Considering the Move to Team Leader or IT Manager?

If you are considering a career move from healthcare IT team member into team leader, IT manager, or even CIO, here is an interesting article to read and ponder. It provides an interesting quiz (of sorts) that, in my opinion, seems to capture the pros and cons of being a manager in any industry.

Motivation: At some point almost every healthcare IT team member — say an interface engine analyst at a hospital/clinic or HL7 implementation/support person at a software vendor — will consider a move into management. The first and hardest move, IMO, is being the team leader — you are expected to continue doing “real work” (building interfaces, troubleshooting issues, maybe even carrying the on-call pager) and at the same time you are asked to be Mr. (or Ms.) Manager. You are truly stuck in the middle of being both “one of the gang” and being “in charge” at the same time. This article outlines the challenges pretty well — read before you leap.

John McKee is the author of two books and blogs weekly (Success Coach) on TechRepublic. Here are his 10 signs that you’re not cut out to be an IT manager.

At one time or another, most of us will come to a point in our lives when it’s time to determine our next step. As a business and success coach, I often hear from people who are wondering if it’s time to make a change in their lives.

We are all more successful when we are doing things we enjoy. To help clients decide what that may be, I ask them a few questions designed to get them to take an honest look at who they are at their core.

For those of you who’ve been thinking, “Maybe I should make the move into management,” I’ve put together this list of 10 warning signals. If any of these hit you as your personal reality, the chances are that you are not cut out to be a manager.

-You have a real desire to be liked
-You prefer to avoid the spotlight and just be a part of the gang
-Every time you are called on to comment about the topic being discussed, you experience short-term memory loss
-Having a tough conversation with an employee causes you a great deal of duress
-You don’t like to make tough decisions
-Being stuck in the middle between the leaders and the team makes your stomach churn
-You prefer to keep a low profile, just doing your job; when people look at you, it reminds you how many flaws you have
-Having a verbal duel in a meeting isn’t your idea of fun and you feel uncomfortable standing up to communicate in a meeting
-You dislike having to work hours beyond the “regular” schedule
-You could never fire someone because after all, everyone needs a job