PEJ Career Center
Best Job Fit:
Manager or Individual Contributor?
Bill Tiffan
Principal at T2 Management Consultants
Sarasota, Fl.
bill@t2-consultants.com
We’ve all seen it before. A management position
becomes available and an individual contributor is tapped to
fill this important position even though they may have mini-
mal or no previous management experience. This sometimes
makes sense because the individual is talented and there-
fore should win the respect of his or her new direct reports.
Shouldn’t a person who performs at the highest level be able
to guide others to reach that same level of productivity? Yes
and no.
The traditional definition of a manager is someone who
gets things done through and with other people. His or her
work involves directing, guiding, advising people and plan-
ning and overseeing work to be done by others. Managers are
accountable for what their people do. The manager’s real job
is managing others to achieve their goals. The manager’s suc-
cess is directly tied to theirs.
An individual contributor, on the other hand, is some-
one who operates as a team member or independently. A lab
technician is an individual contributor and has responsibility
for specific procedures and results as agreed upon with his
or her manager, usually the head of the lab. The individual
contributor’s success is attributable primarily to his or her
own efforts. That does not mean that others do not have a
role in helping this person be successful, but an individual
contributor will be held accountable for getting assigned
work done as directed.
A physician is a hybrid—one who functions primarily
as an individual contributor for patient care but who also
has managerial responsibilities for a support team—nurses,
office staff, etc.
92 PEJ NOVEMBER•DECEMBER/2009
Job fit
Why is this topic of job fit important? Because many
people struggle to find satisfaction in management roles
when they in fact might be better suited to functioning as an
individual contributor. They are conflicted because, on the
one hand they love their work as individual contributors but
are attracted to becoming a manager based on assumptions
which often turn out to be false, assumptions like:
• There is more prestige in being a manager than an indi-
vidual contributor.
• Positive career change often means “moving up,” and that
means management.
• Managers make more money.
• Managers have more power to make things happen.
So what is best for you? Do you really have the talent
to be a manager or would you be better off as an individual
contributor? To help you answer that question, I want you
first to challenge the above assumptions and second, provide
some questions to consider.
Beware of making assumptions!
Having spent most of my professional life providing
advice to executives around career issues, I can tell you that
almost everyone gets tripped up by the assumptions they
make about career paths involving management. Let’s take
the four assumptions mentioned above.
“Managers have more prestige.”
Well, it depends. Some managers will tell you it holds
little prestige for them because they no longer can have the
direct control of their results and, therefore, rewards and
recognition like they did as an individual contributor.
Suppose, for example, you now are the department head
of cardiology at a hospital where you previously were a car-
diologist known for the innovative surgical techniques you
developed. Now, in addition to your clini-
cal load you must, as department head,
attend more meetings of hospital leader-
ship, deal with difficult people problems
that previously others addressed for you,
and, on top of everything else, you just
learned your budget was cut.
On the one hand there is prestige in
being the top leader of cardiology but at
what price? Do you still have the time
to devote to your innovative side? Are
you deriving the level of satisfaction and
productivity that you did as an individual
contributor? Your answers depend on what
really motivates you and brings you the
most satisfaction.
“Management is a positive for
your career.”
Moving up is frequently thought of as
a positive for one’s career. It is recognition
for having done good work so far, it speaks
of your potential in the eyes of the orga-
nization’s leadership and it literally moves
you “up” in the org chart. So, yes it can be
positive.
But that assumes that positive career
moves for you are the same ones that make
logical sense to those who promoted you.
Some managers will tell you that the best day
in their life was when they made the difficult
decision to move out of a management job
and back into an individual contributor role
that better fit their passion and skills.
Many people struggle to find satisfaction in management roles when they in
fact might be better suited to functioning as an individual contributor.
The real definition of a positive career
move is one in which you do what you love
and derive the satisfaction of aligning your
talents with the role. Not all managers can
say that. Be careful not to let the values
and assumptions of others determine what
you do with your life. How many of our
parents, for example, had a specific career
path in mind for us because they liked the
idea of you heading in that direction?
“Managers make more money.”
This is often true, especially the
higher you go in the organization. Larger
bonuses reflect greater responsibility.
Senior managers should receive greater
compensation given the risks they take, the
responsibilities they carry and the impact
they potentially can make by their deci-
sions and foresight. In that sense privilege
is commensurate with responsibility.
However, many individual contribu-
tors who excel in their roles also have the
potential of greater financial gain. Many
physicians sometimes find it to be more
financially rewarding to be an individual
contributor in a physician practice. Their
compensation is a function of being part
of a shared practice where someone else
manages the office and personnel while
the physicians perform mostly as
individual contributors.
Their earnings are a combination of
equity from the practice, compensation
from hospitals and other sources such as
research grants. These earnings can be
larger than what they would make as a
senior leader in a hospital, for example.
“Managers have more power.”
This depends very much on the
political landscape of the organization. By
“political” I mean how power and influ-
ence are played out in an organization,
who controls the agendas, etc. All too
often managers find themselves out on the
limb with no one watching their back.
Promises are made during recruit-
ment about resources to be made avail-
able to them but in reality that support
simply isn’t there. And it’s lacking not just
because of economic conditions but also
because it’s often more important who you
know than what you know.
Personnel or capital decisions can be
undermined by influential board mem-
bers and others with special interests.
Managers and individual contributors
both operate within political realities and
derive benefits and liabilities accordingly
that must be explored carefully upfront.
So what are some ways to test your fit
for management vs. individual contributor
roles? The following questions about job
fit are a good place to start.
1. What do I want to be accountable for?
The work of others, my team, or the
Career Center
ACPE.ORG 93
PEJ Career Center

