In Article 3 of RANA’s process series, we discussed the benefits of integrating, connecting and aligning the organization’s management processes. Today’s article deals with the relationship between processes and skills.
We have often wondered why so many senior and executive managers work exceedingly long hours to micro-manage more than two levels down in their organizations. We have seen divorce, burn-out, colossal errors of judgment and temperamental behaviours result from this “overwork”. We have even heard senior people state that the hectic life they lead is the price of being at the top of the organizational pyramid. Some executives seem to thrive in ‘hectic’ circumstances; in our experience, it is just one step to professional failure when the results and behaviours mentioned above are judged to be inappropriate for an executive position.
We are great proponents of the notion that in the organizational pyramid, work at the line level approaches 100% content while work at the executive level approaches 100% process. Work at the intermediate levels is a blend of content and process with the process portion rising as each level gains greater proximity to the C-Suite. This turns Senior Managers into Process Leaders – people who are supposed to have the skills to guide people in how to do things correctly. The most successful managers we have seen are those who have understood their process role completely, embraced it as a second career and engaged their people by being present and available as managerial models and, of course, as Process Leaders. These capable people understand that the skills they are using are actually the deployment of processes, i.e., the skill is the ability to deploy a process successfully. The step-by-step construction of a house is a process; the organization building it needs the skills to deliver a quality house economically.
Even the gifted engineer who is kicked up to supervisor, manager and thence to the ranks of the executive needs to discard content along the way. Why, say you? Well, for one thing, our gifted engineer cannot keep up with his craft while performing a management role. Secondly, exemplary engineering performance may not translate into exemplary management performance. Unless the gifted engineer also shows a talent for management which can be developed, it would make more sense to keep the engineering talent where it belongs, i.e., in or near delivery.
If we have learned anything over the years, it has to be that management is a whole different trade requiring skills other than delivering the product or service of the organization. Our main concern is that not enough people who aspire to management roles take the time to learn the role of manager and Process Leader. A second concern is that those who are teaching these good folks the trade have often only academic knowledge: they have never managed anything beyond their own timetables. A third concern is that senior managers may not realize that they are de facto behavioural models inside and often outside of their organizations. If they behave badly – or manage poorly – they give permission to everyone around them to follow their lead down a wrong road. Being a manager is a set of measurable skills that one should first acquire and then practice constantly. The skills of management deliver the processes of management, hence the need for Process Leadership in the organization.
Yoda’s injunction to Luke rings true: “Do or do not; there is no try.” We are beginning to see a new generation of managers who have paid their dues, know their roles, act skillfully with a process mindset and behave as role models for those around them.
