u/Fickle_Mammoth_6768

Hi everyone

I currently run my own sole proprietor business and I got a job offer to be a manager to a team of 10 at a non-profit.

I have previous experience with managing small teams in disorganized non-profits and I will honestly say that I wasn’t the best communicator with senior management. I was quite abrasive at times because senior management wasn’t taking anything seriously regarding laws and ethics being broken regarding client care.

In the role that I am being offered there are a lot of meetings that I will have to attend with the board, community partners, other managers, and the team.
While I’m good at advocating, and securing contracts, I’m not the best at maintaining relationships with all these different parties. Im also not good at navigating community or office politics. I think my communication style might be too direct.

Any insights would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi Managers,

I currently run my own business, I am a sole proprietor. I applied to a management position at a non-profit because I am finding working alone quite isolating.

I just got an offer for the management position and I am seriously questioning if I am the right person to manage people.

The role involves ALOT of meetings with other managers, the board, the team, senior management and community partners. In my interview, I picked up on how the interviewer mentioned that they are disorganized, there is a lot of conflict, and they need someone to advocate in the meetings for the team.

The part that worries me isn’t just managing the team (team of 10) but having to manage relationships with all of these other people.

I will be honest, I was previously a manager in a very disorganized organization. I got impatient and my communication style became firm and direct, because no one was listening to me. I know I could have gone about it better but there were actual laws being broken and clients at risk. So I stopped playing nice and got kind of abrasive to get these issues corrected. I never lost my job or got reprimanded, but it did piss off a lot of senior management and got some staff fired.
I know I shouldn’t be communicating in that kind of way and I worry I will do this in the next role.

I’m also not good at engaging in office or community politics, which I think would be a big part of the role. I’m just not interested. I don’t care if I’m pissing someone off because they don’t like what I am saying. I don’t care to tip toe around the issue. I’m not good at finding language that doesn’t demonstrate this level of no fucks given..

On the other hand, I am good at some parts of team management. I do advocate for them and I actually caught one of them trying to advocate on my behalf to management. I was in a room working on something and my staff caught senior management basically trying to approach me to complain about me and my staff member stopped them from approaching me.
Based on the feedback I have received from my team, they find me supportive and kind, but those teams had less than 10 people and smaller projects to manage.

Overall I love the coaching aspect, and I think I am good at advocating for my team. But I think I would be terrible at managing other relationships.