The best managers have a
fundamentally different understanding of workplace, company, and team dynamics.
See what they get right.
A few years back, I interviewed some of the most
successful CEOs in the world in order to discover their management secrets. I
learned that the "best of the best" tend to share the following eight
core beliefs.
1. Business is an ecosystem, not a
battlefield.
Average bosses see business as a conflict between companies,
departments and groups. They build huge armies of "troops" to order
about, demonize competitors as "enemies," and treat customers as
"territory" to be conquered.
Extraordinary bosses see business as a symbiosis where the most diverse firm
is most likely to survive and thrive. They naturally create teams that adapt
easily to new markets and can quickly form partnerships with other companies,
customers ... and even competitors.
2. A company is a community, not a
machine.
Average bosses consider their company to be a machine with employees
as cogs. They create rigid structures with rigid rules and then try to maintain
control by "pulling levers" and "steering the ship."
Extraordinary bosses see their company as a collection of individual hopes
and dreams, all connected to a higher purpose. They inspire employees to
dedicate themselves to the success of their peers and therefore to the
community–and company–at large.
3. Management is service, not control.
Average bosses want employees to do exactly what they're told. They're
hyper-aware of anything that smacks of insubordination and create environments
where individual initiative is squelched by the "wait and see what the
boss says" mentality.
Extraordinary bosses set a general direction and then commit themselves to
obtaining the resources that their employees need to get the job done. They
push decision making downward, allowing teams form their own rules and
intervening only in emergencies.
4. My employees are my peers, not my
children.
Average bosses see employees as inferior, immature beings who simply
can't be trusted if not overseen by a patriarchal management. Employees take
their cues from this attitude, expend energy on looking busy and covering their
behinds.
Extraordinary bosses treat every employee as if he or she were the most
important person in the firm. Excellence is expected everywhere, from the
loading dock to the boardroom. As a result, employees at all levels take charge
of their own destinies.
5. Motivation comes from vision, not
from fear.
Average bosses see fear--of getting fired, of ridicule, of loss of
privilege--as a crucial way to motivate people. As a result, employees
and managers alike become paralyzed and unable to make risky decisions.
Extraordinary bosses inspire people to see a better future and how they'll
be a part of it. As a result, employees work harder because they believe
in the organization's goals, truly enjoy what they're doing and (of course)
know they'll share in the rewards.
6. Change equals growth, not pain.
Average bosses see change as both complicated and threatening,
something to be endured only when a firm is in desperate shape. They
subconsciously torpedo change ... until it's too late.
Extraordinary bosses see change as an inevitable part of life. While they
don't value change for its own sake, they know that success is only possible if
employees and organization embrace new ideas and new ways of doing business.
7. Technology offers empowerment, not
automation.
Average bosses adhere to the old IT-centric view that technology is
primarily a way to strengthen management control and increase predictability.
They install centralized computer systems that dehumanize and antagonize
employees.
Extraordinary bosses see technology as a way to free human beings to be
creative and to build better relationships. They adapt their back-office
systems to the tools, like smartphones and tablets, that people actually want
to use.
8. Work should be fun, not mere toil.
Average bosses buy into the notion that work is, at best, a necessary
evil. They fully expect employees to resent having to work, and therefore tend
to subconsciously define themselves as oppressors and their employees as
victims. Everyone then behaves accordingly.
Extraordinary bosses see work as something that should be inherently enjoyable–and
believe therefore that the most important job of manager is, as far as
possible, to put people in jobs that can and will make them truly happy.
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