Sometimes life throws us a curve. We think we’ve got it together, and we’re doing the right thing – only to find out that we didn’t really know what the right thing was in the first place.

Take Michael for example. As a department manager in a major corporation, Michael had 24 employees under his supervision. He was kept fairly busy supervising those employees, ensuring quotas were met, and reporting to his supervisors. Michael also spent a fair amount of time trying to impress those supervisors and the corporation’s upper management; you see, Michael was on a quest to climb the corporate ladder and was working hard for a promotion.

When the promotional opportunity arrived, Michael was confident. His department had met their goals; he had made sure of that. He had become quite good at assigning duties and delegating responsibilities and following through with employees who didn’t or couldn’t fulfill those tasks. Frankly, he thought of the interview process for the promotion as a formality – he was by far the best candidate.

The morning of the interview, Michael entered the conference room in his power suit and tie, prepared to recite his accomplishments to his supervisors. Imagine his surprise when he looked around the table and not one supervisor or administrator was present. The entire committee consisted of employees in his department - the very employees under his management! Their roles quickly reversed as one employee explained that the company decided those best able to determine if a manager should be promoted were the employees he worked for. Michael was stunned – he didn’t work for them at all – they worked for him!

That is where Michael was wrong. The company believed that a manager’s role is to make it easier for employees accomplish their jobs, to remove any obstacles in their way, and to make sure they had the all the tools and training they needed to get the job done. In essence, his job was to help them! Michael was crestfallen as he realized that he had been managing his department under an entirely different philosophy, assuming his job was to give orders, and his subordinates were to follow them. Michael’s management style had backfired; if he had helped his employees, they most certainly would have recognized and rewarded his contributions to their team.

Put yourself in Michael’s shoes. Imagine being told you lost your job but could reapply, all you had to do was receive the recommendations of your subordinates or coworkers. Would you want your fate resting in their hands?