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Principle 2

Understand and Respect the Role of Others

Organizations have extensive networks of people working together, and unless there is a clear understanding of the accountabilities and authorities of other roles and strong understanding of the legitimate nature of these working relationships, work will be inefficient and conflict can occur. Successful managers understand and respect the role of others.

MANAGERS DO NOT work alone, they have working relationships with their own direct team and their own manager. They also work across teams, with other managers and with people in specialist roles. They work in the context of a working organization. To be successful, managers must not only understand their own role and that of their direct reporting team, they need to understand the role of others in the organization. Managers deal with five main types of roles. These are:

Their direct reporting team members

Their own manager

Other peer managers

Their manager-once-removed–their manager’s manager

Specialist/cross-functional roles

These different roles, each with specific and complementary accountabilities and authorities, are essential to the effective working of an organization.

Working with Your Direct Reporting Team Members

All employees are obliged to deliver the outputs required from their role and use the resources and process as specified by the organization. Expectations, however, must go beyond this, as work is a social environment, with individuals using their capability in a goal-directed manner. As with any social situation, there must be standards or expectations of behavior for how people interact. These are the broader accountabilities of all employees on how they are expected to work with their manager, their team and others in the organization.

Although team members are not accountable for each other’s work, all employees have an accountability to do their best and to work together. To enable productive work, all employees have five accountabilities to their manager.

These are to:

1. Fulfill commitments made

A. Deliver in-full, on-time all their output commitments and expect the same of others. This includes commitments made across the organization to other individuals or departments.

B. Uphold the organizations values

C. Under no circumstances should they surprise their manager on the delivery of output commitments.

2. Bring their full capability to work

A. Apply their knowledge, skills and experience fully and effectively.

B. Exercise their own discretion to deliver their outcomes fully and appropriately.

C. Try different ways to achieve objectives even in difficult circumstances.

D. Work cooperatively with others to solve problems and share information within the context of the role.

E. Work within set policies, systems and procedures– refer to a higher level where appropriate.

F. Accept and adapt to change

3. Continue to develop their performance effectiveness

A. Work to improve their personal effectiveness in their role by actively participating in people management processes such as goal setting and development.

4. Provide their manager with feedback

A. Actively engage with their manager when tasks are assigned.

B. Look at ways to improve by providing feedback to their manager on tasks, systems and processes used.

C. Refer problems that cannot be resolved to their manager for assistance.

D. Immediately notify their manager if they are unable to achieve assigned task output (quantity, quality, time or cost).

5. To work together productively

A. Work together to solve problems within the context set by their manager.

B. Persuade each other to act in a way that facilitates their own work, to accommodate each other’s needs as far as possible without changing or compromising their accountabilities or agreed/allocated objectives.

C. Do what is right for the function and the organization, even when this may cause a potential difficulty for their own area.

D. When they disagree, act as their manager would want them to, before escalating to their manager.

E. If they cannot reach agreement, they must escalate to their immediate manager who will either clarify the context and/or make a specific trade-off decision.

The role of the manager is to ensure team members understand these accountabilities and practices, require their application on a day-to-day basis, and hold team members to account for their delivery.

Working with Your Own Manager

When working with your own manager, you must continue to deliver the accountabilities that all employees have to their manager.

Managers do not lose their employee accountabilities when they move into a managerial role, they gain the additional accountabilities of a manager. Therefore, all managers have at least two sets of role accountabilities:

One set as the manager of a team, as outlined in “Principle 1: Understand Your Role.”

Another set as an individual employee reporting to their own manager as outlined in working with your own direct reporting team members above.

Working with Peers

When working with peers, your employee accountabilities continue to apply, particularly the accountability to “work together productively.” That is to:

Work together to solve problems within the context set by their manager

Persuade each other to act in a way that facilitates their own work, to accommodate each other’s needs as far as possible without changing or compromising their accountabilities or agreed/allocated objectives

Do what is right for the function and the organization even when this may cause a potential difficulty for their own area.

