Managers are useless

At some point in my career, I really wanted to be a manager.

Now, with more experience under my belt, I no longer want to be a manager. I just want to be a captain.

The idea that you have to "manage" people deeply irritates me actually. It irritates me because it assumes that some people (the managers) "know better” than others (the reports). Management divides the world into "adults" and "children". It positions managers as the adults in the room in charge of babysitting the children. I f*cking hate this idea. We are all adults and 100% capable of living our lives. We don't need another human to manage us.

That said, one thing we could all use some help with is achieving our career and life goals. We all need help going from A to B and that's exactly what a captain does. A captain is someone who helps people achieve their goals and make progress in their lives.

Captainship has nothing to do with titles and reporting lines. But it has everything to do with our ability to impact people's lives in a positive way.

Captainship only depends on us. We don't need someone to appoint us as a captain. All we need to do is help others, which is a choice that we can make every day, hour, and minute of our lives.

So, if you are a manager and want to improve your captainship, start by focusing on helping your reports achieve their career and life goals. If you are an individual contributor, the recipe to grow your captainship is the same. Help people in your team and your organization to achieve their goals.

-Ale

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