As if being the boss wasn't hard enough, in France, you can get "kidnapped" by your employees for doing a poor job. In the States, there are plenty of challenges keeping our teams happy with so many economic downsides to the job--no raises, no bonus, no 401(k) match. This requires managers to be more creative in building a strong bond with their teams.
My wife and I were discussing some of these management challenges the other night over some wine. Bad combination, I know. Don't drink and manage. We talked about how we've been coached to recognize that no two employees are the same and they all need to be managed differently. I said, "That's a lot of work to be twenty different kinds of manager, isn't it?" My wife smirked and my mind raced leveraging the fuel supplied by fermented grapes from, of all places, France.
Then I thought, "Wait a minute, can't we at least group employees using two categories: how much they WANT to be managed and how much they NEED to be managed." Simply, how autonomous are they and how well do they know their stuff. Some variation of this is probably in one of my MBA books in the attic, but I'm not digging through there. So I sketched it out for you instead.
Knowing where your employees are in the matrix is one thing. How to manage them is another. I threw some ideas in red. You need to move the employee towards the lower left hand corner. Be careful with the "Novices." You do not want to move them to "Cavaliers," or they will be running with scissors in no time. You must mentor them, which basically means train and teach while building confidence.
See how your team falls into this matrix. More importantly, ask yourself if you are doing the right things to get them all to "Achievers."
Jeff Lipschultz is a founding partner of A-List Solutions, a premier recruiting firm in Dallas-Fort Worth. Jeff shares his views on employment trends and quirky observations of society at http://jefflipschultz.wordpress.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kobe says: (12:04PM on Feb 10th 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport2/5
thanks for the blog it helps me to make my research papers
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Jeff Lipschultz says: (12:24PM on Feb 10th 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport2/5
Kobe: Glad to be of help. Let me know if there is something specific I should consider writing about that might help further.
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Tabatha says: (6:15PM on Feb 11th 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport2/5
I like the idea of taking something as complex as 'people' and simplifying it into four categories. I think of Cavaliers as people who know their stuff but aren't easy to work with. In my mind there is another category to consider and that is the Non-Expert/Expert. These are the people who THINK they know everything but DON'T. Personally I think cavaliers are easier to deal with after you get around the personality quirks. The Non-Expert/Experts are the most difficult because they have no idea that they aren't really experts and they are very critical and unresponsive to mentoring/coaching/training. A good strong dose of performance appraisal is needed for these people. Eventually they will either find their own way to the door or have it found for them. In the unfortunate event that they have everyone fooled, and then it’s your job as a manager to find the right ‘fit’ for them to minimize the damage.
The other thing I'd add is that in addition to building confidence, the apprentice needs training/teaching to hone their skills and become true achievers.
It's a good post and got me thinking. I think I'll have a glass of wine and mull it over some more. :-)
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