The Career Horserace

One of the senior managers at my office recently compared the middle management team to a bunch of thoroughbreds. The group is comprised of a young team of go-getters from several different backgrounds, levels of education and management experience.

I have been thinking about the analogy recently due to some issues and conflicts that have been presenting themselves within the group. The comparison to thoroughbreds is certainly a good one in this case, but it also implies competition within the group. The Kentucky Derby. Each manager striving to get to the finish line in their respective fields and departments before the rest of the team. In some cases I might even take the analogy even further and call it a chariot race. In this analogy management is riding the chariot, whipping their underlings to get further ahead in the race and throwing spears in the direction of anyone who might pose a threat to their advancement.

When these races are depicted in the movies, it's not only the driver that suffers, but their horses as well. Racers clashing in bitter conflict, and eventually a couple of things happen. The driver of the chariot gets thrown, or maybe even the entire team of horse and driver end up head over heels in a flurry of dust and debris, possibly taking another team down with them. When everyone on the management team is in this constant state of conflict, it not only creates an atmosphere of bitterness and resentment among the managers and their team, but it also poses a challenging obstacle course to navigate to achieve individual goals within the company, leading to excessive stress and hostility.

It often takes a great deal of time and several war wounds to realize that the chariot race, or even the Kentucky Derby can have these negative effects on the success of the entire team. As a relatively new manager, I have now learned that the only real road to personal success is to almost completely eliminate that element from both my project and personnel management style. While the success of myself and my team is my first goal, almost equally important is the success of the managers and their departments around me. No more Kentucky Derby.

When we make the success of those working with us equally important as our own success, we can develop a better understanding of each others needs and potential pitfalls. Maybe a better analogy would be that of a battlefield. While this analogy is somewhat unfortunate, it really does depict the kind of team effort that is required to be completely successful in business. In this case, each department or branch of the military works in complete coordination with each other, each striving for the same goal. When someone falls on the battlefield, be it the lowly private or a major general, someone is there to pick them up and get them moving. The group is also always willing to help those who are having difficulty dealing with the situation and lend them help through experience or to build them up to carry on.

Being a good manager isn't just about the people you manage, but properly managing yourself and making sure that you are not focused solely on your own success but the success of those around you. It may be a hard concept to grasp and outside of human nature, but if you are all willing to seek a shared path to glory, your personal success inevitably come quickly and with less stress and aggravation.