What Makes an Exceptional Manager in Today’s Business World?
January 3, 2011
One of the great things about social networking is that it spurs interesting dialog. My last blog post, Do You Know How to Grant Greatness generated a lively and fascinating discussion in the Sales and Marketing group on LinkedIn. The question posed by group member Daniel Surman inspired the title of this post: What makes an exceptional manager in today’s business world? Read on… and see if you’ve experienced leadership that rises above the fray.
Here is a segment of the dialog between two members, Daniel Surman and Dave Eisley (posted here with their permission). I’d be hard pressed to describe it better…
Dave Eisley: “From my own personal experience, great managers surround themselves with talented people and give them the space to do what they do best. That’s not to say they don’t train and problem solve, but most of all they provide business strategy and organization. They were great coaches. The BEST managers I have worked for taught me about “macro” business views, to help me better understand the business environment and all the factors that came into play–then they trained me how to get better. However, MOST of the people I have worked for have engaged in power struggles, offered vague, inconsistent direction and spent most of their time “protecting” their place in the hierarchy. None of those particular businesses ever grew.
This is the best outline of a leadership role I have ever seen:
- Provide an inspiring vision and strategic alignment, launch a crusade
- Help people connect their personal goals to business goals
- Make relentless innovation a religion
- Encourage entrepreneurial creativity and experimentation
- Involve everyone, empower and trust employees
- Coach and train your people to greatness
- Build teams and promote teamwork, leverage diversity
- Motivate, inspire and energize people, recognize achievements
- Encourage risk taking
- Make business fun
…I have been in the workforce for over 15 years in sales, management, and training roles and have experienced exactly ONE senior executive or manager that even came close to this ideal. Do you think this is unrealistic?”
Daniel Surman: “In my 15+ years of backend marketing and now sales I have only had no more than two managers that possessed these traits.”
Wow. Sadly these are not great odds.
As I have mentioned before, a truly great leader is rare and, by example, begins to stand out from the crowd. It’s not how polished or “alpha” you are, it’s how you lead and inspire your team. So, an interesting question to follow up with is…
How many great managers have you had?
Filed under: Business Best Practices,Leadership
3 Comments Leave a Comment
1. Ben | January 5, 2011 at 5:46 pm
I wonder how much of a manager’s traits are dictated by the organization’s culture or one from above.
It’s a balancing act, and takes guts.
2. Wayne Caswell | January 6, 2011 at 1:28 pm
I LOVED Dave Eisley’s list! It reminded me of a response I wrote on a similar blog asking about motivation:
True employee motivation comes from a corporate culture that promotes Loyalty. Treat them with respect, empower them, and view them as Assets, and they will be loyal to the company and its customers. View them as Expenses to be discarded at whim, and they’ll only be loyal to themselves and their profession.
This perspective comes from 30 years at the “old IBM,” where the mantra was Respect for the Individual, and where IBM invested in my personal development (education), well being (health care), and retirement (pension plan), paid me 3/4 of my salary while I served in the military during the Vietnam War, and guaranteed me a job when I returned. The CEO sent me a Congratulations letter and an engraved silver spoon when my son was born, and condolences with a huge bouquet of flowers when my dad died. My manager also sent a huge bouquet to the wake and arranged for a local IBM manager to hunt me down there to see if the company could do anything more.
IBM managers then were assessed on their ability to nurture workers and advance their careers. Managers were quickly replaced if they held back good workers, since advancing them was more important to the company.
I had at least one month of technical, management or personal development training each year, and many of the intense one-week classes were at Harvard or Princeton with the college equivalent of a semester. IBM gave me time off and paid travel and course expenses as an investment in me. This was common practice for a company like IBM.
Is your company investing in its employees as part of a long term strategy, or did the shift from pension plan to 401(k) cause a change in the way top management is measured? Today’s executive compensation is often based too much on quarterly stock performance, causing them to focus on short term decisions rather than long term growth. Many have learned that the fastest way to increase profits is to cut (employee) expenses rather than increase sales revenue with investments in R&D and personnel.
3. David | January 10, 2011 at 8:42 pm
Re: Common Practices ; have now gone by the wayside :
Mr. Caswell,
With all due respect sir, it does sound like that IBM was on the right track, But, what happened to the ‘old IBM’ ? Too bad it doesn’t exist today……….
It’s a shame that IBM does not treat all employee’s as they have treated you. You are the exception to their employee cutting practices , and even though my brother was the class Validictorian in his graduating class from college, apparently that didn’t matter to IBM, as he was one of many, that was let go from IBM, after putting in 7 (or more from others), long promising years.
Glad to hear you were not part of the cut, and that you still have your house, right?
My brother is still having to collect unemployment and had to take a part time job in retail, which doesn’t pay the mortgage.
Where was IBM when my brother needed an advancement? How are their profits doing now?
apparently, off on a different mission………
No one from IBM , not even former employees or associates, sent us anything when our father passed away recently & unexpectedly the day after Thanksgiving, a Veteran and hero of WWII………., and that’s WITH accommodations, :
‘ time after time denying the advancement of the enemy with grenades and bayonets for two days, from chilling rain drenched foxholes, and, while under tank attack in fog, until back-up help arrived……….
Italy, 1944
RIP Dad…………..
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