You may have noticed that some managers currently use “lead the team” instead of “manage the team”. This is because, in their mind, there is a difference between “manage” and “lead”: “manage” is to manage affairs and processes, while “leading” refers to the heart-to-heart communication between people, leading, taking the lead, and passing on.
In today’s workplace, the relationship between superiors and subordinates is no longer suitable to be described by the traditional relationship of “simply the top-down hierarchy” such as a boss and followers; it is more like the relationship between a team coach and players.
As a coach, you need to mobilize the enthusiasm of the players on and off the court; you need to train their abilities, and you need to arrange tactics for the players. Just like the coach can’t replace the players to play football, you also need to “bring up” your subordinates instead of you doing work for them. Thus, the emergence of this new type of superior-subordinate relationship comes from two profound changes.
First, as living standards have improved, simple material incentives have become less effective. Maybe you have heard the managers around you complain that young people are not easy to manage. According to a report on the 90s research, which shows that among more than a dozen considerations for choosing a job, “interest” ranks first; the second is “development prospects”, and the third is “prospects of Remuneration”.
Second, job opportunities are shifting from repetitive physical labor to creative mental labor. Repetitive and replaceable physical labor has been largely replaced by artificial intelligence and large-scale assembly lines, while analysis, operation, design, development, and other jobs that rely heavily on mental labor are becoming the mainstream of the workplace.
However, mental work has two characteristics. On the one side, its process is invisible, by comparing it with the work on the production line, you can’t know exactly whether this employee who is concentrating on the computer and mobile phone is conceiving ideas, or is lazy and in a daze. It is even possible that he is busy with his private affairs. On the other hand, new technologies and new trends are constantly emerging. You need to constantly lead your subordinates to solve new problems. You need to evolve together with your team, instead of you giving orders and then executing them.
For instance, you might have been a manager for many years, but you still can’t grasp your own management style. Some people are too strong, and their subordinates complain all the time and even walk away; It’s a group of harmony, but things can’t be pushed forward.
Or, you may be a technical expert and business backbone, and you have just been appointed as someone else’s superior. You find that you can get things done in three minutes, but it may take two hours to teach your subordinates, and the effect is not as good as doing it yourself. don’t teach? how to teach?
For another example, subordinates have their own ideas and needs. Do you know how to deal with them when they ask you for a promotion and salary increase, or even resignation?
If you have encountered the above dilemmas and are looking for solutions, then my articles on management issues can definitely help you. You may also ask, is the ability to “lead people” innate, is it related to personality, and can it be learned through acquisition? My personality seems to be too introverted, is it because I “can’t take care of people”?
My answer is that what innately affects us is not the ability to lead people, but the style of leading people. For example, you are a gentle and humble leader or a vigorous leader; no matter what your style is, you need a set of management methods as the basis. That’s why many large companies even let newly promoted managers take a full week or even longer to learn management skills. Enterprises have to pay 100,000 or even hundreds of thousands of daily expenses for this.
If you are interested in working as a team and how to lead the team instead of just managing the team, I will unfold the detail for you in my next articles in which you might be inspired. There are 9 aspects that will be continued to discuss one by one in my next articles as follows.
- The first aspect, it’s regarding how to use the “psychological contract” to manage your subordinates. And, I will give you a new way of thinking about dealing with the relationship between superiors and subordinates.
- The second aspect is how to effectively train subordinates. It will help you quickly help your subordinates grow.
- The third aspect, it’s about questioning, the technique of talking with subordinates. I will share with you how to really enter the hearts of subordinates to help them solve problems and fight against psychological interference.
- The fourth aspect is building a highly efficient team. I will introduce you to several institutional tools for managing teams and help you expand the ability to lead a single subordinate to lead a team.
- The fifth aspect is self-cultivation for becoming a trusted superior. I will share with you how to manage yourself as a superior.
- The sixth aspect is a difficult but must-learn conversation. I will tell you how to deal with subordinates asking for a promotion and salary increases, resignation negotiations, etc.;
- The aspect seventh is annual and quarterly reviews: Putting the Psychological Contract into Practice. I will tell you how to conduct annual and quarterly work reviews with your subordinates so that it is no longer a formality.
- The eighth aspect, promotion channels and talent inventory is the starting point of team management. I will help you master two advanced tools for team managers so that you can look at team management from a higher perspective.
- Aspect 9, Team Cohesion Building in Extraordinary Times. I will introduce four steps of crisis management to help you calmly deal with extraordinary times.