What does our team/organization think about us as Managers?
I would be really interested in any ideas on different ways to learn what your own team thinks about you and how you can improve, change, transform, adapt? As Managers we usually tend to focus on feedback and coaching of others in our team - what about team's coaching of us?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Steve Groner on -
Lets face the facts, moost people live in fear for their jobs. If the IT Manager is worth his weight in salt his employees are empowered and have no fear of losing their job as long as they are doing their job and giving me 100%. I think they used to teach this bad management style because alot of the old school folks still live by it, lead through fear and intimidation. I have hated that my entire life and vowed that once I got to this level I would not do it and I havent.
I am very honest with my folks fairing them every opportunity to speak their mind openly and honestly. They hold the understanding the entire time that I do hold their future somewhat in my hands, however it is our job to make them trust us and be comfortable enough with us to speak the truth. So to answer the question if you are unsure about how your people feel about you, ensure you have created and environment where they trust and respect you and you should never wonder how your people really feel about you.
Just my two cents!
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Permalink Reply by Norm Frenette on
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I am in a unique position: I work with team members and managers as a consultant/coach. I thus hear both sides - how the team members perceive their managers, and how their managers perceived that they are perceived.
There appears to be a generational divide of which neither team members nor managers are aware. We are a product of how we grew up and that has changed.
For example I asked many times this question: If you came back from high school with poor marks, how did your father react?
The 40+ year old usually said: I was told to shape up! (multiple variants some with force applied...)
The 30-40 crowd: My father would sit with me looking at how he might help me get better - kind of like guidance, but it would be up to me to find the way.
The 20-30 crowd: I would be asked if I work hard. If I did, then it's OK. I would make it my business to get better - my dad would have confidence in me that I would take care of it.
(Note: there are exceptions - these are typical responses out of a group of 100)
There is a pattern here. People 40+ grew up in an environment where you did what your boss said. You learned a lot that way - if you had a good boss. You provided input but the decision came from the boss. You could argue but when the decision was made - whether you liked it or not - you were expected to rally behind it. A good boss was a person who made a decision and stood behind it. So people 40+ will likely act in a similar manner to those good bosses. And there's the rub.
If your team is 30-40 generation, they are willing to recognize your decision but prefer that you act as a guide - they want to feel responsible by coming up with the plan. They prefer the boss steps back and asks the hard questions. So a boss who asks for input makes a decision and rolls it out won't do well with that group.
The 20-30 generation goes further. They want to understand why the decision is made. They want to participate. They want to be listened to. They expect decision-making to be collegiate. All ideas should be listened to. At the same time they are very social: there are rules of behaviors they are willing to subscribe to. So this is great for building teams. But they cannot understand why communication silos should even exists. They grew up with facebook, IM etc. Many of them think a phone's primary use is for texting - voice is a back-up system. Many don't understand why somebody would want to work 70+ hours a week for a paycheck: work is part of life and life must be balanced. Here's a funny story: In one company I consulted for, a new computer science graduate who had been with the company six months sent an email to his VP after the VP gave his yearly all-hands speech. In his email the employee reviewed the points made and gave his opinion on them. Now if you are reading this and are over 40 years old can you remember anybody doing this when you were 20?
My point is this: We learned how to manage by being managed. We emulate the good bosses we had, and promise ourselves we won't do what our bad bosses did. But that his not enough. Because those techniques worked for our generation - not for the ones that came after us. I have worked with managers who don't want to agree with this: "I paid my dues" say they, "so these guys should to". They "know" that their way is the right way. And the feedback is that they are not good managers (even though they would be if their team was all of their generation). And yet, I have worked with other managers who get this. So they spend time working with their team to discuss how they want to be managed. They adapt.
We may be appointed managers by the corporation but we cannot be appointed leaders. It is our team that confers us the status of leaders, not the reverse. The organization cannot impose that we be seen a leaders. And to lead we must understand how people want to be led. This is not what they were teaching us 30 years ago. But it is how the world runs now.
Instant access to communication and knowledge changes everything.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Jenkins on -
Hey Norm, that was an excellent post. Really fantastic. Thanks for taking the time to write that!
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Permalink Reply by Debra Reed on
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As a Senior Recruiter what I hear most often from my consultants is the lack of feedback on how they are performing on a particular project. Good, bad or otherwise people like to know. .
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Permalink Reply by Lorenzo Farris on -
Getting an honest statement from another person about you is a challenging thing. It requires an extraordinary level of trust in and commitment to you. Or, they need to have reached a certain level of indifference to your reaction. If it's someone that reports to you, you've got tough row to hoe to build trust again.
To get a more indirect view, with the consent of your team, start recording video of team meetings. If possible, you'll want to see yourself, as well as the reactions of your team to you. If you aren't so skilled at reading people (an extremely valuable skill in a manager), get some expert help to analyze your performance and your teams reactions. You might find a lot in that approach both to see what they think of you, and to take down some of the barriers you put up to them.
You will have to remember that true communication is only possible between equals. As long as they feel that you have power over them, their communication will always be skewed to tell you whatever makes you regard them positively.
I think it may not be possible to get truly honest feedback. That being said, you can build trust. Let your team in on what you are doing, what are the decisions you have to make, and why did you make them in that way. Solicit their opinions and advice and hear them out without criticism and with encouragement. If they find they can trust you not to shoot them down or ding them on their reviews when they are forthcoming with suggestions, they will probably open up more. Be prepared to let them down gently when you tell them why you couldn't use their suggestions later on, but they need to have the sense that you did consider them seriously.
Give them visibility into what you are doing. Especially if it is shielding the team to be able to concentrate on their work, or scaring up resources to help. You'll get a better line of communication if it's "our" team rather than "your" team.
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