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Gyan Gurus - Corporate Life
Choosing a career path - Team Management versus individual contribution (View Comments)
Diptarup Chakraborti is principal research analyst for Gartner. He has over 12 years of experience in marketing, advertising and marketing intelligence, of which the last 8 years have been within the IT industry.
Posted On Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 03:40:28 PM
About a decade back, growth and success in your career was demonstrated by rapid promotion, managing a larger team every year and even having team managers reporting in to you. But over time HR executives in organisations, especially one with large work force found out that not all of us are cut of for managing teams. An otherwise highly competent professional can be found wanting in his people management and leadership skills which leads to poor team dynamics, lowering of productivity, the team losing self belief and resulting in less than desired outcomes. So what does the HR department do? Do they allow a person who has performed exemplarily earlier to leave the organisation? Or can they harvest his skills for some other purpose? Enter the role of an individual contributor.
Organisations today have realised that not all of us are cut for leading and managing teams. It requires a different mind set and capabilities to nurture and develop a team’s performance. One needs to understand the fine art of when to use the carrot and when to use the stick to keep the motivation levels up. Monitoring performance also has to be nuanced as erring too much on either side, can be seen either as interference or lack of interest, both of which can be detrimental. Hence, performers today have a choice to opt for a role which organisations call as individual contributors.
People who believe or realise that they lack the skills to manage and lead team and would rather develop and polish their competencies and skills in the disciplines of their choice opt for the role of an individual contributor. In many organisations an individual contributor can earn a higher salary than the person they are reporting in to. This happens because the company would not want the talent that he or she possesses to go unrewarded. Needless to say such career choices are available more in the knowledge industries where subject matter expertise and creation of intellectual property can help in creating competitive differentiation in the market. Of course, a professional who chooses to opt for individual contribution can always change his mind later on his or her career and choose to become a team leader, if he or she believes its time to do so.
Exceptionally brilliant minds or those whose subject matter expertise is second to none are usually given a lot more freedom to innovate, ideate and foster creativity. Such individuals are not necessarily comfortable managing teams. They feel that this can stifle their creativity. Team members reporting to such individuals also find it very difficult to keep up with their brilliance. This can lead to dissonance and even ill feelings towards the manager due to no fault of any one. Most organisations today have recognised this and allow the flexibility of choosing one’s career path within the organisation. Not only do they let individuals choose what roles or functions they would like to pursue but also what path they would like to follow to shape their careers. Most of us are conditioned to believe that unless we are leading a team, the larger the better, we haven’t truly arrived in our careers. Although this still holds partially true, few of us also believe, leadership is not the only barometer of success. Just like great players don’t necessarily make great coaches, neither do exceptionally brilliant minds make great managers. HR has realised this and have chalked out a different career maps to harness such talent.
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