Many of today’s managers got their start welding on the factory floor, clearing dishes off tables, helping customers fit a suit, or wiping up a spill in aisle 3. Similarly, lots of you will start at the bottom and work your way up. There’s no better way to get to know your competition, your customers, and your business. But whether you begin your career at the entry level or as a supervisor, your job as a manager is not to do the work, but to help others do theirs. Management is getting work done through others. Pat Carrigan, a former elementary school principal who became a manager at a GENERAL MOTORS car parts plant, says, “I’ve never made a part in my life, and I don’t really have any plans to make one. That’s not my job. My job is to create an environment where people who do make them can make them right, can make them right the first time, can make them at a competitive cost, and can do so with some sense of responsibility and pride in what they’re doing. I don’t have to know how to make a part to do any of those things.