15 Myths About Being a Manager

By Matt Monge

It’s a good goal. An admirable one, even.

One of the top comments that seems to come up, both in casual conversation as well as in coaching conversations with young professionals, is that they want to be a manager, or a higher level manager, or an executive; and I think that’s a good thing. It’s goodto want more responsibility. It’sgood to want to serve others. It’sgood to be motivated and have goals. It’s good to want to have a positive impact on people and organizations. Wanting those things is good.

But let’s not kid ourselves. There are some things people think are true of management positions, but they’re really not. Like, “If I could just be a manager, then [insert the good thing that is believed to naturally follow a person’s ascension to a management position here]….” Or, “Being an executive sounds awesome because then I’d get to [insert those real or imagined perks here].” What are some of those things some folks believe–those myths–about being a manager or executive?

1. It means you can sit in your office and surf the web all day.

2. You just get to tell everyone else what to do.

3. It’d be way easier than what you’re doing now.

4. Since you don’t have set hours, you get to make your own schedule.

5. Such a thing as free time during the day exists.

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