How to start managing without the title? [duplicate]

Question

Like many companies, my company has a culture of promoting those who are already doing the job they would be promoted to. As someone who is a lead analyst in a technical position looking to get promoted to a manager, what strategies can I take to start doing the job of a manager?

Besides managing people, a manager also must have a good sense of "big picture" business strategy, an ability to influence business strategies to executives, and have more of an entrepreneurial mindset (know how to navigate the company with new ideas and get them done).

I can start by "mentoring" my coworkers but without the "manager" title it would be out-of-line to start telling my coworkers what to do. I can communicate some of my business strategy ideas to my manager, but when it comes to meetings with executives I'm left out.

Without clear opportunities to do so, how can I demonstrate that I can do the job of a manager?

Answer 1

Firstly and most importantly, talk to your manager and let him know this is what you want to do. There are then three main possibilities:

• Your manager says "great, wonderful" and starts moving some of his workload onto you. All good.
• Your manager says "Hmmm... I'm not sure that's a good idea at the moment, but if you do X, Y and Z then it can happen." Get a record of that, and start doing X, Y and Z. Talk to your manager again in a bit.
• Your manager says "Not until hell freezes over will I give up a tiny bit of my power!" (or a slightly less dramatic version) Unless you can find a way to work around your manager - which is very hard in most organizations I've worked in - you may have to consider whether your current role is the right one for your career goals.