The Top 5 Essentials A Scientist Needs To Become An Effective Manager Part 2

Continuing my series on the top 5 essentials that a scientist needs to become an effective manager, today's post focuses on point number 2.

2 - Have a desire for a career in management.

In yesterday's post I talked about the many reasons why somebody might choose a career in management.  For a lot of people there is the perception that moving into management is a way of gaining more money, status, perhaps a little less work?  For some, a management position might be taken because there is an assumption that one should move into management because they are starting to get older and perhaps shouldn't be seen to be stuck in the lower levels of the organisational chart.

I remember getting an email once from a scientist that moved into management.  She had worked hard to get there too.  She was extremely aware of the male dominated environment that she worked in and was keen to prove that she could make it in science.

Her success lead her to a position of working in management, but this experience was tarnished somewhat by the fact that she loved doing science more than she did manage people.  She wished that she had stayed in the laboratory.

I think that it was quite courageous of that person to admit this, because there are many people who wouldn't and will slowly feel more and more trapped within a role that they don't enjoy.

The bottom line here is that being a manager means managing people.  That is the job, managing people and the processes that they are working on.  It requires the manager to look at the objectives in place and the people in their team and work out how to lead their team to successfully to complete those objectives.  The manager needs to understand the members of their team, their skills, their values and in a way not unlike that of a conductor of a symphony orchestra bring everything together to achieve the goals.

If that doesn't excite you, then you shouldn't consider a career in management.  If a career in management is likely to take you away from what you enjoy doing the most then just don't go there.  Ignore whatever negative drivers are pushing you into making a wrong decision and be fantastic at being the scientist that you are.

The next post in this series will be focusing on the need of a manager to have a strategic mind.

Find out more about John Hicks here.