LogFAQs > #886537691

CaptainOfCrush posted...

But in most cases, a manager began as a staff who was seen as competent enough in their duties to warrant a promotion. Of course that does not directly correlate with smarts, but neither does being a staff in the first place.

This may have been true in the past, but the environment has changed. Companies are much less likely to promote from within - they tend to hire people from outside the company that have prior managerial experience. Both because it's more of a sure thing, and because making one of your best employees a manager makes no sense because you want them doing what they're already doing. Why make your best coder a manager? He should be coding.

Additionally, while managers should be people with strong leadership, social, and organizational skills...it often doesn't pan out that way. It's much easier to get higher-ups to notice you if you are social enough to build a rapport with them, even if your actual managerial skills aren't that great. Then they get promoted to manager, and once they do, getting rid of them is hard. Bad managers can make any of their shortcomings seem like the fault of the employees, because higher-ups already trust them more. Without going into details (to protect the people involved), I've seen this firsthand.

Even the very top isn't safe from this. There's a lot of CEOs out there that are grossly incompetent, but since they're CEOs they're extremely safe. Even if they leave the company, they cut themselves a bonus and get hired by a different company because they have prior experience being a CEO. I'm not exaggerating -- this happens quite often.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.