When they disagree, act as their manager would want them to, before escalating to their manager.

If they cannot reach agreement, they must escalate to their immediate manager who will either clarify the context and/or make a specific trade-off decision.

In this way, the organization works together to achieve business outcomes, and productive working relationships are maintained.

Working with Your Manager-Once-Removed

Nearly every employee in an organization has a manager-once-removed (MoR). The MoR is each individual employee’s manager’s manager.

While most organizations do not specifically identify the accountabilities of MoRs, they build them into their systems of work for people management, such as approving employee appeals or for dismissal. This lack of formal identification of MoR accountabilities is a gap that can cause relationship issues between managers, their direct reporting team members and their own manager. Therefore, each manager needs to seek this clarification of the MoR accountabilities in their organization so the chain of employee-manager-MoR can work together productively to achieve the required outcomes.

In The Leadership Framework the role of the MoR is to build trust in the system of management. They build trust by ensuring their direct reporting managers provide effective leadership to their teams, with the consistent application of policies and practices within the unit. They bring a wider perspective to the people management issues faced by the immediate manager.

The MoR also prepares for the future by identifying and assessing capability, mentoring their SoR through development plans and ensuring appropriate succession. Ideally the accountabilities of the MoR are to:

1. Ensure consistency and quality of leadership for their staff-once-removed. That is, they ensure their direct reporting managers perform their roles effectively. They do this by:

A. Linking vertical and horizontal role relationships in their team of teams to ensure collaboration and alignment

B. Coaching their direct report managers on their leadership effectiveness

C. Shaping the workplace culture and setting expectations of behavior for all managers in the business unit

D. Reviewing managerial decisions of their direct reports as part of performance assessment

2. Ensure fair treatment. They do this by:

A. Providing objectivity for decisions affecting their staffonce-removed (SoR)

B. Ensuring consistent application of policies across the business unit

C. Deciding appeal outcomes

3. Build capability. That is, they ensure the future capability of the organization. They do this by:

A. Bringing a wider perspective of the organization to identify future opportunities and role requirements

B. Designing structure at the SoR level

C. Assessing the potential of SoRs for current and future roles

D. Deciding on promotion/demotion/dismissal of SoRs

4. Integrate the work of their team of teams. That is, they ensure their team of teams can work together productively. They do this by:

A. Setting the context for work of the business unit

B. Aligning the work of the team of teams

C. Establishing systems of work that integrate the end-to-end processes of the business unit

D. Ensuring their managers collaborate constructively to achieve the overall plan of the business unit

MoRs do not coach SoRs for their current role, this is the role of the manager. They are accountable for the SoRs career development.

MoRs do not assign tasks to SoRs, this is the role of the manager.

MoRs do not undermine the role, accountability, authority or the relationship of the SoR with their manager. They try to enhance and encourage a strong, two-way, trusting, working relationship between the manager and his/her team members.

These three roles of individual employee, manager and manager-once-removed work together to achieve the organizational goals and deliver productive working relationships based on clarity and systemic trust and fairness. It is this strong core that drives productive work and it runs though the organization as a chain.

Working with Specialist/Cross-Functional Roles

One of the biggest relationship issues managers have in an organization is working with specialists and cross-functional roles, such as technical specialists and planners or corporate functions such as finance and human resources (HR) departments. This usually occurs where the parties do not have a clear understanding of the nature of their separate, but complementary roles, accountabilities and authorities.

Line manager roles and specialist/cross functional roles are different. A line manager has the authority to assign tasks directly to direct reporting team members. They are the only roles that can assign tasks to their team members. The manager is also the only person who can hold team members to account for their individual performance effectiveness. These roles are defined by the working relationship associated with them, that is, they are called Task Assigning Role Relationships (TARRs). They are the vertical roles in an organizational structure.

