Management is stewardship.

Becoming a people manager is not just about doing different kinds of work.

Sure, you’re responsible for process more than product. Yes, you begin to focus on collaboration more than personal creation.

But one of the bigger changes of management is one that happens inside you when you begin to embrace the weight of responsibility that comes with your actions and decisions. As a manager, you will need to make choices that directly impact the wellbeing of the people who report to you.

Sometimes this means representing the interests of your team members and speaking to the company on their behalf. You may have to make a case for more resources, better working conditions, more flexibility, or even protection from toxic people or environments.

Other times, this responsibility means representing the interest of the company and speaking to your team on its behalf. You may have to deliver bad news, enforce policies, or temporarily accept what may feel like an unfair allocation of resources or responsibilities to support the overall health of the broader organization.

And still other times, your role may call on you to make the hard decision to reject a request, or even terminate a working relationship with one or more team members in order to support those who remain.

Before accepting a management role, you often have the luxury to criticize management decisions. But once you become a manager yourself, you accept the weight of those choices. You become responsible for not only the immediate consequences for those most obviously affected, but also for the more distant effects on those more indirectly impacted.

When you’re considering a management career, ask yourself whether you’re ready to take on the burden that this stewardship requires.

And if you’re already in a management role and you’d like a thinking partner to walk with you through one of these difficult decisions, let’s talk. Visit stevedwire.com/talk to begin the conversation.