better nor worse than their passengers or team as a human being, but they do have a role to play which comes with a high level of both accountability and authority.

And when this authority is used well, with clear sensible decisions,  and genuine care of others….it’s a great thing.  And deserves your respect.

Try it yourself….landing that plane isn’t so easy.

Sure, some pilots are better than others.  Some managers are better than others.  There are bumpy landings. Both pilots and managers are there to make sure everyone ends up safely in the same spot at the same time.  Which is what’s called…..’managerial leadership‘.  It requires some key practices to be in place and done well.

It’s simpler than you think…but it’s not easy, and requires training and discipline.

If you want your organisation to be better, which starts from having competent managerial leadership….then start showing some respect for people doing a difficult job.  Sure, managers in your organisation could probably be better at their job.  So could you.  So definitely can I.

But you can at least show them some respect.  Because it’s not easy.