Specialist/cross-functional roles can be thought of as horizontal working relationships. They are roles that support the line, as individuals or as corporate functions, by providing expertise or specialist services. Specialist and cross-functional roles cannot assign tasks to a manager or the manager’s team members. They are however, authorized to do specific work with employees, including managers. These roles have complementary accountabilities to line managers and they are called Task Initiating Role Relationships (TIRRs). These roles:

May work across roles or departments or the organization

May work within a system of work or across multiple systems of work

May or may not a have leadership requirements for their own team

Common examples are roles in human resources, risk management, information technology (IT) and finance. These roles have authorities to initiate tasks or provide services on request, but cannot directly assign work to others through a direct reporting relationship.

Specialist roles are established to assist managers with elements of their technical or programming work as in the diagram above, or they may work with the manager and the rest of the team to improve outcomes. In both cases, the line manager retains his/her direct people management accountabilities and the accountability for the output and behavior of the team.

When assigning authorities, they are to be set at the minimum level required to perform the role. Managers with such direct reports must:

Ensure that the team structure is effectively designed for its business purpose and for its cross-organizational relationships, with the authority of their own immediate manager

Ensure specialist role accountabilities and authorities are clear and that they are understood by their counterparts in the organization, including the requirement to collaborate and how to proceed in the event of a disagreement

Ensure work processes are documented, communicated to, and understood by all who work in the process

Monitor the direct report’s work, the quality of his/her collaboration with counterparts, provide meaningful feedback, and coach for improved effectiveness

Identify early signs of conflict and act to resolve it productively

Collaborate with counterpart managers to resolve cross-organizational issues that cannot be resolved by the direct report

If necessary, escalate problems of cross-organizational working to the next level manager, such as the crossover manager

Ensure that their direct report’s performance on collaboration and conflict resolution is reviewed as part of his/ her performance review

There are seven different types of Task Initiating Role Relationships, some of which may be combined into one specialist role. At one end of the continuum, collateral/collaborative authority, the authority level is low. It applies to working relationships between colleagues of the same manager working together. It is the basis of the accountabilities for all employees defined earlier in this chapter. Using this authority, each person has the authority to persuade each other to act in a way that facilitates their own work, while at the same time attempting to accommodate their colleague’s needs within the context set by their manager. At the other end of the continuum, prescribe authority, the authority is high. As such, a person can tell another person to stop doing something and they must stop. This authority is mostly used for safety specialist roles. The seven types of Task Initiating Role Relationships are summarized in the table on the following pages.

This authority relates to direct reports of the same manager. It provides the team members with authority to persuade each other to act in a way that facilitates their own work, while at the same time attempting to accommodate their colleague’s needs within the context set by the manager.

When they disagree, they act as their manager would want them to, before escalating.

When they cannot reach agreement, they must escalate to their immediate manager who will either clarify the context and/or make a specific trade-off decision.

Held accountable, by their manager, to provide expert unsolicited advice to identified roles to ensure that best practice is understood and considered for use. The advisor is accountable for the quality of the advice.

The recipient is accountable to consider the advice given. The recipient remains fully accountable for the decisions on what to do with the advice, and for the work outputs to which the advice relates.

There are two parts to this relationship: the service getter and the service receiver. A person can ask another to provide services as authorized by their own manager and within the scope of the role of the service giver.

Service getters must have clearly specified what services they are authorized to get and from whom.

Service givers need to know what services they must provide and to whom.

If the service giver cannot provide the needed service for whatever reason, the service getter must take the matter to his or her own manager.

A person monitors to ensure compliance with policies, systems and standards relating to their area of expertise.

The monitor has the accountability and authority to be kept informed of the relevant activities of the role being monitored.

If the monitor judges that work outcomes are or could be non-compliant, monitors can instruct responders to delay to allow escalation to the responders’ immediatemanager(s).

Assists a line manager with programming work, by gathering and analyzing group/team resources (technical, and/or people and/or financial), developing group plans or budgets to assist the optimal use of resources.

Provides and explains plans and other tools to enable a group or team to work together effectively in a joint undertakings

Keeps group informed of progress in carrying out the tasks

Helps overcome setbacks

The group members’ own manager assigns the planned activities and/or redirections.