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Nobody Wants to Lead the Corporate Dance…

July 26, 2009 by sparktalk 

By J.T. O’Donnell

Back in November, I wrote a post about the show The Office and how the anti-management attitude displayed on the show was affecting employees. Today, I got the following from Randstad, one of the two staffing firms that does annual workplace surveys which I quoted in the post.  Their newest survey indicates the trend is growing:

“…Randstad released its annual World of Work report around the topic of managers and how businesses are finding themselves with a declining pool of trained managers.  Not only do 51% of workers say they do not have qualified managers, 49% of workers want nothing to do with climbing the corporate ladder to management – especially those qualified to lead.  Stress is the main deterrent for 82% of Gen X, Boomers and Mature workers while Gen Ys most fear managing disgruntled employees.

“To retain managers and head off a potential shortage, organizations need to rethink how they define and communicate managerial roles,” says Eileen Habelow, Randstad Senior Vice President – Organizational Development. “Especially in periods of economic recessions, companies rely on managers to problem solve, drive productivity and innovation, motivate and provide opportunities for workers to learn new skills and achieve new successes.  It’s not just doom and gloom that managers are focusing on today. Companies need to be sure they are consistently reiterating managers’ valuable contributions, not only to the company, but to the broader workforce.”

I agree with Eileen that companies need to make the role of manager more appealing, but honestly folks….

Who’s going to lead the corporate dance if everyone is too afraid (or, dare I say lazy) to step up and take charge? My guess is the ’stress’ and ‘disgruntled employee’ issues that are making talent avoid taking on managerial responsibilities will get even worse. Take the concept to the extreme and it’s like a vicious downward spiral in to a black hole of disengaged, unproductive workers and stalled businesses. They’ll definitely be no dancing then! We are always giving management a hard time about being greedy, self-absorbed, out-of-touch and short-sighted, but maybe workers should take a look in the mirror and stop throwing stones at glass houses? FACT: If you don’t want the job, then be ready for the consequences of having someone ill-equipped and power-hungry (there’s an ugly combination) as your boss, a.k.a. dance partner. If everyone decides to leave managing to someone else, the pickings will be slim.

ATTN: The Corporate Dance Needs Lead Partners

Think of the manager/employee relationship like ballroom dancing. For it to work, one of the two has to lead. Otherwise, they’ll be going in different directions. (FYI – Watch the movie ‘Take the Lead’ with Antonio Banderas for a fabulous explanation on the power of lead/follow element of ballroom dancing.) In short, we need talent to face their fears (seek leadership opps), feel the music (get a pulse on the business) and practice the moves (study up on good management technique) so they can feel confident in their ability to lead the corporate dance without stress or fear.

So…who’s with me?

Raise your hand if you are willing to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Take a communications class and learn to get along better with co-workers and management, volunteer to run a project, or read a leadership book or two.

And yes, I know past management errors (they’ve stepped on a lot of toes) makes it hard to want to step up to the corporate dance floor, BUT maybe that’s just what’s needed to get the dance looking good again – a chance to see it from the management side. Understanding brings compassion, and compassion strengthens partnerships. Appreciation for the role of management could help you feel better about your job and help you move forward, maybe even more gracefully, in your career.

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Comments

  • ManagerNorthernIllinois
    I'm a bit older now..I've gone back and forth between being a manager and being a general worker several times since the 80's, working for medium to large corporations. It's changed, much worse now than in the past. The biggest issue that I see is that today's managers have lots of accountability, but little or no influence and zero power; that's what makes it stressful. Decision-making is done above you or via management teams/groups, and it seems that the more ignorant you are of day-to-day reality, and therefore the more likely you are to be a simple-minded "yes" person to people above you, the more likely you are to be promoted. This say-yes-to-the-group-mind mentality is what gave us the recent Wall Street investment banker meltdown, for example. If you are smart, relatively honest and professional you may very well fail as a manager these days; there are very good reasons for the popularity of The Office and Dilbert with his pointy-haired boss.

    Why? I believe it's the ease with which companies fire people these days. In some companies management is almost a revolving door, while in the old days companies tended to "nurture" and "mentor" managers into the larger corporate culture across at least a couple of years. If you get a couple of management jobs now you may soon wind up job hunting in a world with too many jobless managers competing for too few jobs.
  • J.T. O'Donnell
    Thank you for pointing out a very important fact. I couldn't agree more! What happened to letting people learn/grow on the job? Why are managers expected to be perfect the moment they assume the role? That is a huge reason why some very talented people are shying away from management jobs, but I am hoping they will find the desire to make a difference enough of a motivator to give it a try.

    I hate to say it, but in many ways, it's like running for public office. So many talented people don't bother because they don't want to be dragged through the mud.
  • ManagerNorthernIllinois
    Thanks for your response. Actually, new managers must not only be perfect,
    they must also sometimes actually be almost psychic. You can easily get in
    trouble for doing action A instead of B for one employer, then get in just
    as much trouble for doing B instead of A at the next. The higher managers
    who've worked in one place for several years sort of assume that their way
    is the right way, so if you're good you know the right way and will do it
    without being informed.

