As an owner or manager of your business, how are you ensuring your organization's success in the 1990s? How are you using your skills in leading and developing your employees?

Today's business realities demand new answers. Organizations today are experiencing a turbulent economy, stiffer competition, more demanding customers and faster technological change. To stay competitive in this new business environment, a company must:

• chose among divergent and complex business opportunities,
• shorten product development times,
• control costs,
• deal with a diverse and less loyal workforce.

Where a business can make money in today's marketplace is less clear (Can money really be made on the Internet or the World Wide Web?). Organizations must deal both with accomplishing more work in less time, and with limited resources to think, react and do for their customers.

In the words of Ed Deevy, author of Creating a Resilient Organization (1), companies today must learn to "be quick [and focused] (2) or be dead" in the marketplace. America On Line is a good example of this. Since their inception, AOL's primary focus has been to sign up new users and service providers quicker than its competition (3). As a result, they are now the largest on- line service provider in the industry.

Barry Stein of Goodmeasure observes that within organizations, "the 'mean time between surprises' is becoming less than the time to make decisions (4)". Peter Drucker (5) and Bradford & Cohen (6) both point to the need for organizations to be able to quickly adjust their external business thrusts and internal organization infrastructures to synchronize with the rapid changes in the marketplace.

They all suggest that in order for companies to manage in a turbulent, chaotic world, all employees must take-on and effectively handle increased responsibility for the organization's work. These authors suggest that organizations today need to rely more on the initiative, proactively, intelligence and willingness of all employees.

Traditional Vs. New Management Roles

What do these new business realities now mean for company management?

The realities of what it takes to be a successful leader/manager in the 1990s is also shifting. Company owners and executives are now required to take on new ways of managing if they want to be in sync with the new business realities. The future will not eventually settle down and return to the more certain ways of the past. Managers who are now required to juggle more of the organization's work need to do more than simply becoming better jugglers. Old style managers are going the way of the dinosaur and need to give way to a new approach to management.

Traditional "command and control" management approaches, where the manager acts as expert, authority and hero are giving way to new approaches of manager as collaborator, facilitator of work, and coach/developer of people. These new approaches empower employees to make sound decisions and take effective action on behalf of the organization. The following table compares the two approaches:

Traditional managers put themselves above their staff, while new managers help employees appreciate that "we" are in business together and we rise and fall on our collective efforts. Traditional managers put themselves in the middle of work situations, while new managers orchestrate information flow and communication among customers, suppliers and employees, thereby creating faster and better results. Traditional managers focus simply on individual performers accomplishing tasks, while new managers work to maximize the performance of teams through collaboration and innovation. Traditional managers direct people, while new managers create responsibility in others. Finally, traditional managers stay in command of and maintain control over staff and their decisions, while new managers facilitate, acknowledge and empower people as well as help to improve the work of all employees collectively.

How to Become a 'New Manager'

You can become a new style manager. Begin by employing these strategies tomorrow:

1. Abolish the words "Supervisor", "Boss" and "Subordinate" in your company documentation and vocabulary. These words maintain a superior/inferior relationship among management and staff. Instead, use the words "Manager", "Staff Members" or just "Employees".
2. Meet with employees regularly to educate them about the business realities that your organization faces. Teach them about the business (including its economics) and strategies that will allow your business to succeed. Ask for staff input, ideas and commitment to play the business game well.
3. Give employees access both to company information that will help them do their jobs, as well as to performance measures that will show them where they stand as a team, organizational function, and total organization. Plaster the walls with that information and meet with people regularly to help them understand it and to make operational improvements based learnings from that information.
4. Encourage all staff, not just Sales and Customer Service personnel, to meet with customers to understand their problems and needs. They can also meet with suppliers to communicate and collaborate on solving your organization's and your customer's problems. (These efforts will help employees and suppliers keep customers in mind continually.)
5. Get people from across your organization (e.g., Sales, Product Development, Production and Customer Service) to work together on solving more complex organizational issues (e.g., the quality of new and existing products; how to best serve the customer throughout the development, sales, delivery and support process; etc.)
6. Sit down with department staff members and ask them to assess how their group rates on:
   • productivity and efficiency of their department
   • quality and service provided to customers (external or internal)
   • performance and commitment
   Post rating and examine trends. Then ask what causes ratings to be where they are, and what the department can do to improve its self-rating. Next, get group members to volunteer to address specific problem areas and report back to the whole group for their input on potential solutions. In this way all staff members can become involved in resolving group issues and improve performance.
7. Have each employee evaluate themselves with respect to their job participation & contribution, skill mastery, and personal initiative & intentionality. Then sit down with them in an open and honest dialogue about their performance, without berating them or punishing them.
8. Educate yourself, as a new manager, and all staff with the skills that are needed to be effective in the new business reality. Upgrade everyone in: a) Work Management (not only knowing the functional and/or technical skill of their jobs, but also how to analyze improvement and manage work processes) b) People Empowerment (how to communicate, influence, negotiate, as well as how to be an effective team leader and team member) c) Self-Management (how to think creatively and analytically, as well as how to best manage time, stress, uncertainty and change)

Summary

As a manager in today's turbulent times, it is easy to get caught up in juggling the daily demands of the chaotic organization world we live in. In order to achieve success in today's new business realities, managers need to prepare themselves, their organization and its people for the future. This requires a heavy investment in coaching and developing company employees, as well as facilitating their work so they can take on more and make sound decisions on behalf of the organization. Take this as a "call to arms" for you and your company's management. If 'you' are not willing to rise to this challenge, then who in your company is willing? If 'now' is not the right time, then when?

1. Ed Deevy, Creating a Resilient Organization, Prentice Hall, 1995
2. bracketed information added by this author
3. Business Week cover story, April, 1996.
4. Goodmeasure client newsletter, 1984
5. Peter Drucker, Management and the World's Work, Harvard Business Review, 1988.
6. Bradford & Cohen, Influence without Authority, 1989.


Harvy Simkovits, CMC, President of Business Wisdom, works with owner managed companies to help them grow, prosper and continue on by offering innovative approaches to business development, company management, organization leadership and learning, and management education. He can be reached at 781-862-3983 or .