Alex Ferguson is a successful football manager but they say he was an average footballer. On the other hand some great players of their time never made it in management. So why it is that star players don’t always make the best managers?
Top performers, especially in sales, do not always make the best managers. Yet we so often see sales people, for example, being promoted into sales management simply because they have turned in great numbers consistently over the years or even months.
There is an assumption that you need the credibility of an exceptional track record in sales in order to become a successful manager. But we have seen from the world of sport there is no real basis for this belief. Indeed the skill sets for great sales people or great footballers and great managers are at odds with each other.