    Actually there's a great deal of variance in practice across companies. For
    example, IT managers and project managers are supposed to have strong
    experience with "SDLC", meaning "System Development Life Cycle". I started
    a new contract project where the user requirements turned out to be very
    difficult, and the users actually didn't know what the new system should
    do. I told management that we needed more time to get the requirements
    right, because bad requirements are known to be the leading cause of project
    failure.

    Little did I know that for that company user requirements had traditionally
    been written only at the highest level, and detail requirements were
    gathered by developers during development. Users never reviewed the detail
    requirements or signed off on them.

    Actually, what they were doing was sort of a dishonest form of Agile
    development. I'm very familiar with Agile and I've used it, but everything
    they'd told me indicated that they expected a classical SDLC methdology. I
    got off to a bad start and was let go because I was asking too much time for
    requirements. Why didn't the business analyst (also a contractor) and I
    just get that requirements document out and move on to development? Too
    slow, they thought.

    ManagerNorthernIllinois
  • @Man-No.ILL - I have to agree that it has become an 'at-will' in retaining employees. It is my belief that upper management is looking for quick solutions and not for long-term rewards. It is also my beliefe that a lot of companies have a full-blown "Bozo Explostion" that tey don't want to admit.
  • I have to agree but I think the numbers are a little bit too low.
  • I served in the Army as an officer, so in addition to the disconnect between responsibility and authority that ManagerNorthernIllinois cites, I've also seen many people promoted to management because of seniority and technical skills rather than because of leadership ability/experience. When a junior manager comes along who has leadership skill, senior managers often feel threatened.

    I'm not saying that professional skills don't deserve rewards, but promotion to management isn't always one of them.
  • MidwestThinker
    I was let go from a small IT company in January of this year. I reported directly to the VP who hired me but we never saw eye to eye on many things like one of things I was tasked with early in my employment ...innovative new solutions for our clients. He just didn't like my new-school ideas and couldn't leave his old-school ways. Not to say either was right or wrong but my innovation was seen as "inexperienced" by him with no feedback on what he wanted. Eventually he quit asking me to do things and I was subsequently let go after only 19 months.

    This small company tried to generate a strong "rah-rah" we're a team atmosphere and put all new hires through a personality profile testing to "ensure a good fit" -- all the while firing someone every one to two months. I bought into the "rah-rah" up until the day I was let go. In hindsight -- and speaking to the point made by ManagerNorthernIllinois -- how is it possible to build that type of "rah rah" team mentality when it is so easy to fire someone? In those 19 months, I ended up #15 on the seniority list (of about 30 employees) before I was let go. Obviously, I'm biased on my abilities : ) -- but there was ample chance for my VP to say "it's not working this way ...let's try 'x'".

    In short -- isn't innovation always at risk of :
    a) not being understood and
    b) being perceived as a "threat" to management ?

    In my case I believe my ideas were not understood or received correctly -- and I should look to myself to improve my communication skills -- but when you have managers and executives that ignore innovative and creative employees ... the corporation becomes stale.
  • I think your story is typical of today's environment. Management has, in my opinion, become egocentric. When employees become a perceived threat to management then it is time to go. From what you are saying, the company had a revolving door policy - that should have been you first clue something isn't right.
  • I agree with your first commenter, companies today do not give enough power to their managers and even their front line workers. In study after study this has shown to be a terrible approach and one of the leading factors in productivity loss. Another factor that plays into many people shying away from management is how little training they receive when they are appointed. In far too many companies one day you are a regular worker and the next you are 'managing'.

    Companies have for years in the name of efficiency and cost cutting done away with management training programs, expecting people to learn on the job or poach the talent away from companies that still do have such training programs. Unfortunately, since a large majority of companies no longer have such training programs, employees are forced to learn on the fly.

    I would also recommend reading an article a few months ago on Larry Page. The article is called "Larry Page on How to Change the World" in CNN Money, and in it he discusses how Americans seem to not want to take risks anymore. I think this might be a contributing factor to the management problem because it is a big risk for someone to take on the extra responsibility of being a manager.
  • I was a manager for over 5 years and leading wasn't a problem, disgruntled employees...par for the course, decision making...piece of cake. The real issues with being in management are the ridiculous corporate policies that make no sense on the front lines but that managers are expected to sell to their staff in order to keep their position as manager or ever hope to be considered for future promotions. Managers are not empowered and are forced to play politics, neither of which allows for any actual leadership or innovation, which is what every company truly needs from management.
  • Corporate management has become more concerned with maintaining the status quo and defending positions that so many see it as an unattractive proposition.

    Leadership has become confused with management and management with administration.

    There is room at the top - there is so often either nothing there or it has become disconnected
  • 51% of workers complain about lack of qualified managers....well now I know why I can't find work for 6 months! All are taken by those guys :). Ok that aside, I do agree with majority of comments here supporting the general statement of incompetence among top managers, excluding soem real jewels out there which thank god still are in majority I hope (don't we have a clear proof of it in stale and stagnant , even reversed, economy???!!), Will add that paranoia among top management is likely at highest levels and ass soon as you bring innovation into company regardless of how much money you save and increase production you are threat and if you are not politician you are out! Believe me it happened to me few times, and hardest thing to fight against is old corporate ways, top management incompetence, narrow minded primitiveness, business blinders combined with ridiculous HR policies!
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