"François, you've done a great job over the last few years as a designer, so I'm offering you the chance to move up to project manager! You'll manage a team of 4 people". Of all the career moves you've heard or experienced, how many involved becoming a manager? Certainly most...
As we all know, not everyone is destined to manage a team... But if you don't want to manage, you'll never progress in your job?
Of course, when we imagine ourselves advancing professionally, we often imagine ourselves moving up the hierarchy. Having more responsibility often leads to managing a team. However, this logical next step doesn't always have to be so.
Once the Holy Grail of career development, managing a team seems to be attracting fewer and fewer employees. Among executives, for example, 39% are interested in the idea, compared with 42% the previous year, according to a study by Apec (Association pour l'emploi des cadres). This is even more obvious among employees in general. According to Audencia Business School, 80% of them do not wish to manage.
There are many reasons for this:increased workload, higher expectations on the part of the company, people management, distance from the original core business... And all these reasons are easily understandable.
As a result, becoming a manager is no longer the career path employees have been waiting for. And yet, in reality, in many cases it is the obvious next step. But beware of the company's HRQoL: putting someone who doesn't want to be a manager in charge of a team can do some damage.
When you move from a very autonomous and solitary position to one with strong strategic and human responsibilities, things may not go as planned. All the more so as the people concerned are not always supported in this evolution.
As a result, some employees find themselves managed by unprepared and untrained people, who are not always aware of thehuman impact of this function.
69% of employees believe that the impact of their manager is at least as great on their mental health as that of their spouse, according to UKG's Workforce Institute. So when an untrained manager arrives, it's easy to imagine the impact this can have on working conditions and employee well-being.
An impact on those being managed, but also on those who become managers. Author Anne-Véronique Herter states that 44% of managers are in psychological distress.
Hence the importance of training in good management practices, as we offer at Moha. But also to consider the other development options available before making a choice.
If considering this option as the only one possible is risky, there are obviously other development prospects to consider. However, becoming a manager should not be ruled out as a possibility, as long as this change is both desired and well prepared.
This prospect has not completely disappeared from the minds of employees: 20% of them aspire to become managers. All the company needs to do is take certain precautions. Firstly, it's important that the future manager wants to be one. As we've seen, getting someone to manage who doesn't want to can have negative consequences for teams and their health.
Then, as with any new position, it's important to get the right training. If the person has never managed before, it's essential to prepare him or her as well as possible. At Moha, we offer dedicated training courses for managers to help them master good management practices, constructive feedback and benevolent management.
And as everyone is different, it can also be useful toanalyze the profile of each team member with an Assess First test, which helps to better understand personalities and adapt management style.
In broad terms, this concept consists of working within one's own company. This practice is widely used to reduce staff turnover, and also enables employees to evolve and develop new skills.
Employees wishing to develop projects within the company, or who wish to put certain skills into practice but don't have the opportunity to do so in the course of their duties, can become intrapreneurs.
This involves creating an internal project, as if the company were developing a new activity. In some cases, these projects can even become new subsidiaries of the company: which is obviously beneficial for the company, if the project works!
Career development also means developing your skills, acquiring new ones, and varying the areas in which you work. To ensure that career development is beneficial for both the employee and the company, there are several ways to grow!
You can offer your employees regular training in new practices, such as artificial intelligence. This will enable you to remain competitive, and take advantage of the new tools that improve your performance.
Employees wishing to develop without a manager can also put their skills to good use on a larger scale.
For example, one of your sales people is very competent in the French market: would it be worthwhile targeting international markets? On the other hand, your communications manager does very well with BtoB targets: perhaps you could consider developing a BtoC communications strategy, if your product or service allows it?
You now have a whole range of solutions available to you to help an employee develop in the best possible way. To put it into practice, here are a few tips:
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