The 21st Century Manager - Part 1...

A feature of People Development News for the next 4 months will be an article discussing the aspects and challenges of leadership and management in the 21st century. This initial article sets the scene and raises some of the key issues which will be addressed in more detail in subsequent articles.

Complexity and Change...These are the two themes to this initial article.

Some people see complexity as a problem, view it with concern, while others see it as a challenge. Some people find continual change stressful, while others appear to be excited by and thrive on the unknown.

Let's start by looking at complexity. Can we cast our minds back to the "old economy?" Of course there was not a moment in time when the switch took place, but probably we can define everything pre 1990's as old economy, everything past that as "new economy."

Leadership and management have never been easy, but in the old economy the role was set within clear parameters. It was by and large definitive. Managers had a responsibility for a functional team of employees, who had prescribed job roles and accountabilities. We were still in the age where staying with one company and progressing through the business was seen as the route to success and security. Whilst good managers realised that involvement and participation led to more engaged employees, who were more effective, they nonetheless had the power of mandate as the manager-staff relationship was less blurred than today. Of course, staff motivation has always been a key issue and responsibility of managers. One of the key motivational drivers was the defined career progression, the map clearly displayed by the organisation chart. The roadmap of the company structure, and the clarity of what was needed to progress through it satisfied, for many, the two important motivators of many employees - security and progression.

Let's now fast forward to the 21st century. The manger's role is the same in the sense that the responsibility is to deliver the results through people. However, the context has changed dramatically. For those still managing teams in a traditional structure there has been dramatic social change. Positional power has far less relevance in a business world;

• where organisations have been "de- layered",
• in which managers have expert knowledge workers "reporting" to them,
• where the emphasis is on team,
• and where information is freely available to all

However, many managers we work with on development workshops are living in quite a different world. Many may have no employees as direct reports. They may have a number of functional relationships across a business. They may be working with people from another company who are strategic partners to their own. They may be managing a project team, with members from several businesses. They may be managing outsource partners. They may be managing cross border virtual teams. The message is clear - today's manager has to be effective in a diverse set of complex relationships.

The emphasis has moved to the ability to be able to communicate, influence and build relationships with a number of different partners, all with their own interests and motivations. Networking skills are often seen as more valuable and relevant than strategic planning abilities.

To move on to the second key theme...Change!

So much has been written about the pace of change that is has become a "non subject". However, the pace and the effects are real. At a macro level markets used to change and evolve gradually, individual corporations progressed through the growth, mature and decline curve over many years - now the changes can happen in months! Overlay this with an economic backdrop where we are living in the global economy, which is in itself is influenced by unstable social and political conditions and we can see the volatile world we live in. Witness the impact on businesses globally post September 11th.

The impacts on managers at an operational level in a business are immense. They have to manage frequent and rapid change at both people and process levels. The definitions of short, mid, and long term planning take on an all new meaning. Whilst corporations have missions and visions this often does not result in definitive strategic plans. If they exist they can get re written in the first quarter of the business year. Today's manager has to manage these dynamics, act as filters for the teams working for them, and be intuitive as to how to respond in often [what can be seen as] chaotic situations. "Thriving on Chaos" was written back in the late 1980's, but in retrospect the chaos level was less than it is now.

The complexity and rate of change has massive implications for us in the world of training and development. The world that I have described above is typical for many people who we are working with on training and development programmes. Structured "training" courses that provide neat defined structures and models for people to work with are not enough. Our role is to facilitate the development of leadership and management effectiveness via a range of practically based learning tools that are set in the correct context and recognise the real world issues for the people we are working with.

A black picture? No, a different picture, a different business world than the one that existed before. To survive and win, managers in today's world need to be able to develop skills and apply them to a range of different situations that are constantly changing. To quote from Michael Dell:

"There are two types of people - the quick and the dead"

In next month's People Development News we will look at: What is the leader's role in motivation in the context of the new business environment?

Leadership, management and team development are core business areas for hr TEAM. We have developed and delivered programmes in these areas in a diverse range of market sectors including I.T., telecomms, business consultancy, professional service firms, electronics, manufacturing and construction.