Last Saturday, at the Airport waiting to check in, 2 of my friends and myself (All 3 of us follow Football) had this arguement giving the clubs each other support some stick, it did get a little heated, but the respect we have for each other and good time we just had, kind of kept things under the lid. There was a statement saying Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United was a tyrant. So I wanted to share my thoughts that why Management in the current times is not about the Manager but about the person being managed and Sir Alex, a person with 23 winner medals, is a master in dealing with different people differently.
In the old days, managers came out with methods and procedures on how the work needs to be done, because there was only one way to it. Any worker who joined, learnt how to operate the machine (there was nothing much in terms of value add from the worker), looked to impress the manager with his/her productivity and the managers too liked only such characters as it made them look good - as it improved the numbers that they get to show their bosses. Workers were kept down, so the quality of their lives became more dependent on the employer, a managers job was easy as it was just a supervisory role. In these days, such authoritative styles are effective only in an emergency and should stay within the armed forces.
In the world around us now, the skill levels required on the job are so specialized that there are many ways to do the same job and the manager is dependant on his workers to do choose the best option and make is successful. As you go up the Organization Chart, people only decide “What to do” and look to people below them for answers to the question “how best to do it”. The Boss earns his money is choosing the people who are talented enough to do it, people who are good team players and in getting each individual to actually complete the job to perfection (Both in terms of quality and time). It gets even complicated when managers don’t recruit the team but inherit the team, often this is the case and the manager’s first few days and first few actions will set the tone for all the future projects. If the manager impresses the team and takes care of those who work for him/her, he/she will float to greatness on their achievements.
Man management is so important because bigger the talent, bigger the ego and harder the task in getting the talent out. It’s no more about management styles but more about the person being managed or how important the person’s qualities are to the task at hand. The more indispensable the person being managed is the more dispensable is the manager – so the situation has changed, it’s no more a supervisory role but more of a decision making role. The manager who makes the better decisions and calls the best shots and has his/her team working for him will have the best report card at the end of the year. So in recent times you would have seen many examples of the manager being after the staff once the staff has proven his/her talent.
One field that is bucking this trend is I.T, proving that life is full of circles. Managers/Leaders of proven track record are of the wanted breed, taking us to back to the time of the factory workers. Why? Because the talent required (Programmers/developers) are available in plenty. So the talented person at the bottom is no more indispensable but just another warm body that is easily replaceable. The only way for a person at the bottom (programmer/developer) to be recognized is via the recognition of the person above him (Team Leader/Project Leader) gets. It also depends on how much of that recognition is being shared by the person above you. The CIO or CEO only hears what your superior has to share about you. So it’s imperative that programmers or entry level staff, in general technical staff, work hard to show their superiors in the best of light and move along with them up the ladder. This is why people skills and communication skills have to be taught early in schools, as much as I believe these cannot be taught but are being determined by the upbringing and the surroundings of the individual, I accept that such skills can be molded or corrected early at schools.
Finally to finish up, I agree Sir Alex threw the rule book at Whiteside, Strachan, Paul Parker, Ince, Stam - all gifted individuals who have went on to have great careers but he has used the "Arm around the shoulder" approach with people like Cantona, Giggs, Solskjaer, Cole, Yorke, Keane - now Ruud, Rio, Rooney and Ronaldo, clearly showing that there is no one way to Man Management. Ask yourself whether you can motivate and a group of multi-millionaires who have won everything they can possibly win in the game to push themselves week in week out, then probably you will appreciate his workload
Some management style Test
1. Business Bureau
2. Management Vitality
In the old days, managers came out with methods and procedures on how the work needs to be done, because there was only one way to it. Any worker who joined, learnt how to operate the machine (there was nothing much in terms of value add from the worker), looked to impress the manager with his/her productivity and the managers too liked only such characters as it made them look good - as it improved the numbers that they get to show their bosses. Workers were kept down, so the quality of their lives became more dependent on the employer, a managers job was easy as it was just a supervisory role. In these days, such authoritative styles are effective only in an emergency and should stay within the armed forces.
In the world around us now, the skill levels required on the job are so specialized that there are many ways to do the same job and the manager is dependant on his workers to do choose the best option and make is successful. As you go up the Organization Chart, people only decide “What to do” and look to people below them for answers to the question “how best to do it”. The Boss earns his money is choosing the people who are talented enough to do it, people who are good team players and in getting each individual to actually complete the job to perfection (Both in terms of quality and time). It gets even complicated when managers don’t recruit the team but inherit the team, often this is the case and the manager’s first few days and first few actions will set the tone for all the future projects. If the manager impresses the team and takes care of those who work for him/her, he/she will float to greatness on their achievements.
Man management is so important because bigger the talent, bigger the ego and harder the task in getting the talent out. It’s no more about management styles but more about the person being managed or how important the person’s qualities are to the task at hand. The more indispensable the person being managed is the more dispensable is the manager – so the situation has changed, it’s no more a supervisory role but more of a decision making role. The manager who makes the better decisions and calls the best shots and has his/her team working for him will have the best report card at the end of the year. So in recent times you would have seen many examples of the manager being after the staff once the staff has proven his/her talent.
One field that is bucking this trend is I.T, proving that life is full of circles. Managers/Leaders of proven track record are of the wanted breed, taking us to back to the time of the factory workers. Why? Because the talent required (Programmers/developers) are available in plenty. So the talented person at the bottom is no more indispensable but just another warm body that is easily replaceable. The only way for a person at the bottom (programmer/developer) to be recognized is via the recognition of the person above him (Team Leader/Project Leader) gets. It also depends on how much of that recognition is being shared by the person above you. The CIO or CEO only hears what your superior has to share about you. So it’s imperative that programmers or entry level staff, in general technical staff, work hard to show their superiors in the best of light and move along with them up the ladder. This is why people skills and communication skills have to be taught early in schools, as much as I believe these cannot be taught but are being determined by the upbringing and the surroundings of the individual, I accept that such skills can be molded or corrected early at schools.
Finally to finish up, I agree Sir Alex threw the rule book at Whiteside, Strachan, Paul Parker, Ince, Stam - all gifted individuals who have went on to have great careers but he has used the "Arm around the shoulder" approach with people like Cantona, Giggs, Solskjaer, Cole, Yorke, Keane - now Ruud, Rio, Rooney and Ronaldo, clearly showing that there is no one way to Man Management. Ask yourself whether you can motivate and a group of multi-millionaires who have won everything they can possibly win in the game to push themselves week in week out, then probably you will appreciate his workload
Some management style Test
1. Business Bureau
2. Management Vitality
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