{"id":628,"date":"2011-01-13T17:59:02","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T22:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/?p=628"},"modified":"2011-01-13T17:59:49","modified_gmt":"2011-01-13T22:59:49","slug":"management-insight-coach-or-dictator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/2011\/01\/management-insight-coach-or-dictator\/","title":{"rendered":"Management Insight: Coach or Dictator?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>U<\/a>nfortunately, many managers think of the job of managing as a matter of controlling employee behavior.\u00a0 Despite lip service to \u201cempowerment\u201d and \u201cleadership\u201d, the main thrust of management is to ensure that employees do exactly what management wants them to do.<\/p>\n

Under such regimes, employees who disagree with a manager or refuse to do something are \u201cinsubordinate\u201d and therefore dangerous.\u00a0 Many times, the HR group begins to compile a dossier on the \u201ctroublemaker\u201d who can\u2019t be adequately controlled.<\/p>\n

The natural result of seeing management as a control function is the creation of brittle organizations that can\u2019t adapt to new conditions.\u00a0 Often this happens because multiple managers in multiple stovepiped groups set up conflicting power structures, each of which is trying to \u201ccontrol\u201d what\u2019s going on. Worst case, you end up with endless turf wars, with managers involved in a supercharged political atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Whenever that happens, productive work becomes difficult if not impossible. Individual initiative is killed in favor of a \u201clet\u2019s wait and see what the boss says\u201d mentality.\u00a0 For example, sales professionals who are micromanaged in this way pay a fairly major productivity tax, probably of around 30 percent.\u00a0 That\u2019s 30 percent more sales that could be closed if the sales team didn\u2019t have some bozo looking over their shoulder and meddling with the sale.<\/p>\n

By contrast, when a corporate culture thinks of management primary as a service position, you get coaches rather than dictators.\u00a0 Freed of the burden of attempt to \u201ccontrol things\u201d, managers can more easily set a direction and to obtain the resources that employees need to get the job done.\u00a0 There\u2019s less talk about \u201cleadership\u201d and \u201cempowerment\u201d and more helping people to become more successful.<\/p>\n

When managers are seen as being \u201cin service\u201d, decision-making more naturally moves down to the lowest appropriate level of the company. Teams tend to form their own rules and direction without interference.\u00a0 Just as importantly, the impetus for huge management salaries goes away and the gulf between management and employees shrinks.\u00a0 That\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n

BTW, if you want to see how this kind of management works, look at any sales team that has 1) low turnover, and 2) high productivity.\u00a0 Sales coaching is a relatively well-understood phenomenon and, while there are plenty of controlling sales managers, there are a fair number who understand this \u201cin service\u201d idea and put it into daily practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately, many managers think of the job of managing as a matter of controlling employee behavior.\u00a0 Despite lip service to \u201cempowerment\u201d and \u201cleadership\u201d, the main thrust of management is to ensure that employees do exactly what management wants them to do. Under such regimes, employees who disagree with a manager or refuse to do something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-management-101","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":634,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions\/634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}