Do You Really Want To Lead? Here’s A Reality Check Before That Promotion

You’ve been crushing it as an individual contributor, and now your bosses have come to you to talk about stepping up into a leadership position. Or maybe an opening has come up for a team-leader role, and you’re thinking it’s time for you to throw your hat in the ring and take on the challenge of your first management position.

Before you make that leap to leader, though, I urge you to hit the pause button and spend some time to hold a mirror up to yourself and examine your motivations. Because leading others is harder than it looks from a distance.

That’s not to say it won’t be incredibly fulfilling to have a broader impact, to be able to achieve through others, and to feel the rewards of coaching others to raise their game and lift the trajectory of their careers.

But managing and leading others have always been difficult, and these roles have become even more difficult in the last few years. People who take on their first management role are often surprised to find out how much of their day is consumed by people issues and putting out fires. It can be hard to get work done at work, and so the day starts earlier and ends later, and the work often bleeds into weekends.

The expectations of leaders have grown exponentially, as the lines between personal and professional lives have blurred. Employees want their managers to be authentic, compassionate, human and vulnerable, while the bosses of those same managers are also putting more pressure on them to drive performance. And all the broader societal problems and issues have bled into the workplace, requiring managers and leaders to navigate divisive issues with the skill of a politician.

In my experience, people do not spend enough time researching the day-to-day realities of the jobs they are about to take on. By contrast, when high school students are considering which college to attend, many of them go on ambitious tours with their parents to visit a number of campuses to figure out which one feels right to them.

But with management and leadership jobs, there are so many broader forces that carry people along into these roles, as if they were simply being swept along by a powerful tide. After all, management roles often bring with them a raise, more impressive title and a bigger workspace at the office (for those still working in an office). Through social media, announcements of a big promotion lead to a shower of likes. And then the surprising reality of the job settles in.

You may be thinking that I sound grim. That is not my intention. The world needs better leaders, and I have the utmost respect for anyone who appreciates the privilege and responsibility of these roles. My advice here is two-fold: Do some research by talking to people about what these roles entail, to minimize the chance that you are surprised by what you encounter when you step into them. Know what you are getting into.

Second, be clear on your “why.” If it just for more money or power, those aren’t going to sustain you long-term. Yes, the pay bump can be meaningful, but the additional money may not feel worth it, given the additional challenges you’re facing every day. And power? That’s not going to cut it, either. While there are still too many companies that tolerate bad bosses, the tolerance among employees for command-and-control managers is dwindling.

So what should be your why? Your answer will be as unique as your fingerprints, but I do believe that it should about more selfless motivations—that you want to have an impact, and lift your organization and the members of your team. That will be the strongest tailwind for you when you encounter the inevitable headwinds of leadership roles.