Читать книгу The notes of first line manager - Dmitry Artyukhin - Страница 5

So, finally we have the team that expects you to help them to succeed into organization. At the same time they have no idea what you are going to do next. To address these concerns you need to learn more about each person and overall of the team. Before we start talking about the process I recall one of the best examples that I have seen into my practice that clearly illustrates the gap between what we are as managers see vs. what others see.

Exercise:

Let’s imagine a situation when you play the role of top manager of the organization. You have a team and you have to deliver tough message to them by saying that because of developing new market you need to move the whole team from one region to another. The process itself is very challenging as you need to deliver it and make sure you have commitment from your team to support this change. This is the first time when you share this news with your team. Try to capture 4–5 key messages that you are going to deliver to your team, i.e. what you are going to address while talking to the team.

Another person plays the role of individual contributor who is impacted by this change. You are more or less aware what is going to be delivered. Try to summarize 4–5 key topics you would like your manager to talk to you during this meeting.

Now we uncover these two lists and compare them. I have seen several examples of this exercise and this is what usually managers start to write down:

1. Business environment overview;

2. Organizational changes and strategy overview for next 2–3 years;

3. New market opportunities and how critical it is to explore them to be successful;

4. New region overview and market demand and how it fits into the company and team’s strategy;

5. How team is being impacted.

This is pretty logical, isn’t it? Now let’s see what people in the team put together (not always for sure but more likely you will see the following list):

1. Who is going to be impacted and how;

2. If there is any relocation package to support these changes;

3. If my family had opportunity to move with me and how;

4. What’s the life standards in new region and how they looks like vs. current region;

5. How these changes correlate with long term strategy of the company.

Now take a look at these lists, the problem is that if you compare them you find that managers start with messages that are less relevant to many people into the team. Even more, priorities in the first list completely contradict with team members” expectations. There is no surprise here. Put yourself into the shoes of your team members. What would you ask your manager if they ask you to move to another region? People take care about their life standards, their security etc. This is the fundamental part of their life (just recall classic Maslow hierarchy of needs). At the same time as soon as you become a manager you start shifting your vision by completely ignoring that your team can see your steps in completely different way. It doesn’t mean actually that you should change the way of what you are saying. The key point is:

This is not what you want to deliver but rather HOW you deliver it!

“HOW” doesn’t mean that you simply rephrase the message but how well you understand team’s expectations and utilize them in the right way to get the maximum outcome for the organization. I strongly believe that when you are able to find the right balance between what people want from one side and what they have to do to make them successful into organization the better outcome you get for the organization and you team. This is not an easy task as you need to be aware of many details and actually keep very close link with team members, i.e. to understand crisp and clear their concerns, their expectations, their desires and what drives your team members.