Are you manager material?

Sometimes, a few people like to remain followers while they let others to rule over them. Even the best minds need supervisors who can bring out the best in them. However, there comes a time for promotion where you have to leave your field job and get stuck to your chair. Or better still, stop working and start managing. Are you that manager? Here are four ways to find out if you can step into the shoes of a leader.

Are you a teacher?

You’ve been at the grind for far too long to know everything about it. Which is why, people come to you with questions. If you like answering them with relish, you are just what the HR personnel ordered. You are manager material. On the other hand, if you feel that people are throwing a spanner in the works every time you decide to tick off things on your to-do-list, you might reconsider that offer of a manager’s post. Perhaps, you are better off as a follower of the herd.

Learn to trust others

If you have a penchant for perfection and realise that no one measures up to it, you will end up micro managing everyone if you become the manager. Usually, this is frowned upon. It shows that you don’t trust your subordinates, and they will, in turn, not trust you. Two, you like to control everything and will not allow them to learn on the job. You should give your juniors some leeway to err and learn, rather than always try to make them stick to your style of working. Everyone should be only responsible for the end result, not how they get to that destination. If you can lose control over them and still make them meet their deadlines and be just as qualitative, you’ve got a team you can lead with pride.

Groups should excite you

By that, we don’t mean being extrovert. We meant a team member who likes to hear out everyone on what they have to say about a problem or challenge you are facing at work. If you like brainstorming sessions and endless strategy meetings, you are manager material, because you appear to thrive in others’ company. That’s what a manager’s job is all about. Everything you does away from the seat is more important than what you do at your work desk.

Celebrate your team members’ wins

If you find yourself squirming every time any team member wins a new contract or does something laudable, you are definitely not manager material. In a team, if you are the senior most person and you love it if someone younger to you has done something great at work, you are the doting manager they need. All a manager needs is empathy and sympathy to do his job well. And for that to happen, you need to have a paternal instinct, who can only celebrate others’ wins and feel part of their story. That’s when you can say for sure that you are leadership material as you consider your juniors your budding students who need all the encouragement they need to advance in their careers. Step up. Take your managerial job. And if you’ve not been offered one, it’s time to change jobs and get to that position in a different firm. It’s time.