work for which I am directly respon-
sible? A physician executive is account-
able for other people, initiatives and
budgets and often has direct responsi-
bility contributing to the overall goals
of the organization. A physician has a
narrower focus toward patient care.
Depending on myriad factors, includ-
3. What aligns best with my personal-
ing the stage in your career, you will
answer this question differently. I often
hear managers complain about hav-
ing to deal with people problems; they
just want to be free to focus on “more
important things”—a sure sign that
management might not be the role
for them.
2. What am I most passionate about? Will
this role allow me to leverage that pas-
sion as much as I could in another role?
Are the challenges in this role aligned
with what I really want to do with my
life or am I forced to compromise some
of my passion and interests to satisfy
other needs in the organization? If you
are in the right job you will accept the
less exciting parts as “noise” in the sys-
tem and not make them deal breakers.
ity? Am I enough of a people person to
get energized about developing others,
mediating conflict, motivating young
staff and navigating the politics of
our organization? Do I prefer working
alone more than with others? What
feedback have I received about how I
interact with others that might shed
light on my fit as a manager of people?
Many technically proficient people are
promoted to be managers because of
that expertise alone. They mistakenly
think that human resources will
handle whatever employee rela-
tions issues occur and therefore take
responsibility for people develop-
ment. Ask any HR professional and
they will tell you that they cannot
and should not handle all these areas
but need to share that responsibility
with line managers.
4. How can I best leverage my skills?
Similar to personality traits, skills
that accompany management are
often different than those required
for effectiveness as an individual
contributor. There is a set of techni-
cal skills any health care professional
must have for their specialty to be
effective regardless of their role. In
addition, managers must demonstrate
the ability to plan, organize, coach,

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94 PEJ NOVEMBER•DECEMBER/2009
 review and oversee the work of others.
Do those skills come naturally for you?
Effective use of skills involves innate
motivation to use them as well as
knowledge and experience gained on
the job. Don’t be fooled into thinking
that what lies outside your motivation
will simply “come with experience”—
beware of that assumption!
5. How do I prefer using my time? A
manager’s time is less under his or her
control, in most cases, than those in
individual contributor roles. Managers
often have more meetings compared
with individual contributors. Everyone
must collaborate today, so meetings are
inevitable, but new managers are often
surprised at the increase in meetings
they must call or attend in order to get
their job done. More time is also taken
up with people issues and administra-
tion.
I have purposely oversimplified the
complexities that surround responsi-
bilities and demands on managers and
individual contributors to drive home the

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ACPE.ORG 95
PEJ Career Center

points about job fit. Your job satisfaction

and impact on the organization and your
career depend on making sound “right fit”
decisions.

Correction
Due to a production error, the last few
paragraphs of an article that appeared in
this space in the Sept./Oct. 2009 issue of
PEJ were inadvertently deleted. Below are
the missing paragraphs of the article titled:
8 Insights for Physicians Joining the Life
Science Industry.

8. A focus on the patient

Industry hires physicians not only
for their expertise in a specific thera-
peutic area and understanding of the
practice habits of their peers, but also
to help legitimize the company’s effort
and protect patients who will ultimate-
ly be using the products.
Industry needs team players and
independent thinkers, not “yes men
and women.” Physicians are expected
to bring institutional courage to the
program and speak frankly when the
patient is not benefiting as much as
what will sell with your peers.
Companies need physician execu-
tives to keep priorities straight when it
is tempting to look the other way.
In the end, the switch from prac-
ticing physician to industry executive
takes time, effort and preparation. And
while moving over to “the dark side”
may not be right for everyone, for those
who can successfully navigate the tran-
sition, the opportunities and rewards
for both the individual and the com-
pany in question are significant.

96 PEJ NOVEMBER•DECEMBER/2009