I saw this article in my inbox this morning from Strategy + Business about how we should get rid of the word Manager. My immediate thought was yes, yes, yes! My head was nodding as I was reading it and I immediately started thinking about what the world of work would look like if we no longer had Managers. I started picturing my prior work history and how different my experiences could have been. What could we as a society accomplish if we weren’t Managed in the traditional sense of the word?
In this article, Bryant (2020) proposed three reasons why we should retire the word manager: 1) no one wants to be managed anymore, 2) no one wants to manage anymore, and 3) the word manager fails to capture what we need to get done in organizations today. Instead, Bryant (2020) proposes ‘team leader’.
I agree with two points that Bryant (2020) makes in the argument. However, I don’t agree with how no one wants to manage anymore because as a society that’s how we have historically (and currently) rewarded people in the workforce. We promote them and they get to become a manager and then leader. By becoming a Manager (and eventual leader) they are part of the in-group that makes decisions and with that comes power, politics, and ego. Too many organizations and industries still function within this traditional hierarchy system—and yet we wonder why people are more disengaged and burnt-out from work than ever. We have created systems in which we have problems with our systems and our structures, not our people. We have created workplaces where our systems and structures are built top-down on the premise of control and playing the game of politics to get ahead. We have to ask ourselves, how and why. How did we end up creating these systems, and why do we still have them? THEY DON’T WORK!
Employees have to exert energy battling and navigating these top-down systems/structures. I’ve recently heard someone describe their situation at work as a “land-mine.” Yet, we only have a certain, finite amount of energy to expend in our days. Imagine a world where it was spent NOT having to deal with stuff that doesn’t matter in the overall grande scheme of things. Imagine a world where your brain is free to create. Playing politics is exhausting. Feeling like you are trying to be controlled is exhausting. Being fearful of those in power is exhausting. All of this stuff takes energy that could be spent trying to solve these complex problems that we face in society today. It’s the same idea that Heath and Heath (2010) discuss in that self-control is an exhaustible resource. They talk about self-control as a broad concept in that you are in situations where “you are careful and deliberate with your words or movements” (p. 6). Our ability to create and innovate is being diminished because of the energy spent worrying about things that won’t solve the problems and opportunities we face in the world today. Organizations such as these restrict the potential of all our employees—it boxes them in and tells them not to draw outside the lines (while at the same time saying they value innovation and the voices of all—talk about a confusing, lose-lose situation).
I’ve had work experiences where I’ve come home to my spouse and said “you won’t believe what happened today” and this usually has to deal with injustices, inequity, ethics, petty politics, etc. What if I got to come home and say “I’m creating this, I’m thinking about this, I get to be part of this and it’s exciting and energizing.”
I appreciate Bryant’s (2020) article because I believe conversations like this should happen more often because with changes like this comes culture shifts. These shifts equate to a complete paradigm change of how we view work and its purpose. Changes in these types of systems and structures can give rise to equity within our workplaces. They can promote the voices of all and empower employees to use their individual talents to address some of our most complex problems. We free them of the worry about things that ultimately don’t matter and we promote collaboration—we allow them the autonomy to be innovative, opinionated, and part of the solution.
So, let’s start re-thinking all this—leadership, management, our reward systems, our systems of accountability, the way we do work, what we spend time doing at work (this includes meetings!) because I think we can do better. In fact, I think we could change our organizations to help change the world.
Let me pose these questions to you all- where and how do we start? How do we create a paradigm shift in the workforce? What conversations do we need to start having in our depts, organizations, etc. to start this?
Resources:
Bryant, A. (2020). Is it time to retire the title of manager? Retrieved from https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Is-it-time-to-retire-the-title-of-manager?gko=e5846&utm_source=itw&utm_medium=itw202001204&utm_campaign=resp
Heath, C. & Heath, D. (2010). Switch: How to change things when change is hard (chapter 1). Retrieved from https://heathbrothers.com/books/switch/