Everyone has had good managers and bad managers, and everyone much prefers
good managers. Good managers are masters of several different dimensions of
people management and are able to adjust their style to the needs of the particular
employee and situation. When I mentor managers, I use five archetypes to describe
the different methods of people management: the Supervisor, the Motivational
Speaker, the Mentor, the Advocate, and the Captain. Great managers are masters
of each archetype and avoid overdoing any of them.
The Supervisor
The most basic dimension of people management is the Supervisor. In the Supervisor
role, you ensure that your staff meets all basic expectations—for example,
that employees start work on time, fill out the requisite paperwork, and follow
all other company policies, such as dress codes. The Supervisor assigns work
that employees can complete in short periods of time, explains how to complete
the work, and keeps a close eye on employees to ensure that tasks are completed
correctly and on time. The Supervisor helps employees quickly become successful
at their jobs.
The most appropriate time to invoke the Supervisor role is when you have new
employees or when a difficult or critical task must be completed. Used in the
wrong situation, the Supervisor can easily be perceived by employees to be a
micromanager. Be careful about adopting the Supervisor role with employees who
are experienced and have proven to be efficient at their jobs.
The Motivational Speaker
Part cheerleader, part confidant, the Motivational Speaker represents the evolutionary
step beyond the Supervisor. The Motivational Speaker builds a strong team by
increasing team morale and individuals' confidence. These management attributes
are critical when the team encounters stressful situations, such as tight deadlines.
Great managers have the pulse of their staff's morale and confidence. You should
adopt the Motivational Speaker persona when you feel that your team's confidence
in the organization or an employee's confidence in his or her abilities is waning.
If the Motivational Speaker role is used too often or at an inappropriate time,
a manager can be seen as being disingenuous or out of touch with the realities
that the staff feels. The key to mastering the Motivational Speaker role is
knowing when to listen, when to give a pep talk, and when to bestow ad hoc rewards.
The Mentor
As employees' abilities grow and employees take on more responsibilities, the
Mentor guides them to ensure that they'll be successful in situations that might
be unfamiliar. Unlike the Supervisor, who assigns specific, time-bounded tasks
and shows employees precisely how to complete each task, the Mentor assigns
higher-level tasks to employees, gives them appropriate guidance as how to best
complete the task, and allows them a great deal of autonomy.
Adopting the Mentor role is most appropriate when you have one or more high-performing
employees seeking to advance their careers or take on bigger tasks—for
example, moving from deploying Web servers to deploying a multitiered farm of
Web servers. Be careful about being a Mentor to employees who need a Supervisor;
they might feel ignored by a manager who mentors too often, or they might feel
that their manager is constantly vague and unengaged.
The Advocate
Beyond the Mentor role, the Advocate is the least hands-on of any of the people-management
archetypes. The Advocate implicitly trusts employees' ability and judgment.
The Advocate gives employees very little guidance and instead obtains resources,
removes roadblocks, and otherwise promotes his or her employees' work to create
an environment in which employees can grow and succeed.
Adopt the Advocate role when you have star employees who need to have roadblocks
and other distractions removed to accomplish their goals. The most difficult
part of the Advocate role is to not feel threatened by star employees, but rather
to understand that enabling employees to accomplish great things is one of the
highest achievements a manager can attain. Mastering the Advocate role lets
you succeed in one of the most difficult aspects of people management: managing
the star employee.
Adopting the Advocate role requires you to enable employees to act on your
behalf, so you need to be able to trust their judgment. If you use the Advocate
persona with employees who aren't fully confident in their own abilities or
who lack the skills to meet their goals, they'll feel as if they aren't part
of the team.
The Captain
The most highly evolved people manager is the Captain. The Captain is the master
of all the other archetypes—an inspiring leader who has the confidence
of employees even when times are tough and challenges seem insurmountable. The
Captain marshals resources, attracts talent, and creates road-maps that the
staff can rally around. You can assume the Captain role when staff, other employees,
and senior management have respect and faith in your vision and abilities.
3 Steps to Becoming a Complete Manager
Once you understand the five management archetypes, you can apply them. Here
are three steps to help you apply your knowledge of the archetypes to your own
situation and become a complete people manager.
- Self-assessment—Ask yourself which archetype you actively exhibit.
Start by listing your employees and their objectives and mapping out the management
style that each situation calls for. Then ask yourself how confident you are
that in each situation you're doing the things that will help your employees
excel.
- Employee assessment—Explain the five archetypes to each of
your employees and ask what he or she would like to see from you with respect
to his or her duties. Compare what employees expect from you to how you mapped
out the management style each situation calls for, analyze the discrepancies,
and then adapt your management style accordingly.
- Skill building—Seek mentors from among the ranks of effective
people managers—the Captains in your organization. Pay close attention
to how those managers use the five people management archetypes in specific
scenarios and what the effects are.
Exercise the Correct Management Style
Although there are certainly some bad people managers, more often than not managers
are perceived as being "bad" because they either aren't exercising the correct
management style in the appropriate situations or are overdoing a certain style.
By becoming a more complete people manager, you can avoid being tagged as a
bad manager and work toward becoming a Captain yourself.
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