Move to Management or Stay as an Individual Contributor?

Andriy Popov/123RF.com

The Important Career Question

As you progress in your healthcare career, you might explore management opportunities. If most of your career has been in an individual contributor role, making the leap to managing others might seem scary. Leadership opportunities are not right for everyone. Many people find their greatest career satisfaction in an individual contributor role.

Traits of Great Individual Contributors

You might wonder what writers mean by an “individual contributor.” This term from the corporate world refers to someone with outstanding skills in his or her field who is not leading other people. One survey of the performance reviews of individual contributors identified that those who excel in those positions have these traits:

• Strong time management skills- They manage competing priorities well.
• Good interpersonal skills- They develop rapport with others. Examples from the healthcare world include nurses who strongly enjoy working with patients.
• Work well in cooperative relationships- The study’s authors found that individual contributors complete their work in a timely manner and add to, though not directly, a group’s success.
• Consistency- Individual contributors deliver consistently good outcomes.

(https://www.rdpusa.com/top-4-characteristics-make-individual-contributors-indispensable/)

An individual contributor does not hide in a corner. Doctors and nurses who are strong individual contributors enjoy providing a service to patients. These people focus on their work, not necessarily leading others.

Moving on to Management

If you are like most people in the workforce, you probably have experience with terrible managers. One Gallup survey found that a mere 18% of managers are highly effective at leading others (http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/167975/why-great-managers-rare.aspx). Good managers in any field direct and influence others to perform well. You do not want to be one of those bad managers.

Gallup found the highly effective managers had several traits in common. They were:

• Motivational
• Assertive
• Accountable
• Relationship Builders
• Good decision-makers (i.e. minimized office politics)

Unlike performing surgery or starting an IV, we subjectively measure these skills. This fact means that you need to examine your personality to think if you have all of these attributes. Are you assertive enough to overcome people who resist change? Do you motivate others to do their best? Many people like to believe they have these skills, but they do not.

Nothing Worse than Being Ill-Suited for Your Job in Management 

The Gallup survey found that a person often ends up in a management position because executives believe “it is that person’s turn.” If you are not suited for a leadership role, every day will feel awful. The members of your team will struggle to accomplish their duties if relationships are bad and morale is low. If you believe you can create a culture of accountability and a high-performing team, the statistics show that your leadership skills are sorely needed in the workplace.

There is nothing wrong with being a strong individual contributor. The medical field, like other sectors of the economy, needs most of its people to deliver results in their areas of responsibility. You need to take an inventory of your technical and people skills. Can you make a team function, or is your preference to focus on your work? The answer to that question is a determining factor in whether an individual contributor or manager job suits you.