Merely doing year-end PMR and overseeing employee output or input is not enough to create a healthy manager-employee relationship, and hence for longevity and stability in 21st century organizational setup. Managers need to be aware that employees are the reason for their existence. In other words, if there are no employees, there will be no need for managers. However, carefully knit and intellectually organized employees need not require managers. Consequently, managers have to play an extra-ordinary role to prove their existence in the 21st century management. They need to produce and deliver a unique set of skills that would create a fine line, if not substantial demarcation between their role and those of employees.
Needless to say, 21st century organizations are creating these hybrid set of employees, who are becoming equipped to assume dual roles - the manager-employee role, with confidence to manage their (work) as well as organizational values simultaneously (if I am not too far sighted!).
Where does the manager-only role fits in then? What this means is that managers need to be three-pronged value management experts. Managers need to learn and practice the art of managing more vigilantly. They need to consider (a) the employee-value management concept with significant degree of accuracy, (b) organizational-value management and, (c) manager (their own)-interest management, with greater prudence and analysis. They need to come up with an optimum mix of these three aspects to remain a distinguished icon in the 21st century management realm.
As far as employee-value management is concerned, managers need to adhere to the following aspects:
1. Listen: Most of the times managers are clouded by the perception of their experience, or lack of it, in an attempt to push their way in, justifying, accusing, or not listening to the employees grievances, or perhaps the reverse - the dynamic works in either ways depending on circumstances and management environment. Managers, in their active and proactive role should be good listeners. They need to value lateral and open conversation. As much as managers are required to voice out imperfections of employees (or conceal it for reverse dynamic to act in force), they must listen - be attentive and concerned with - employee voices.
2. Appreciate: Managers need to appreciate the issues and concerns raised by the employees in order to deal with both sides - management and employee issues - in a harmless, and win-win manner.
3. Contribute: as much as employees want the managers to play the big daddy, they not only want managers to be a sounding board, but also contributors to solutions of their problem(s). Employees need to be confident that a manager will always act in their best and fair interest, to build mutual trust and free-flow conversation. Managers need to play a vigilant role in breaching the gap between organizational values and employee values. They must be in a position to bring in synergy to this aspect as part of their management role.
4. Motivate: One of the arts of a manager and leader is her ability to motivate. To do that, a manager needs to identify what factors motivate or tick a particular subordinate (or employees in situations where manager-subordinate line is very thin). There may be certain features that may apply to all employees, however, there are some unique qualities (knowing that all humans are unique) and factors (regarding an employee) that a manager should be aware of in order to use it for the advantage of the employee and the organization, promoting a win-win deal.
Understanding human behaviour and mastering the art of molding a given set character, in an increasingly beneficial way, rather than imposing ways and means of changing them, requires, if nothing else, at least an understanding that people are different in various ways. Managers should be aware of the fact that 21st generation working environment creates a hybrid set of employees - intellectually capable and effective to assume operational and managerial role per se. In other words, managers do not need to manage employees work, however hone and apply the art of managing these hybrid groups from a value-management perspective - a tremendous challenge for managers, changing the dimension and dynamic of soft-skill set.
The above required traits of a manager can be applied to organizational value management as well as those managers own. Managing and balancing these three aspects (though these three can be ferned and spanned further when one looks at the micro-level - my next topic of discussion) will make a tremendous development in a positive way, from the role of traditional management (theory X, Y, or Z) to 21st generation management (I call it HuTech-theory, Hu stands for human and Tech refers to technology in this case). Finally, as employees change or upgrade their role from conventionally operational-specialized to operational-specialized-diversified-knowledge workers, managers have to decide swiftly where and how they can fit in this dynamic broad-based organizational equation. There are multiple factors at play, nevertheless, all can be grouped, at least at a macro-level, assuming humans are creator of and above the technology (for obvious reasons at this point in time), into employee-value, organizational-value and manager-value streams.
Needless to say, 21st century organizations are creating these hybrid set of employees, who are becoming equipped to assume dual roles - the manager-employee role, with confidence to manage their (work) as well as organizational values simultaneously (if I am not too far sighted!).
Where does the manager-only role fits in then? What this means is that managers need to be three-pronged value management experts. Managers need to learn and practice the art of managing more vigilantly. They need to consider (a) the employee-value management concept with significant degree of accuracy, (b) organizational-value management and, (c) manager (their own)-interest management, with greater prudence and analysis. They need to come up with an optimum mix of these three aspects to remain a distinguished icon in the 21st century management realm.
As far as employee-value management is concerned, managers need to adhere to the following aspects:
1. Listen: Most of the times managers are clouded by the perception of their experience, or lack of it, in an attempt to push their way in, justifying, accusing, or not listening to the employees grievances, or perhaps the reverse - the dynamic works in either ways depending on circumstances and management environment. Managers, in their active and proactive role should be good listeners. They need to value lateral and open conversation. As much as managers are required to voice out imperfections of employees (or conceal it for reverse dynamic to act in force), they must listen - be attentive and concerned with - employee voices.
2. Appreciate: Managers need to appreciate the issues and concerns raised by the employees in order to deal with both sides - management and employee issues - in a harmless, and win-win manner.
3. Contribute: as much as employees want the managers to play the big daddy, they not only want managers to be a sounding board, but also contributors to solutions of their problem(s). Employees need to be confident that a manager will always act in their best and fair interest, to build mutual trust and free-flow conversation. Managers need to play a vigilant role in breaching the gap between organizational values and employee values. They must be in a position to bring in synergy to this aspect as part of their management role.
4. Motivate: One of the arts of a manager and leader is her ability to motivate. To do that, a manager needs to identify what factors motivate or tick a particular subordinate (or employees in situations where manager-subordinate line is very thin). There may be certain features that may apply to all employees, however, there are some unique qualities (knowing that all humans are unique) and factors (regarding an employee) that a manager should be aware of in order to use it for the advantage of the employee and the organization, promoting a win-win deal.
Understanding human behaviour and mastering the art of molding a given set character, in an increasingly beneficial way, rather than imposing ways and means of changing them, requires, if nothing else, at least an understanding that people are different in various ways. Managers should be aware of the fact that 21st generation working environment creates a hybrid set of employees - intellectually capable and effective to assume operational and managerial role per se. In other words, managers do not need to manage employees work, however hone and apply the art of managing these hybrid groups from a value-management perspective - a tremendous challenge for managers, changing the dimension and dynamic of soft-skill set.
The above required traits of a manager can be applied to organizational value management as well as those managers own. Managing and balancing these three aspects (though these three can be ferned and spanned further when one looks at the micro-level - my next topic of discussion) will make a tremendous development in a positive way, from the role of traditional management (theory X, Y, or Z) to 21st generation management (I call it HuTech-theory, Hu stands for human and Tech refers to technology in this case). Finally, as employees change or upgrade their role from conventionally operational-specialized to operational-specialized-diversified-knowledge workers, managers have to decide swiftly where and how they can fit in this dynamic broad-based organizational equation. There are multiple factors at play, nevertheless, all can be grouped, at least at a macro-level, assuming humans are creator of and above the technology (for obvious reasons at this point in time), into employee-value, organizational-value and manager-value streams.
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