Everyone knows that good management is vitally important to any organization. Managers make a dramatic difference in worker and customer lives, and nothing gets done without leadership. But good managers are also difficult to find, so business is changing the role.
The job description of a typical manager involves the following:
- Assist staff with performing their duties
- Organize workload to keep everyone busy and customers satisfied
- Think of better ways to do things
- Develop and care for workers
The primary duty of any boss is to assist junior staff with their tasks. That’s why ol’ Bill became manager of the body shop—he knows how to fix cars best. And Bill might be good at prioritizing and scheduling work too, but he could be a light thinker with a miserable personality who turns off many a good soldier. And because managers like Bill are quite common (i.e., nobody does all the jobs well) business is breaking up the roles.
Develop
The first split is in administration. Companies are assigning everyone a secondary manager to handle employee development and all the administrative duties (like, salary and benefits). This new manager’s job is to develop employee potential and ensure good people don’t leave. And this duty typically involves owning a completely different skill set than what ol’ Bill has.
In larger companies, people are being pulled out of HR to actually manage. No longer is HR home to just handling mat leaves or the legal side of a termination. These folks are now managing the development of people (and these new positions are permanent—not drawn from a pool).
Sure, development managers still discuss employee evaluations with the assist manager, but they’re responsible for administering (not providing) employee training and helping everyone get better at the intangibles. Stuff that ol’ Bill has no idea of.
Assist, organize, and think
Manufacturing and auto body shops often designate a separate person to handle scheduling. And sometimes, senior tradespeople are assigned the task of assisting fellow workmates without being given the title of boss. So there already are alternative ways to address management’s role to assist and organize.
Thinking is different. Many businesses still bring in consultants when they should be using internal staff. Yes, consultants bring experience from various organizations but they never dig deep enough to fully understand your business and rarely do they stick around. So, in the long run, you’re better off having consultants teach existing staff how to think.
Conclusion
Good management is essential to any organization and, unfortunately, very few have it. Too much is being placed on first-level managers and they’re simply not super-people. As a result, cracks appear. Mostly in the area of employee development but also when it comes to thinking.
The message is clear, let ol’ Bill do what he’s good at and devise a system that addresses the rest. This new system involves having multiple managers to ensure staff get assistance, things are kept organized, better ways are constantly being thought of, and good people never leave.
It’s called matrix management.