Looking at the history of management and the evolution of the manager’s role, it is clear that the management posture is constantly evolving. In the past, the manager’s credibility came from his expertise, later from his leadership and his approach in general. Today, the management posture sought must promote commitment and autonomy.
What is not changing well are the expectations that we may have of the manager. Very often, they are high and in addition to managing performance, they have to ensure well-being and with hybrid management methods there is a tendency to ask them to create events for team building… Demand isn’t likely to decrease, but you have control over how you manage requests!
Beyond the management role, which continues to change, the management posture must evolve.
For me, the management posture is how I execute my role. The way I stand in my role. Do I take it all on myself? Do I unload on others? Am I trying to motivate and mobilize by involving others? To put it simply, it could be related to the management style.
This article presents two management postures, inspired by the model of the stages of development of Vincent Lenhardt’s team. (Honestly, I’ve been using them for so long that I’ve renamed them, and changed them a bit, but I’ve kept their graphic representation!).
We will see their optimal use and in what context to use one or the other.
Do you prefer video to text? Watch the video recap of the article below.
Management posture #1: The centralized wheel
The leader is at the center of everything. The team is organized. People work in teams or not. Some team members may be thinking more about their task than the team’s common goal, but not necessarily everyone.
This management posture can be draining for the manager who likes to have control and/or take great care of the people in his team.
The main advantage is that the information is centralized by one person.
The main disadvantage is that since the manager is “central”, this can have a concrete impact on his time management (a lot of follow-ups to do), on productivity (we can wait for the manager to have approvals or validations) and on stress! Stress on others because they may have to wait, or don’t have the big picture, and stress on the manager because he has all the pressure!
In the centralized wheel, it is the manager who rotates the team!
When an urgent situation arises, in this type of operation, the manager takes the situation under his responsibility, looks for solutions, finds the people who will help. In short, it depends on him!
This team culture, which relies heavily on the manager, can make it difficult to manage conflicts between colleagues directly, or can make people uncomfortable when they want to take time to build relationships, because it is poorly perceived in the work environment.
Management posture #2: The high-performance team
The major difference in this posture is that the leader is not in the center! He’s with the team. What makes the team “rotate” is the meaning.
Meaning as: the why, the vision, the direction.
The leader here acts more as a facilitator of discussion and makes sure that everyone understands what they are doing (their role) and why they are doing it (the impacts they can have on the system for example)
Using the example above of an urgent situation that occurs, the manager who adopts the posture of managing the high-performance team will say to the team: “This is what happens. What do we do? How are we going to solve this? etc. Compared to taking the burden on one’s shoulders
In fact, here the objective of the leader is to find a balance, and to generate the commitment and motivation of the teams. And he is aware of the challenges he shares with his team. This type of leader does not offload, he delegates, mobilizes and creates autonomy.
Wrongly, managers often think they are protecting their team by putting pressure on them. The truth is, it can be motivating and even engaging to feel like we’re a team and we can make it happen.
The main advantage of the performance team model is that the wheel can turn faster and more smoothly thanks to the whole team.
The main disadvantage is that it is more difficult to set up because it depends on the stage of development of the leader. A leader of this type delegates, communicates, empowers and brings people together… as a priority!
It is focused as much on the task as on the well-being of the teams.
In short
Posture #1 (the centralized wheel) is more related to a classic management model, or to the behaviors that we can have under stress because we need to regain control or protect people or assets.
Posture #2 (the high-performance team) is the result of a more open, more agile approach, more of our time. Generally more expected also by the “younger generations”.
How to choose the best management posture?
For me, ideally, it’s about working towards the position of the high-performance team (#2). I also understand that this is not always possible.
Criterion #1: The composition of your team (experience and seniority)
If your team is more or less experienced, you will have to supervise differently, that’s for sure. By the way, I don’t advise you to have only inexperienced people in your team, it lacks balance, but I know that the market is not easy.
In this situation, to start creating more autonomy, choose less risky files, people with potential and take advantage of being more comfortable with mistakes 😉 So, posture #1, and go towards #2.
(For more details on coaching time, read this article.)
If your team is experienced and has experience in your organization, the hardest part for you will be changing habits. Otherwise, they should know enough about the organization. The challenge is change management. Posture #2 is more appropriate with appropriate support.
If your team is experienced and doesn’t have much experience in your organization, the challenge is in communication and trust. Avoid micro-managing senior people and give them clear direction and resource people. Posture #2 is more appropriate depending on the risk of the cases and the profile of the people.
Criterion #2: Your development as a leader
Posture #2 requires more emotional maturity, more self-confidence, more courage and provides the most satisfaction!
Managers who undertake this transformation will save time by being accompanied, whether internally or externally, in training or coaching.
A good start can be an online self-study, here is one on courage and delegation.
In conclusion
For several years now, managers have been told that they need to develop a different kind of leadership. It’s not that easy, because it often requires personal motivation!
All the changes that have been going on lately and that will continue to happen are either going to have a positive impact on you or your team, or with a negative impact. The negative impacts are more stress, less balance. Of course, transforming yourself requires a certain amount of effort, but having a more positive impact on yourself and in turn on others in terms of balance, commitment and well-being. In addition, it will have an impact on productivity and performance!