The New era management

 

The workplace is changing at a rapid rate and with those changes come new issues to be addressed by leadership within an organization. The role of manager means something different from decades past. Instead of distributing and evaluating tasks and performance, managers are now expected to walk alongside their employees, guiding and leading them along the way. This shift can mean vast improvements for your organization, but what does really that look like?

Flexibility is Key

“Traditional” work is very different from what employee expectations are today. According to research published by Gallup, 52% of employees want flexibility in when they work and 43% of employees work away from their team at least some of the time (flexibility in location).  The expectation expands in regard to the actual work. Instead of clearly defined roles, many job seekers desire project-based employment, even within the same company, where they can solve new and interesting problems and find work they truly care about. With flexibility and fluidity defining the when, where, and what of a position, the way organizations manage their team members looks very different going forward. 

Connections Matter

Enabling this level of flexibility requires a fair amount of autonomy for workers and places a high expectations on managers. When implemented correctly, employee performance and engagement improve, and, in return, employers are gaining loyal and high-performing followers. However, it means a shift in leadership roles and focus. Instead of performance evaluations at the end of a project or calendar year, a manager is better suited to have regular, casual check-ins with direct reports. These check-ins allow for the development of meaningful relationships, an ongoing conversation about employee growth trajectory, and collaborative problem-solving. These one-on-one’s are especially critical for remote workers because of the isolation these employees can feel from their teams. Managers need to know their team members and be able to connect with each in order to coach them toward success. 

Expectations are Everything

No matter how desirable your benefits package may appear, one thing that will never change is the ever-present need for clarity of expectations between manager and employee. Why? Because the vast majority of “issues” at work are rooted in unclear and misunderstood interpretations of expectations. In our personal and professional lives, we should all be working toward the following goals with the people in our lives:

• Setting clear priorities

• Defining desired outcomes

• Clarifying timelines

• Establishing boundaries

• Agreeing on communication norms

• Gaining permission for ongoing, two-way feedback

If we embrace the idea that expectations are at the heart of every relationship we have, we’d be on a path to creating harmony, engagement, and enthusiasm for work and our other commitments that could deliver exponentially improved results.

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Tools of new era management

“Supervisors, managers, and executives have a mental map that guides their choices and actions. Most are led by the common, conventional map. When leaders are only familiar with this map, they are “simple-minded”… This only means that they haven’t internalised assumptions that allow them to think in more complex ways about their organisations.
There is another map, the positive mental map, which offers the language of possibility. Most people don’t look for or find this map unless they have experienced a crisis of some sort, which breaks down their conventional assumptions and allows them to be more open. When they do this, they begin to evolve into a more complex thinker. Acquiring this positive mental map is a lot like becoming bilingual. It is a journey, not an instant transformation. It involves taking risks, failing your way forward, and having the confidence to keep trying. Learning a new language doesn’t mean forgetting your native language; rather, it adds a greater capacity to communicate and learn.

I’ve been learning Spanish for the last few months and I’m currently in the groan zone. I can understand it pretty well but when I’m put on the spot to respond in a conversation, I freeze and tend to default to English, rather than try to communicate, however clumsily, in Spanish. But I also know that mastery is the ability to be in the space between where you are and where you would like to be. It will get easier with time. I won’t forget my native language (English), but Spanish will give me a greater capacity to communicate and learn.

Whatever we choose to call it, I believe that we are entering a new era of leadership. Both managers and employees need to look for and find a positive mental map. Only when we acknowledge that we have a native language, and that there is a compelling need to learn and practice a new language — not to replace but to complement our mother tongue — can we thrive in this new era.