The best leaders are great individual contributors, not professional managers
This is true but nuanced in my experience.Often the best managers look around, see other managers being incompetent and messing up people’s natural abilities, and want to fix the problem even if it requires them to become managers.Often the worst managers decide at a young age they’re good leaders, can lead people to do better than they would themselves, and decide they want to get into management.I make this distinction because even group 1 managers usually have to raise their hand and say something like “can we please stop messing this up. I can help.”Rarely is an awesome individual magically called upon to become a manager, particularly by poor managers who are already messing stuff up.In an environment where management is good, there’s a longer cycle of development, mentorship, and nudging of high potential people into management. But if you’re not in that environment, you probably need to ask to help make it better. It won’t happen magically.