Gary is happy again.
I met Gary during his first couple of years on the job. Back then, he was one happy engineer. He was also a very good engineer. Because he was a good engineer, his company approached him about being an engineering supervisor. For a long time, he said, “No.â€
Gary got married and he and his wife had three children. That supervisor job paid a lot more money and it would let them buy a house in the neighborhood where they wanted to live. He took the job.
He was a good supervisor. Gary has a delightful personality. He was supervising engineers and his expertise gave him credibility. He worked at learning the craft of supervision and he worked hard at being a good boss. That was the problem. He had to work really, really hard to do a good job.
He didn’t like being a supervisor. He wished he could be an engineer again. But it was hard to go back to a lower salary. It was hard to think of being a failure as a supervisor.
For Gary, being a supervisor was work. When he was an engineer, it was fun to go in every day. He continued to do good work as a supervisor, but it was hard. For quite a while, Gary was on a downward spiral.
Leadership development and the selection of supervisors
I don’t have any scientific data to support this, but my experience tells me that the best supervisors, managers, and leaders in the world are the ones who love the work that they do. And that suggests to me that our leadership development programs should spend time developing the men and women who will love the work.
Leadership development when people don’t love the work
Sure, you can spend your leadership development time and money on people like Gary. They’re conscientious and committed and they’ll work hard to do an OK job, but they’ll never be happy. That’s not good for them and it’s not good for the company.
Leadership development when people love the work
When people love the work of being a supervisor, manager, or leader they get their big reward from the work itself. They love helping the team and individual team members succeed. They love helping others grow and develop. And because they love the work, they’ll seize opportunities to learn how to do it better. That’s good for them and good for the company.
Gary’s happy again because he’s not a leader anymore. He had to leave his company to do it, but he’s working as an engineer again and he loves the work. That’s good for Gary and it’s good for his new company, too.
