What career path to go?

What possible career path can I go into that would very rarely require me to be put in charge of others?

• I have worked previously in the Gambling industry and am currently in the theatre industry. I have got to a point where I have achieved as much as I can while also being a subordinate.   The next step is obviously group leader/management/etc. But the problem is for a variety of reasons I am a terrible leader.   I think it's a good thing I am personally aware of this as I do not wish to become one of those terrible managers that everyone hates.   We live in a world where every single work path is designed so that you eventually have to be put in charge of others. I want to do my absolute best to avoid this while still furthering my career prospects. Any help that Quorans could give would be much appreciated.

• Answer:

  If you think you're a mediocre leader, then you're probably an above-average manager. Management is practically defined by the Dunning-Kruger effect. It's a job where people who are good at it think they're doing poorly (because they actually care about the people they're managing and have to make hard decisions) while the incompetent majority think highly of themselves (because, after all, they're managers). Your best strategy is, first, to become very good at something. Keep growing as an individual contributor as far as you can. When you get to a point where you're expected to have a scope of impact larger than yourself, evolve into a teaching role. You'll need an ally, so this isn't something you can pull off if you change jobs a lot. You need to spend long enough to find someone you can trust. Have the ally responsible for the "people management", with the idea in mind that you'll take on mentorship, and find a way that you and he can split the glory (instead of him making you his subordinate) and you end up co-managing the team. Mentor people, and resist the impulse to take credit, but make sure your bosses see that you're doing this and showing leadership in a different way. This is probably the best way, as well, to skip over the middle-management hell into more of an executive role, where your managerial overhead is less because you're not expected to be doing a lot of hiring and firing.