🔒Assessing the role of a good manager

“Bedtime Stories for Managers — Read about managing with soul, organizing like a cow, growing strategies likes weeds, being a keynote listener … and more” by Henry Mintzberg (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, $19.95).

Based on his blog’s topics, Mintzberg offers insights on management. First, let’s tackle the “Myth of the Maestro.” We’ve all read books and articles likening managers to orchestra maestros. Yet, when you watch a concert, the musicians rarely look at the conductor furiously waving a baton and periodically stabbing it at the air. They’re playing their instruments based upon the notes on their music sheets; those notes dictate when to chime in. At the end of the concert, the orchestra takes a group bow but the audience reserves most of its applause for the conductor.

So, if the players aren’t paying much attention to the conductor during the performance what’s the real role of the conductor? It’s the behind-the-scenes work. The conductor looks at the music, decides how he/she will interpret it, and selects the musicians to play the various instruments. Once the music starts, the conductor’s role becomes more ceremonial.

A manager looks at the requirements and priorities of the tasks and selects people for various assignments based upon their skills. The manager, like a conductor, recognizes that an effective approach to doing the work requires a network of people doing their jobs collaboratively. But, unlike a conductor, the role of manager becomes more important once a task begins. He/she must make decisions about actions/reactions because plans rarely go as planned.

When it comes to decision-making, the standard template relies on “thinking first”: diagnose the situation, identify and assess alternatives, choose and implement. Often, this relies on what worked before. Mintzberg believes that decision-makers should consider incorporating a “doing first” (i.e. “try something in a limited way to see if it might work”) approach because it involves thinking “what if.”

“Doing first” also creates a “grassroots strategy for strategy formation” because it fosters curiosity at all levels. “What if” opens the door to “what’s next.” People see ideas not as weeds in the garden but as ways to open opportunity’s door.

Mintzberg also weighs in on the “tricky task of measuring managing.” “Managers are not effective; matches are effective.” When a manager’s style doesn’t mesh with that of his/her team, productivity will decline. Some teams succeed because of the manager; others despite the manager. When judging managerial effectiveness, it’s important to assess the manager’s contribution to the team’s results, how those results were produced and the effect on other areas of the organization.

Now, let’s look at “organizing like a cow.” The typical organizational chart shows a hierarchy of boxes, solid and dotted lines and arrows pointing up, down and sideways. It can’t recognize how the parts function together daily — or identify the most important parts.

If you think of an organization as a cow, you’ll see that each part has its specific function. The parts aren’t interchangeable. Move/remove a part or a portion of a part and the cow no longer functions as intended.

When a company reorganizes, it invariably rearranges people, without a thought of the effect of workload, how they’ll work together in the new environment, or how their skills will complement each other’s. Mintzberg believes that “communityship” (i.e. current working relationships) must be considered when reorganizing. Why? It takes time to build a collaborative team. Time spent developing a new team invariably means a near-term loss of productivity.