Individual Contributors vs Managers! What’s the difference?!

Do individual contributors equal great managers? Well, let's peel back the layers of this onion. So what ends up happening usually at organizations is there is a job that requires maybe seven, eight to 10 people to do it. Okay, so let's just use sales. There might be an inside sales job, there might be an inside sales role, or there is a group of servers at a restaurant, or there is a group of cleaning attendants at a hotel, or there is also a group of grief doulas at an organization and one of those individuals is really good at their job.

There's probably more. But just take this analogy for what it's worth, okay? One of those individuals is really great at their job. They're an amazing individual contributor. They can get things done with the best of them. They do their job at a level 10, they excel. They don't even need to be told what to do anymore. They're so good at their job, every time they have their performance reviews, it's always a, a, a, a, a,. Right. So guess what we do as companies and organizations, just guess. We promote them and we say, you know what?

Because you're good at your job, you're probably going to be good at leading other people doing the job. I've made this mistake so many times. I've. I've made this mistake so many times where I immediately figure because they're really great, they're going to be really great at leading the people doing what they used to do. Boy, does that miss Individuals need to be trained up how to manage individuals doing the role that they used to do. If they are not prepared to be able to take on leadership roles, deal with the human psyche, have the emotional intelligence, lead and design processes in order to support those folks.

I'm going to tell you right now, your individual contributor that is excelling beyond words at their role and their job will ultimately fall down in the promotion that you think you're giving them. So take a step back. And I have a feeling many leaders and many managers are watching this right now, going, I've seen that. I've seen it. I know Sally, I know Johnny, I know Tommy, I hear you. How can we change the dynamic and how can we change the paradigm with this? That's the biggest question. So what I would encourage you all to do is once you have identified the person that you believe can manage and believe you can lead the people doing the role, is to give them some extra training first and then give them a little bit more to say, you know what, I would like to have a stretch goal Here for you to lead an off site on abc.

Let's give you a little stretch goal a little bit more because what we do so often is we say, hey, you're a really, really good job at A and so we're gonna give you B and we're gonna give you the whole apple. We're gonna give you the whole apple. And really what you need to do is give them bites first. So make sure that when you transition and you switch to a individual contributor to a manager or leader, you've got to know if they can lead first, you've got to know if they can manage first. You've got to know if they can hold people accountable.

You have to understand those things or you're not only going to put that individual at a adverse position, you're also going to put the team. So I hope everybody understands this and you're going to probably listen to this and say, managers, leaders, individual contributors, individual contributors. I do one thing well. Managers leading individuals that do one thing really, really well. Leaders leading and overseeing the management squad, management team. How can you take individual contributors that are excelling and doing well and move them to managers and.

Or leadership and. Or maybe they're not. This is the biggest separator that I think people need to understand is sometimes an individual contributor is just that and a management role and, or a leadership role can also become a deterrent to the organization. Maybe they're an individual performer, that's a phenomenal contributor, but maybe not the best culture person. And now all of a sudden you're having that culture shift and culture rift within a team, not just as an individual. So a lot to think about here, folks.

And I wanted to push this on your plate and I have a feeling every person that's going to listen to this is going to say, I know a person that you're exactly talking about, so how do we make that better? It's on us to prepare them, to prepare them adequately. And never make a decision out of desperation here. Always make an inspired choice while you're continuing to move individual contributors up into management roles. Bye, everybody.