When was the last time you were in a room like this for management training?

Most managers aren’t bad. They lack management training

And because no one talks about this, even tenured managers don’t realize they’ve been repeating

the same mistakes for years — not because they’re stubborn, but because no one ever taught them differently.

Tenure doesn’t fix the problem.
It just means some managers have been making the same mistakes for ten years instead of ten months.

This isn’t a judgment.
It’s the reality of modern corporate life.  I know this is harsh, but hear me out. 

Companies used to invest heavily in management training. If you were promoted in the 80s or 90s, you were sent to workshops, seminars, classroom training, Dale Carnegie courses, and week-long retreats. Today? Management training is usually the first thing cut when budgets tighten. As a result, most managers — even the ones with “Director” or “VP” on their business cards — were never shown what good management actually looks like.

And because nobody around them knows either, the dysfunctional cycle keeps rolling. 

Why this series is for you, even if you are not a manager

Even if you’re not a manager, these posts still matter.

Employees at every level want something: more scope, more autonomy, better projects, or eventually, a leadership role. The principles that determine who gets trusted, promoted, and listened to don’t suddenly appear when a title changes.

If your long-term goal is to be a senior individual contributor, this matters even more.

Here’s the part no one tells you:

Managers evaluate senior ICs using management criteria.

Alignment. Communication. Influence. Judgment. Accountability.

You don’t need the title.
You do need the behaviors.

If you don’t want more, that’s fine.
But raises and opportunity reward increased impact, not time served.

The uncomfortable truth about most management careers

In the What a Successful Employee Looks Like series, I took shots at managers — but I also made it clear that it isn’t the manager’s fault. Most managers weren’t set up to succeed. Most were promoted because:

• They were strong individual contributors on the team
• Their manager assumed their performance would automatically translate into leadership success

That’s like assuming the best player on a sports team will automatically be a great coach.

It doesn’t work that way.

Management isn’t a reward for being a strong individual contributor.

It’s a bet that you can take your game to the next level by making other people better.

Most employees want the title, but few understand the responsibility and impact of their role.

And it’s an entirely different job.

Management is not:

• More of the same
• A harder version of the IC role
• The “next level” of the same skillset

Management is:

• Communication
• Coaching
• Accountability
• Resource allocation
• Escalation management
• Expectation-setting
• Aligning people
• Protecting the team
• Translating strategy into execution

Most managers are promoted into management with little or no training, and because that’s the norm today, nobody questions it. We assume this is how it works. If the manager before us didn’t get trained, and the manager before them didn’t get trained, why would we raise our hand and say, “Hey… should I be learning something here?”

We don’t know what we don’t know.
We don’t know how much management training is out there.

Two questions every manager needs to ask

1. When was the last time we were successful at anything without ongoing direction, mentorship, or training?
   We’d never expect this from an employee. Why do we expect it of ourselves?
2. When was the last time I had an amazing manager?
   If we’ve never seen great leadership up close, how would we know what “great” even looks like?
   And if we’ve never seen great… how could we possibly replicate it?
3. Can I be a great manager without management training?

These questions aren’t meant to embarrass anyone; they’re meant to open the door.
Because once you understand the gap, you can fix it.

What this series will cover

Over the next several posts, I’ll discuss topics like:

• Your actual job as a leader
• How to push back on executives without damaging your career
• Techniques to protect your team from layoffs and reorgs
• How to have honest, non-defensive conversations about performance
• Steps to communicate expectations so clearly that nobody is surprised at review time
• External resources every modern manager should study
• How to develop your people so you’re not stuck doing their job for them
• How to put your employee on a PIP that your manager won’t resist
• Can you be friends with your direct reports? 

This isn’t a checklist.
It’s a preview of the work most managers were never taught to do.

If you’re a manager, your primary job is not to do the teams work.

Your job is to develop your team so they can do your job. If you are developing your team to do your job, you and your team are scalable. You can be promoted. 

In short, this series is about turning accidental managers into leaders whom other employees want to work with.

Your first exercise: Create your Management Mission Statement

Before the next post, spend some time reflecting on your own experience:

• Who were the best managers you worked for? What did they do differently?

• Who were the worst? What did they fail to do?

• What do you wish your past managers had done for you?

• What kind of manager do you want to become?

Leadership isn’t accidental.
But most management careers are.

The goal of this series is to change that.

If we can answer these honestly, we can build a foundation for leadership — not accidental management.

“Over the next few weeks, I’m going to break down exactly what I have seen great managers do differently. These posts will help you sharpen your Management Mission Statement and elevate your leadership.

If you want the next posts delivered automatically, hit subscribe. Otherwise, swing by each week — I’ll be behind the velvet rope and will wave you in.

See you at the after party,

HRNasty

nasty: an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky, and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone good at something. “He has a nasty forkball”.

Ongoing writing and context live on LinkedIn and Bluesky. 

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