Engaged in Engagement: Whats the Managers Job?
November 21st, 2008
Managers see that their people get the job done. Managers direct units or teams to fulfill their responsibilities. When managers do their jobs, teams fulfill assignments. When teams fulfill assignments, the organization achieves its purpose.
That makes the managers role seem simple. It aint necessarily so.
Consider this statement from Agha Hasan Abedi:
The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work.
Abedi founded the Bank of Credit and Commerce International and was ultimately accused of perpetrating the largest financial fraud in history. So, the man had doubtful ethics...but made a good statement about the managers true role.
The successfully effective manager provides opportunities and situations that generate development among her people. That developmental work environment generates employee engagement. The employee who engages in his work, his companys purpose, and the connection between the two tends to develop and improve skills, knowledge and abilities.
Complexities -- in today s business at large and in industries specifically -- require an ever longer list of necessary management skills. Skills are function-specific. Attributes are fundamental abilities that enable a manager to manage. The attributes relevant to enhancing employee engagement often do not make the skills list.
So, what are the attributes that engage a manager in engagement? Here are four that are basic to any management responsibility in any type organization:
Communication...of expectations, objectives, values, and appreciation.
Observation...of detailed picture, big picture, and individual performance.
Innovation...of process and procedure, of structure and style.
Education...of self and of staff. (NOTE: education and training are not identical.)
A manager actively engaging those attributes to promote development among her people typically exhibits some or all of these interests:
People Interest: curiosity, listening, empathy.
Company Interest: commitment, ownership, innovation.
Growth Interest: leadership, performance improvement, personal/professional development.
Combining attributes with interests, the manager generates benefits through her people:
Increased engagement among employees.
Continuous development by those people.
Exercise of management skills with greater ease and confidence.
Fulfillment of expectations by employees and teams.
Achievement of company goals and objectives.
The manager s job is, really, developing people through work...and so, achieving benefits for the people, the organization, and the manager herself.