When training non-supervisory employees I look for occasions
to ask them about their experiences with manager-supervisors. Usually I do this as we are focusing on
communications within organizations.
Typically I will ask them about their experiences with managers and how
they perceive the behavior of managers as supervisors. The purpose of this questioning is to foster
discussions about effective management styles among employees who represent the
next wave of manager-supervisors.
Many times I have asked trainees if they have ever known a
manager who took good ideas from staff and represented them as his/her own
before senior managers. Most have known
such managers. Trainees typically report
that the effect of this behavior is to jeopardize trust, stifle open
communication and reduce morale among those whom such managers supervise.
Since many organizations do not invest in effective supervisory
training programs for new managers, or in development programs that challenge
and assist managers to get the most out of their employees, many managers are
left to their own devices. They may copy
the behavior of other managers without having a reliable mechanism of
evaluating that behavior. All around
them, in a culture dominated by individualism, in a media awash in messages of
instant gratification and in popular success myths that feature competition,
domination and takeovers, messages of control, micromanagement and mistrust
abound.
It would seem that there are few manager-supervisors who
understand the paradox of power. Unlike water
or air, power is not a limited resource.
One need not reduce the power of another in order to become more
powerful. On the contrary, the more
power one confers on others, the more powerful one becomes.
When employees are credited for their good ideas and
suggestions, they are empowered to be even more creative. When a manager-supervisor struggles with an
issue and asks his subordinates for help, they become empowered. When a manager-supervisor empowers her
employees, morale soars and the employees perceive the manager as even more
powerful. After all, she is now
presiding over a group of people who have become more powerful than before.
Manager-supervisors would do well to recognize signs of
empowerment: laughter in the workplace, eagerness to communicate, high
productivity and work beyond hours.
Conversely, they should recognize the signs of lack of empowerment: a
subdued workplace, low morale, dull staff meetings, and an empty office at
5:01pm. In the first instance, powerful,
confident employees abound and the manager’s growing power is barely
noticeable; in the second instance, the manager’s power may be absolute, but it
is also meager as employees do only what they are told to do.
While some manager-supervisors are naturals at empowering
their staff, many have to examine and possibly alter their sense of the way the
world works in order to empower their staff.
Organizations would do well to invest in the kind of training and
coaching that helps managers to increase the overall power of the organization.
