Good Administrator vs Bad Manager: From theory to competence
Good Administrator vs Bad Manager — here’s how I explain it to my students: In fact, the funniest moment in my classes is when I say: “I’ll teach you everything I know…” I wait for the smiles, and then—with a bit of harmless irony—I finish the sentence: “…because even if I tell you everything, there are things you simply can’t be taught.” That’s how I wake them up on day one and draw the line between training and the skills you only gain with time and experience.
This is my particular way of making them “wake up” on the first day, and distinguish between training and skills that are only achieved with years and experience.
Training vs capability
However, in working life there is nothing more disappointing than trying to do something, even if you are right or it is a good project, and they ask you what training you have…
Those who do it regularly always have what I call «textbook answers» on hand. That is, it’s clear «they went through the university», but «the university never went through them.»
They may be good administrators, but they will never be good managers.
In short, that is the difference between training and capability, and it can be the determining element to be a good manager in a company.
Jump into the pool
You cannot run a company based on a university manual. Instead, in business, as in life, you have to jump into the pool, take initiative, get out of your comfort zone and learn to navigate against the currents.
Training is the basis of systematic thinking, and we could define skill as the ability to look for alternatives within that system.
Competence, on the other hand, is the degree of autonomy and orientation, if not to excellence, at least to effectiveness in the performance of a task.
Being competent implies the ability to improve daily. It involves the development of experiences and skills, and above all of one’s own, alternative, critical thinking, capable of finding original solutions, managing risks, managing information from different sources and even one’s own philosophy.
That’s why when they ask you what training you have, you better get up and walk away from that place. In the end, “Good Administrator vs Bad Manager” is a false choice. Competence comes from action: initiative, risk, and critical thinking turned into results.
Therefore, when they ask you: What can you do…? just go and do it…
Don’t tell me, show me…