Marc Haine became a manager at 19 with no training and spent eighteen months learning by trial and error before leaving. He argues that credibility requires genuine competence, and that managers focus on processes while leaders focus on influence and vision.
It was back in 1980. I had been working at my job for a year. Marc, you are incredible. I want to promote you to a manager and then you can teach everyone how to work just like you. The ripe old age of 19, I was promoted to a management position. I was now responsible for leading my friends and my colleagues. And I was given no tools to succeed. I really had to learn how to be a manager. Now, notice I didn't say learn how to be a leader. I had to learn how to become a manager by sucking so bad that I was always in trouble. I had to learn to be a manager through osmosis. Of course, I wasn't set up for success and I ended up leaving the job a year and a half later. Before you get to the credibility piece, competency I think comes into it as well because I don't believe that you can have credibility without having Yeah. And that's a huge difference.
