Robert Frost once observed that if people work faithfully eight hours a day they may eventually get to be executives and work twelve hours a day.  Despite the obvious truth in that statement, it’s amazing how many people secretly look forward to the day when they’ll be promoted to a better job with fewer problems.

It’s a common daydream we all share to some extent, but it seldom materializes.  The further up the ladder you get, the tougher the problems become. That’s why executives get paid more for handling them.  

It’s not easy to hold down an executive level job.  We don’t recommend it to anyone who prefers peace and quiet, like to keep regular hours, or dislikes the problems people bring.  In large part, handling day-to-day problems is what it’s all about.

Some people who advance in the ranks think they’ll have clear sailing once they square away a few details.  As soon as they get things organized, they expect to sit back and enjoy the fruits and prestige of their hard won positions.

It would be nice if life were that easy.  Unfortunately, it isn’t.  No managerial job will ever be problem-free.  Whenever you do settle a problem, two new ones will crop up to take its place.  When the problems cease, so does the job.

It takes some people the better part of their careers to find this out.  Some never really get the message.  They like the rewards and power, but don’t have much taste for the responsibilities – the never-ending troubles, frustrations, difficulties, and irritations.  What they fail to appreciate is that these problems are the reason they got their jobs in the first place.

Resolving problems, day in and day out, takes a lot of staying power.  Good managers have to wear well or they won’t make it.  As Harry Truman once put it: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”  Anyone who dislikes the pressure would be better off in some other type of work.  

Capable leaders don’t begrudge having problems; they welcome them as a chance to show what they can do.  They realize that the bigger the job the more difficult, trying and demanding it’s bound to be.  Easy jobs don’t pay much.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 9:07 am and is filed under Leadership, Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.