Читать книгу Talent Liberation - Deborah Hartung - Страница 5

Attitudes throughout the past century have been that people are a means to an end. A ‘resource’ to be exploited, just like any other. A resource that needs to be closely monitored and ‘managed’. If you do a simple Google search of the word ‘management’ right now, the first search result that appears, is this definition:

Noun - the process of dealing with or controlling things or people.

And there is the root of our problem right there - management = control.

The concept is so deeply rooted in our collective psyche and we use the term everywhere. We talk about ‘performance management’ or ‘talent management’. We have phrases like ‘manage expectations’ which we all know is a weasel way of telling someone to make sure that others don't get too excited or get their hopes up too high.

We are constantly telling people what they can be and what lofty heights they are allowed to aspire to. We tell them what they are permitted to learn at work and what future career paths they are allowed to pursue and then we are surprised when people are disengaged and demotivated.

We look at past work experience and use it as a measure of the likelihood that someone will be able to do the job at hand. If you haven't got how ever many years of ‘relevant experience’ we deem necessary, you don't even get an interview and we discard your application because we have decided - before even meeting you - that you can't do what we need done.

We look at your qualifications and decide that the four years you spent at university pursuing a degree, is ‘irrelevant’ because we want a sales manager and you studied English or Psychology.

We put you in a box and you have no power over the box we have put you in and you have no way of escaping those walls and limitations. Even if you are already working for us, we will make decisions about your potential based on your current job title. We make decisions about what you are permitted to learn to facilitate your personal and professional growth, based on the role you currently occupy and our limited understanding of what may be possible in future, based on what you have done in the past and what you are currently doing.

Even ‘enlightened' employers and ‘forward-thinking’ companies use phrases like “harness your talent”. This is not a good thing, people! A harness is literally a device used to control. As a verb, it refers to controlling something and using the force or strength thereof, to produce an alternative outcome or to achieve a goal. “We need to harness the talent of our people to reach new heights in our business." Still feel excited by this term? Or do you see how we are once again referring to some type of containment and control - of human talent and ability!

If there is one thing that humanity has shown us all over and over again, is that the possibilities are absolutely boundless and that humans are extremely creative and resourceful.

So, if we really want to reach new heights in our workplaces and in our lives, we need to be doing the opposite of ‘managing’ performance or ‘harnessing’ talent. Yes, you guessed it - we need to liberate talent and unleash human potential. We need to create environments where we encourage creativity and questioning the status quo. We need to be honest about the lessons we have learned from the mistakes we have made on the way to achieving whatever goals we set out to achieve. None of this is possible when we are focused on ‘management’ and we are prioritising process and compliance over creativity and innovation.

Granted, the tide has definitely been changing and there has been a global shift towards enabling more freedom and flexibility, but these are currently the exception and not the rule. There are far too many ‘managers’ in our workplaces and nowhere near enough ‘leaders’.

I remember covering the topic of ‘management’ at university and being taught that there were four distinct elements to management: planning, organising, leading and control. Leading was seen as a sub-element of management, like some after-thought and something that is only partially important. Sure, it was 1995 and fortunately, the thinking about the difference between ‘management’ and ‘leadership’ has changed.

But work hasn't changed though. We give people jobs with the word ‘manage’ included as part of their job title. Then we send them on a ‘leadership’ development programme. But we measure their success and their performance not on the principles of leadership, but on the principles of management. We tell them they must exhibit emotional intelligence and they must empower and enable their teams and improve communication and encourage collaboration. But we reward them for - you guessed it - planning, organising and control or compliance.

How much money did they save the business? How many projects did they make sure their teams delivered on time and within budget? How many products did they sell or how much did they increase our market share by? Did they get a clean audit?

If we look at what is recognised and rewarded at work, it is patently obvious that the only things we truly care about, are compliance with policies and procedures and of course, profitability. We say that we care about our people and we say that ‘leadership’ is important, but the evidence paints a very different picture. How many people have you met who refer to themselves as ‘leaders’ instead of ‘managers’? How many companies have you heard of that have included things like staff turnover and employee engagement figures or absenteeism as metrics that impact on the performance score and the bonuses and earnings potential of a manager?

Chances are that you possibly haven't thought of many of these things before reading this. That is absolutely OK and it's really not your fault. It's none of our faults because we have been conditioned our entire lives to not question the status quo and to aspire to this narrow definition of success and achievement. We have been rewarded for our productivity and there have been no real consequences for the managers who create toxic environments and silence any voice that dares ask a question. We may not have created the mess that we are in, but we most definitely have the power and the talent to dismantle it and create something new.