On Managing People

Can we really "manage" people?

I wonder...and I think not. Not really. Perhaps we can only inspire them.

A process can be managed. And production (in the sense of assembly-line work) can be managed. Though most would agree that the people that participate in that sort of production probably don't feel very inspired, creative or innovative.

In firms, don't we want people to feel creative and innovative? Isn't that what we ask of them when we ask them to be client-oriented and solution-oriented?

But the same people are also told "do it this way because it is the way we've always done it" or "well, that's they way *I* was taught to do it" and they are discouraged from disrupting the system.

Seriously, which way do we want it? Do we want the best and the brightest? Or do we want people who will simply comply as accurately as possible with existing methods. In many firms, I hear the former and witness the latter.

How creative do you feel when you are being "managed"? Have you ever actually been "managed" well? If you think so, consider if it might just be that you were actually motivated and inspired by good leadership, instead...treated like someone worth their salt...smart enough to figure it out...capable.

That's leadership. Leadership isn't just the top dog in the organization, either. Leaders are at every level from the most junior of staff and up. Sometimes they are completely absent from the top of the organization.

David Maister posted on his blog about Why Training is Useless. In that post, he wrote about training people to be better managers and this is what he said:

Another example of wasted money are the calls I get to put on training programs to help people become better managers. I put my callers through a standard set of questions: Did you choose your managers because they were the kind of people who could get their fulfillment and satisfaction out of helping other people shine, rather than having the ego need to shine themselves? (No!) Did you select them because they had a prior history of being able to give a critique to someone in such a way that the other person says- wow, that was really helpful, I’m glad you helped me see all that. (No!) Do you reward these people for how well their group is done, or do you reward them for their own personal accomplishments in generating business and serving clients? (Their personal numbers!)

So, let’s summarize, I say. You’ve chosen people who don’t want to do the job, who haven’t demonstrated any prior aptitude for the job, and you are rewarding them for things other than doing the job? Thanks, but I’ll pass on the wonderful privilege of training them!

He's absolutely right. What he wrote really made me think about how leadership traits are missing in a lot of "managers" within firms--probably because before they were managers, they were just "managed" and not led or inspired.

Maybe we should forget about hiring or promoting "managers" and just hire, at every level, leaders and inspirers.

Comments

[carol]

Check out Leading from the Front a new book by Angie Morgan and Courtney Lynch, former Marine Corps Captains who successfully translated their Corps leadership training in the private sector. I saw them last night and they made the same point you did in this post. I think their message is gender neutral although they are pitching it to women. I also think most of their leadership rules are common sense, at least to me, but they are good to hear again and well set out. I especially like their empowerment of all - not just the "bosses". Everyone can be a leader whatever their role.

[Jack Yan]

You’re so right, Michelle. At best, we can inspire people and explain to them the ends of what they are working on. The opposite to all this is creating duress and stress on them by dictating “how it should be”. Sadly, too many people apply the latter way, either out of insecurity or discomfort about superior or different methods.

[Tim Whelan]

Hi Michelle, I see another good topic here.

Well from my perspective he is right and wrong. Motivation is so important to functionality of any business. But to leave the customer out of the equation is a big mistake. Innovation for innovations sake is anti productive.

Peter F. Drucker suggest that workers can be either doers or that they can be thinkers.

Thinkers provide meaningful innovation within the sphere of there job as it applies to company function, product development and production and to the development and fulfillment of market (customer need).

So screening not only managers to manage this process is important, but so is the worker who drives the innovative process. Rewards aren't always in money nor are they always based in team functionality.

Rewards need to fit either the person, the team or both, and should always be centered on innovative event as it applies to customer fulfillment and development. Innovation that doesn’t serve the customers need is wasted innovation and fills no need within the company or business structure.

The term innovation doesn’t necessarily refer to a product, but could refer to a process or thought that produces an outcome of change that enhances the customers need fulfillment. Of course this in itself can be a long topic.

Just always remember that it is as important to hire the right managers as it is to hire the right employee and that the reward system has to come on many fronts and in many ways.