Can one recognise a leader inside an Individual Contributor?
- Ashish Chand
- Apr 19
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 27
You know who the best managers are? They're the great individual contributors, who never ever want to be a manager, but decide they have to be a manager because no one else is going to be able to do as good a job as them."
What comes to your mind when you read this?
Individual contributors rarely are good managers, and the premise does not work.
Should we then dismiss the opening statement entirely? Yes, you would argue.
However, if I say this was famously told by the great Steve Jobs, you would say, "Hmm."
Let's ponder a little bit!
Our learning path
I studied various subjects until I graduated from college - from literature to life sciences, mathematics to music, quantum mechanics to quantitative mathematics, and computers to calculus.
The human mind can absorb an enormous variety and volume of information. Some concepts came quickly, and some were vexing. When I found a topic difficult, I dug deeper and, at times, developed a liking for it.
Absorbing everything made me versatile and a lifelong learner. It also developed my self-belief that I could solve any problem once I decided to put my mind to it.
My teachers would stand for hours and write, speak, and explain to the entire class of 40-50 students. We would write furiously in our notebooks to keep pace with the teacher. A momentary lapse of concentration meant staring blankly from that point onwards. There were no group sessions and no pointless debates.
This taught me the power of listening and the absolute importance of focusing.
The leap of faith!
We are born different, but we have the magical power to do something when we grow up. We all have some hidden talent that we discover along the way—some of us are good at music, sports, cooking, or the arts. Some of us are fascinated by flowers, plants, trees, or nature. Some want to explore the vastness of the universe and are curious to discover the laws of nature. Some are driven by the need to understand human behavior. Some love numbers or are awed by making machines work like humans.
The education system is designed to give us a taste of everything and leave us to chart our path. Additionally, pedagogy encourages individual excellence and provides an opportunity to develop as leaders.
You have hundreds of restaurants, and yet new ones keep popping up all the time. How many salons does a locality need, yet we are spoilt for choice? There are hundreds of fund managers, insurers, and banks. And yet, new ones keep emerging with regularity. Running a hotel or an airline is tricky, yet new ones appear occasionally.
In each of these cases, someone believes that not only is he/she good at something and strongly feels he/she can do better than the rest.
That is Mr Jobs's point.
We are all brilliant individuals; when we make up our minds, we become managers.
Recognising future leaders
Let's call these individuals “divas”. Mr Job himself was a “diva”.
It’s not surprising that Silicon Valley creates so many of them. In an entrepreneurial context, hiring and promoting such individuals is an imperative and hence a natural order of play. Path-breaking companies have a deep desire to solve a problem. Take Google, Uber, Airbnb, Open AI, and countless startups that are solving some problem or another.
Does this, however, work in large corporations? The answer is no, for the most part.
Most large organizations need and have established structures and processes. They need talent that can run the show with minimum fuss. There is a genuine belief that no “ real problems” exist to solve.
As a result, in corporate vocabulary, hiring someone who is considered “good with people” or “who can speak well” becomes a natural choice for a manager. This contrasts with hiring someone who can “solve a problem.”
Managing a diva is the worst nightmare for the HR business partner. They don’t like drama, and neither does anyone else. Drama comes with the job description of a problem solver.
Over the years, I have had the privilege of meeting a few divas, but sadly, I was not able to find the right roles, as companies were just not ready for them. I told them as much; some eventually founded companies or excelled elsewhere.
I was saddened, but it was the right thing to do at the time—both for the company and the individual. It sounds blasphemous, but employees appreciated the candidness.
What should we do?
Large companies have the institutional capacity to manage much more complexity than they give themselves credit for. Also, most CEOs do like divas. They are one or were one at some point in the past.
CEOs are always seeking to break new ground. However, they want to ensure that BAU works like clockwork. They also know it is hard for the same person to do both jobs.
This is where foresight and a genuine push from HR are needed. All large organizations have great individual contributors waiting to become managers. These individuals walk in shadows because company culture does not allow them to speak up.
It is up to the CEO to partner with HR to recognise a leader.
If the person succeeds, the experiment is a success. If it fails, no harm is done besides lost time and dollars.
Getting someone from outside is always an option, but the odds are stacked against the person. Navigating a new culture and relationships is never easy, not to mention the need for organizations to set roles and individuals up for success.
Do not let status quoists drive the dominant culture. You need status quoists to run the ship and a few divas to steer the boat toward the CEO's vision.
Notes and References
Steve Jobs' quote is well-documented and attributed to him during a 1985 interview.
Managers must know the details if you want to have a high performing culture. If Your Boss Could Do Your Job, You’re More Likely to Be Happy at Work
by Benjamin Artz, Amanda Goodall and Andrew J. Oswald:
https://hbr.org/2016/12/if-your-boss-could-do-your-job-youre-more-likely-to-be-happy-at-work
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