Accidental manager to Level 7: “My studies set me up for the rest of my life”

“Many excellent IT engineers get promoted to be managers on technical merit,” says Richard Shand CMgr FCMI, an infrastructure architect at the Scottish Qualifications Authority in Glasgow. “They are brilliant at deep technical problem-solving, but technical excellence does not translate automatically into management competence. If you promote based on technical brilliance alone, you often set people up to fail.”

Richard may be the exception that proves the rule. While working at a technical call centre in the Scottish Highlands, he grew to be a subject-matter expert and was soon promoted to supervisor, where he wound up managing a team of around 30, “quite by accident”.

But he’d been brought up in a rural Highlands community where everyone knew everyone, which bred the people skills good managers need. Then there’s his neurodivergence – as someone with dyslexia and ADHD, he says he brings strong pattern recognition and systems thinking that help in complex environments. 

“You were just expected to know how to manage”

Armed with these skills, Richard rose through various IT management roles. He sent engineers out to maintenance jobs in the farthest-flung corners of Scotland; he launched his own IT consultancy business; and he led the building of an entire IT function, including a help desk, for a construction company that employed around 500 people. There, he hired staff, established procedures, and managed people and governance – all without any training or formal frameworks. 

Instead he harnessed another skill forged in his rural childhood: the ability to figure things out for himself. 

“I learned fast and delivered results, but I was doing it without a common management framework,” he says. “While it was easy to see how to learn technical skills, with clear certifications, it was less obvious how to gain skills as a manager. You were just expected to know how to do it, which diminishes management as a discipline.”

Studying for Level 7

During the pandemic, Richard landed his current role at the Scottish Qualifications Authority. This was the spur to finally formalise all that he’d learned. After searching online for courses, he signed up for an MBA at the University of Glasgow in 2021, where he also gained a CMI Level 7 Certificate in Strategic Management and Leadership Practice.