As is so often the case with people who excel in a particular job function, the only option was a vertical move, a promotion to advertising manager. Interestingly, I was never asked why I wanted to manage; I was never assessed in terms of my suitability or capability to manage people. There was no training and I was expected to keep making a personal revenue contribution, at the same levels as before. I was incredibly fortunate, both my deputy and my boss, were people-people. Adept at building trusted relationships and what I learnt from them, over the intervening years, was the power of humanity, together we created a winning culture. I am, to this day, incredibly grateful for that experience and their support.

So, what has my own experience taught me about developing brilliant managers? Three things come to mind, firstly; understanding the motivation to move into a manager role is crucial to being successful in the role. When you manage people, it’s not about “me” anymore; it’s about “we”. It took me some years to really understand and enact this mindset shift. Secondly, lateral moves are just as important as vertical moves when it comes to career development conversations. There are enormous untapped opportunities for people to develop high level, in-demand, human skills. We make the mistake that human skills are somehow innate and over promote people who simply aren’t ready. Effective communication and empathetic listening skills, are so often missing from a new managers repertoire. The good news, with intentional practice, you can increase your emotional intelligence muscle. Finally, we need to reconcile that the nature of competition itself has changed. Organisations are now competing for the best talent and the best ideas; what investors call the imagination premium. A manager’s ability to create a team climate where people can do their best thinking, is absolutely critical to delivering shareholder value. This is a far cry from the old school carrot and stick approach, that continues to prevail in so many organisations.