What Does It Mean to Be a Manager Today?
Being a manager today is a role that has evolved significantly over time. It's no longer just about delegating tasks and overseeing operations. It's about leadership, innovation, and fostering a positive work environment. Let's delve into the modern definition of a manager.
Summary
Three disruptive, transformative trends are challenging traditional definitions of the manager role
- Normalization of remote work
- Acceleration in use of technology to manage employees
- Employees’ changing expectations
- A year into the pandemic, the implications of how Covid-19 has changed how people will work from now on are becoming clear
- Many employees will be working in a hybrid world with more choices about where, when, and how much they work
Empower a new manager mindset by creating a network of support
75% of HR leaders from midsize companies agree that managers’ roles have expanded, yet roles and teams are not structured to support well-being.
- Managers’ motivation to be empathic increases when they have a support system that makes it clear that the burden isn’t theirs alone and when organizations invest in roles designed to support them.
Create manager capacity for empathy by optimizing reporting lines
Moving to a hybrid environment creates complexity; one key part of the solution is to help managers prioritize their workload to focus on fewer, higher-impact relationships with individuals and teams
- Organizations that equip managers to be empathic by holistically addressing the three common barriers will achieve outsized returns on performance in the post-Covid-19 world
Radical flexibility requires empathetic managers
The most effective managers of the future will be those who build fundamentally different relationships with their employees
- Empathy requires developing high levels of trust and care and a culture of acceptance within teams
- Midsize companies need to find solutions to develop more empathic managers without massive investments and continue to have managers work rather than just manage
Develop empathy skills through vulnerable conversation practice
Managers need opportunities to practice and room to make mistakes
- Zillow creates cohorts of managers across the organization who engage in rotating one-on-one conversations with their peers to troubleshoot current managerial challenges
- These conversations offer frequent, psychologically safe opportunities to engage in vulnerable conversations focused on how managers can commit to specific actions to care for themselves, as well as support the well-being of their team
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