Have you noticed how people who “look” like a manager, often are? I was at the airport recently about to fly to a show I was going to attend and I was bored so I was reduced to people watching. I looked at each person in the waiting area and tried to figure out each of them. I tried to figure out what each of them did for a living and why they were in the airport waiting for the same flight I was.

Two guys in particular stood out for me. Both were dressed in business casual – a nice sports jacket and matching dress pants – and both carried suit bags. Clearly, these were guys who knew a thing or two about business travel and knew that they’d be able to sneak an oversized suit bag into the plane when novices like myself would have checked the bag in at the desk. They probably do it all the time and know how to get past the occasional cabin attendant who tries to get them to check the bag at the gate.

Moreover, these guys looked like managers. Managers of what, I wasn’t quite sure and I didn’t approach them to ask.

(It was around this time that the guy seated behind me started yapping on his cellphone regarding an upcoming deal and I was forced to listen to his conversation and look over my shoulder to try to check out his computer screen to see if I could figure out what company he worked for and what he was selling in case I was interested. He was speaking loudly enough that he must have assumed everyone in the waiting area was interested.)

Earlier in my career while working at my first job since I’d finished university, I remember an outside consultant telling my manager that after meeting her and meeting her boss, it was obvious to the consultant that she should have been managing her boss rather than the other way around.

Turns out that other people in our company starting saying the same thing. I guess my boss also felt the same way because she ended up quitting and getting a new job a few months later. It seems that my boss’s boss had learned how to play the part of a manager and had found a job that he probably wasn’t really qualified for. He got moved sideways into a non-management role shortly thereafter.

Back to the two managers I met at the airport, I not only knew they were managers, I was also pretty sure which one was the senior guy. I figured that the other guy was probably going to take his place when the senior guy retired. I also knew they both must have some clout. They were wearing business casual normally reserved for Fridays and it was only Tuesday!

When I think of the best managers I’ve worked for, they tended to be well-educated, well-spoken, organized, strong communicators and people who had a good reputation within the company.

Bottom line, learn how to play a manager if you want to become one. Just make sure you can actually be one and not just play the part.