Randstad’s World of Work Report for 2009 is titled: “Managers of Tomorrow.” It’s based on responses of over 2000 workers. Some of the findings have got HR folks all over sitting up, taking notice, and asking questions.

52 percent of those surveyed felt there were not enough qualified managers in their organizations.

45 percent felt there would be a shortage of qualified managers in the future.

That’s scary enough, but here’s the one that’s really shaking things up in HR Land.

51 percent don’t want to be a manager.

That’s surprising to a lot of businesspeople who have assumed that everyone was interested in climbing the corporate ladder. But it’s not news to the people at Momentor, who’ve been pointing out that “managerial” is only one of four career choices.

From my perspective it’s a bad news/good news situation. The bad news is that we may not have the number of managers we’ve been used to at our companies. The good news is that this situation may be the catalyst for some positive change.

Companies just might start offering some alternate paths to increased pay and prestige. That would give people who do great work, but don’t want to manage the possibility of a real career.

The other good possibility is that companies may wind up selecting people with the right aptitudes for management and then training and supporting them sensibly. That simply doesn’t happen often enough right now.

It’s why too many of the people entering the workforce today don’t even want to consider management. They told Randstad that there’s too much stress in the job.

But there wouldn’t be if we promoted those with a shot at succeeding and then trained and supported them in their work. Then we’d wind up with more managers who are comfortable with their work and do it well and who would have less stress.

Is it you? We can teach you a lot of the skills. What we can’t teach is aptitude. Here’s a quick self-test you can use to assess whether you might make a good boss.

Do you enjoy having a say in the direction your team is going? That comes with the leadership job, but not everyone is comfortable being out front.

Do you enjoy helping other people succeed? That’s the core of a boss’s job. You have to be able to set aside your own ego and help the team and the team members do better.

Are you willing to talk to other people about their performance or behavior? It’s the part of the boss’s job that many people find stressful. If you’re willing, there are techniques that will help you do it more easily and effectively.

Are you willing to make decisions and take the consequences? That’s another thing that bosses do.

If you’ve got the aptitude to be a boss, give it a try. The rewards are good and it looks like there will be less competition than there used to be.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Career Paths, Managerial, Tools and Strategies for Success. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.