For people who report or reported into you in the past do you find it difficult to manage situations that aren't going well?

I always sought to focus on the problem, not the person. I worked to empower those who reported to me and asked them to bring me solutions rather than problems. It's called, providing support without removing responsibility.

If those operators felt they had a stake, valued input that would be listened to, and were made to feel the way forward was in their control to some degree they were more likely to own deploy it and own the solution. I was big on ownership, responsibility and discipline. Of course, as my job function changed I had to temper that somewhat and make it more office-suitable.

i.e. if mistakes ultimately reflect badly on the department I am in, I find it difficult not to be too involved in overseeing it when it's not strictly my job.

That's called taking ownership and I used to foster it. I still do. Of course, there's a right way to do this, and a wrong way, and it's important for the individual who does so to have the training, (support) from the immediate leader, to ensure it's not perceived as bullying or lording over others which can lead to serious ramifications for that individual, the team, the leader and overall productivity or effectiveness. Again, this is subjective and care needs to be taken to handle it commensurate to the needs/parameters of the situation/workplace.

Did you fall into management type situations naturally or did you pursue it and do training etc to get better outcomes in the work place? Hybrid I guess

As a child I was one that seemed always to take responsibility. I was terribly racially victimised from the age of five and it taught me about ownership and the need to do things better than others; it also taught me a lot about human beings, hate, loneliness, violence, thinking things through, relationship-building and destruction, drawing lines beneath people and situations and moving on plus many other things. I worked hard at being me and life in general because I had to; I had a high operational tempo although at the time I didn't call it that. I guess I built on that as I grew older.

In my twenties my attributes were well on the way to becoming valuable skills and this helped me progress in my career, move upward through the chain. I was trained, honed and developed professionally and I worked tirelessly to augment that with my own efforts; I was a sponge for knowledge, understanding and wisdom that I could better operate. I also had/have a never quit attitude so sought continual improvement. No one drove me harder than I did myself, and it's still that way. Life unfolded and things progressed as they do and now...here I am.

I hope that answers your questions. I guess it's difficult to truly understand what I'm saying as you don't know all the details, the work environments I was operating in and how they were structured. I guess though, in simplistic terms, I believe leadership is in my make-up, part of me, and because of that I pursued more knowledge to make me better at it; those I led deserved no less than my best effort because I expected the same from them.