It's All About People

When I was 16, I became a ham radio operator. I was so consumed by building radio equipment that I could hardly think of anything else. I managed to borrow my way through engineering school and for 15 years I designed communications equipment. For the most part, I loved the work, but I hated the coercive, management by intimidation culture I found myself in.

I also discovered something else. Solving technical problems was like candy. However, most of the problems I faced as a manager were what we normally call "people problems." Lack of motivation, crappy attitudes, personality conflicts--these were a few of the issues I faced and as an engineer, I was totally unprepared for handling them.

During the last three years of my industrial career, I worked on a doctorate in psychology, a choice made because of my lack of skill in dealing with people as a manager. When I left my job in 1981 I began teaching Leadership Skills for Project Managers, and I absolutely loved sharing what I had learned with other people like myself--many engineers and scientists who were delighted to learn that you actually could do something about the people problems in their groups.

In fact, I trademarked the expression projects are people® because I felt it was such an important thing for people to understand. I'm afraid the message hasn't gotten to a lot of people, but I'm still emphasizing it. And I'm going to be blunt: If you don't know how to effectively deal with people, you're not competent to be a manager--of any kind. The good news is that you can learn people skills. 

How do you know if you don't have good skills? If you find situations with your people to be frustrating or confusing, leaving you saying, "I don't know what to do about this," then you need help. There are some books on dealing with difficult people, but I suggest you take training in which you must practice actually dealing with various situations. This is normally called role-playing, a term that I don't like. I prefer to call it skill-building exercises, as that is the real intent.

Most importantly, if you hate trying to deal with people problems, and you prefer doing technical work, by all means, tell you boss you don't want to be a manager and see if you can have your job redefined. Of course, unless you live in a cave, you can't avoid some interaction with people, but you don't have to live with the every day grief of trying to cope with people issues as part of your job. Good luck.