It’s Time to Turn Managers into Leaders
The nuances of “managers” versus “leaders” are not well understood in many organizations. Noted thought leader Josh Allan Dykstra recently wrote that when we ask people to “manage” we effectively ask them to block the path of progress and stand in the way of innovation. Instead, what we must do is create leaders throughout the organization; enable individuals at all levels to bring their greatest contributions, best ideas, and full engagement to work all day, every day.
Unsurprisingly this concept does not mesh with the “Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die” crowd. Thankfully though, command-and-control style management has been falling out of favor for some time. The reasons are myriad, but most noticeable among them are things we see each and experience every day in our workplaces. Societal, technological and environmental changes have a new reality. What’s different about work in 2016 than in 2006? Smartphones, social media, millennials, flexible work schedules, project-based jobs, on-demand labor, self-directed learning, and a greater emphasis on work/life integration are all hallmarks that either did not exist or were not as prevalent just ten years ago.
As a profession, HR has long been accused of being too reactive and not nearly as progressive as the business requires. Decades of an entire function complaining about a “seat at the table” has a tendency to perpetuate that perception. Thus, many organizations are looking beyond HR’s reach to find the answer to the biggest talent dilemma of our time: Where are the future leaders of our organization?
The leadership gap stems from a post-2008 restriction of training budgets and is compounded by an exodus of boomer leaders that continues today. Add a dash of high-potential turnover and you have a recipe for disaster. Validating this is HCI’s latest Talent Pulse research, Identifying and Developing First-Time People Leaders, which found that 8 out of 10 front-line managers are promoted from within without formal training or development and essentially left to sink-or-swim. When 96% of respondents agree managers are vital to driving business success, why is it that only half of organizations invest in front-line manager development? The scary reality is that we work in a world where the average age of a supervisor is 32, yet almost ten years pass before those same people receive adequate leadership training.
Perhaps it sounds pithy and overly focused on semantics but the solution to the leadership dilemma first lies in a shift to a growth mindset. It’s time to stop promoting good individual contributors to management positions for lack of better options, and time to start developing all employees to become leaders. Instead of being reactive when new managers fail to meet expectations, a more proactive approach will yield better results in the long-run. Providing training and development opportunities to all employees will help identify high-potentials and future leaders.
In the upcoming webcast Lead or Get Out of the Way: HR’s Mission to Replace Managers with Leaders, this topic will be further explored as HCI invites Josh Allan Dykstra to share his research-backed approach to leadership development. We invite anyone interested in building a stronger leadership process and pipeline, as well as those that want to make changes in their L&D approach, to join us on October 12th at 4:00pm EST.