Mentors, Education or Experience? - [website] Published: 5th of May 2011 by: (c) Staff Training Reporter
One of the things I've always wondered...
... as I'm sure many school-leaving teenagers do, is what does it take to become a manager or an executive, and where are these lessons learned?
The answers might surprise you.
The saying “it's not what you know, it's who you know”, is not as true in the working world as it might be in politics, and while knowing the right people may be how some people find positions of authority in the corporate world, this is not the most dominant source of the lessons needed for people wanting to become a manager.
Peers, role models, mentors and bosses all fall into this category, and while the lessons learned from these people may prove invaluable as life goes on, it's not where one gains the necessary tools to be able to deal with the responsibilities of becoming a manager or executive.
Formal schooling – universities and colleges – may be what furnishes future businesspeople with the basic skills and knowledge they will need, but it is previous job experience that is the most dominant source of necessary lessons to be an effective manager of executive.
Research suggests that 70 percent of the critical lessons, competencies and skills that managers and executives will need come from job experience.
20 percent is suspected to come from other people (mentors, bosses and role models), while 10 percent can be attributed to courses and self study.
This means that even in the working world nothing really compares to good old experience, and while the usefulness of formal education and what can be learned from other people shouldn't be understated, nearly two-thirds of the skills a manager or executive will call upon come from the jobs he or she has previously held.
Interestingly enough these figures are lower for women, who due to a traditionally male dominated environment, lack major developmental experiences.
