Some years ago I worked with the MD of a commercial publishing business. I had spent a day facilitating a business planning session with him and his senior management team. At the very end of the day, and apropos of nothing as far as I could see, he did the following:

1. Pushed back his chair onto two legs and opened his own legs, thereby elevating his crotch area to roughly the eye level of his team sitting opposite (I know this sounds unlikely, but he managed it).

2. Held out his arms and made ‘come on’ gestures with his hands (hold arms straight out, palms upwards, and flex fingers repeatedly towards palms – give it a try and you’ll see what I mean), frowned and then said:

“Feedback, now, from you to me. Tell me what you think of me.”

Stunned silence.

3. After the senior management team (sans delivery of feedback) had left, he said to me:

“D’you know. That always happens. Why don’t people ever want to give feedback to their managers?”

What’s the problem?

a) If you’ve managed to visualise the body language from my description, you’ll have noticed some pretty obvious lack of congruence between that body language and the verbal message. Clearly, there’s little point asking for feedback if your body language is screaming ‘don’t tell me, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.’

b) The ‘what do you think of me’ question is just too tough. With a question like this you are asking for feedback on yourself – your characteristics and personality. The ‘what do you think of me as your manager’ is a little better, but not much. Most people find it difficult to give this type of feedback because it’s just too personal.

So how can I ask for feedback on my management style?

The answer is make it easy (or at least easier) by making the question ‘low risk’. You do this by asking for feedback on your behaviours – what you do, not who you are.

Here’s a really neat way to ask for feedback from your staff:

“I’d really appreciate some feedback on the way I’m managing you. So, is there anything I could do differently that would be helpful to you?”

Not only are you asking here for behavioural feedback, you’re asking for a way forward by asking what they would like to be ‘different’.

And, of course, you’ll be using congruent body language because you’ll be genuinely interested in the response.

I’m sure it’s never been truer than with those highly talented, highly sought after Gen Y’ers. On the basis that research suggests that in ten years time these people (who are currently aged up to 28) will make up the largest proportion of the workforce and that demographic trends suggest that in a few years we will have both a talent shortage and a people shortage, how to recruit and retain these people is proving a major challenge for many organisations.

Clearly this is a complex area. One way of exploring how we may need to adapt our management styles and practices is to probe Peter Drucker’s idea that we have to ‘accept the fact that we need to treat almost everybody as a volunteer’.

So here’s a question:

How would you manage your staff differently if, instead of being paid employees, they were volunteers?

I count myself lucky that as president of my local branch of a national charity I get to ‘manage’ volunteers. Reflecting on how I work with these volunteers compared to how I used to manage my staff I’ve identified some key differences:

1. People have much more flexibility around what they do and when they do it.
2. I thank and praise people much more often.
3. I spend significantly more time with our new ‘recruits’ exploring what motivates them – what their specific interests are, what type of work they feel they are most suited to, etc.
4. I spend more time discussing with people how important their work is, highlighting the value of their contribution in light of what we are aiming to achieve.
5. I use a more collaborative decision making process – all decisions are joint decisions in our group.

Now, I’m willing to accept that this list may say more about my lack of skills as a manager than anything else (and it’s been some time since I’ve managed a significant number of people – think Iron Age) and clearly I’m aware that there are some fundamental differences between both the motivations and responsibilities of paid employees and volunteers.

But it’s not difficult to see how the style of management outlined above could have a positive impact upon an employee’s commitment – irrespective of the generation they belong to.

“The process of getting activities completed efficiently with and through other people”

“The process of planning, leading, organizing and controlling people within a group in order to achieve goals”

“The activity of getting things done with the aid of people and other resources”

By way of contrast, take a look at this definition of management from Myron Rush:

“Management is meeting the needs of people as they work to accomplish their jobs”

Here we have the manager using their authority and power not to control but to serve the people they manage. So the manager is cast as the willing servant. That’s what I call different.

Rush proposes that:

“As the manager gives themselves to serving the needs of those under them they will make a happy discovery. People will voluntarily, eagerly, and continually meet their needs in return”

Too good to be true? Well maybe. But the more I reflect on this definition, the more inspiring I find it. On a practical level I see it as both a powerful and empowering management style, particularly in light of the research around the challenges of managing ‘Generation Y’ employees (more of which in future posts).

Within the context of employee engagement, who wouldn’t feel more engaged when working with a manager who’s main purpose was to help them meet their needs?

Would it be realistic to expect managers to take on the role of servant? A real challenge, of course, but I’m guessing there are many managers who would welcome the opportunity to work more collaboratively with their staff particularly if this style brought some of the ‘happy discovery’ that Rush proposes.

Here she talks about her experience of working with me, the impact it has had on her staff’s performance and, importantly, the impact it has had on her confidence and wellbeing.

Over to Sara….

Taking the right steps with Ladder Consulting

I am the kind of person that finds it easier just to do it myself instead of relying on my staff to do the work. What that means for me is that I am always overworked and tired. What it means for my staff is that they are not challenged and I tend to go through staff without really knowing why.

I met Joan through my business (she’s a member of the gym I own) and one day I happened to mention that I was having staffing issues and she asked me how I managed my staff. I said ‘what do you mean manage my staff? At this point I am just happy that they show up for work.’ And to be honest they are very reliable in that aspect of working for me!

Joan suggested that we meet outside of my place of business and discuss some steps I could take to improve my situation.

I have had different kinds of managers throughout my varied career; micro managers that watch every thing I do; selfish managers that never seem to be there for the staff.

I wanted to be the kind of boss that staff respected and wanted to be a part of my team. So therefore I set out to befriend my staff and let them pretty much do their own thing as long as the job was getting done. But as I said earlier, that meant that I was left to do most of the work.

After my first meeting with Joan I asked her to work with me to help improve the situation. Through the consulting sessions with her I learned that although I was friends with my staff, I did not expect anything from them. I had no set performance standards for my staff so they really did not know what was expected from them. I had staff that gave me exactly what I asked for — nothing!

So with Joan’s help, we designed performance standards that were clear and quantifiable. I started by listing all the duties that I wanted my staff to perform. Joan helped me to categorise and word them in a way that enabled me to communicate to my staff exactly what is expected of them. The performance standards also allow me to evaluate my staff in a professional manner.

Joan coached me through the first meeting where I presented these performance standards to my staff and truly helped me to clearly communicate and engage with them. I had immediate positive feedback from my staff and even enthusiasm for the job they needed to do.

Our workplace is a more positive and fun place to work. Everyone is clear on what is expected of them and the work is now getting done by the people who should be doing the work — my staff.

I am less tired and stressed and I finally feel I am building confidence in myself as a manager.

Would you like to achieve some of the results Sara has achieved? You can trial, for free, a tele-consulting session with Joan.

Contact me and I will send you details of how the sessions work, what you can expect to achieve and how to book a session.

Related posts

• Are you clear on what you want from the people you manage? Are they?
• Managing by numbers is easy — but how do I manage behaviours?