Managing Employess or Leading Employees?
As an executive coach, I hear a lot about Employee Management and Employee Management Systems. However, it’s commonly agreed that employees are looking for leadership, not management. This leads me to ask what exactly do we think we’re managing? Results? Behavior? Attitude?
I know that employee management systems often manage HR topics - payroll, benefits, etc. So then, where are our Employee Leadership Systems? Have you noticed that companies don’t often have Employee Leadership departments? Many people believe that you can’t systemize leadership, that it’s an art. Except then when you ask ‘are leaders born or made?’, people often assert that leadership can be taught.
Employee Leadership Systems
What would it look like if companies had employee leadership systems that were as robust and well developed as our HR systems? We can create specific leadership systems designed to ensure great leadership. Not just training programs – that is one system – but proactive systems designed around ensuring our corporate leaders are able to deliver on their responsibilites, including managing the corporate vision and mission. Have you been to a corporate office, seen the vision, mission and values hanging on the wall, yet no one could recite it to you nor tell you what it really means to them in their daily work?
Measurement systems are a start. Many corporations have these already. Employee surveys specifically designed to find out if employees really understand and implement the vision, mission and values in their daily work. These are an important start. Where are the systems for increasing employee adherence? How many employees at your company are regularly, meaningfully rewarded for living the corporate values? Customers regularly are asked for feedback, but when that feedback shows the warehouse staff treated the customer with respect, do they get appropriate recognition for their positive attitude? If they did, how much easier was it on the manager to instill the values in his team?
Managing the Corporate Vision
Please respond with systems you’ve seen that enable leaders to communicate and manage the corporate vision, mission and values successfully. Let us know the system and what difference it made for the leaders and the employees.
Alan Hill is an executive and leadership coach with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching firm. He can be reached at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill or alanhill@actioncoach.com
Posted by alanhill 
