Live from #LASHRM14: The Evolution of the Modern People Manager
Are your company’s leaders equipped with the skills they need to be a modern people managers?
Most of today’s managers aren’t, said Kris Dunn, talent agent and partner at Kinetix in his keynote speech, “I Come from the Water (The Evolution of the Modern People Manager),” Monday at the 2014 Louisiana Society for Human Resource Management Conference on Human Resources.
The Great Divide
Dunn explained that the evolution of the manager has created a disparity between the number of people holding management positions and the number of people in management positions who have the ability to be effective managers of people. According to Gallup research, 1 out of 10 employees have the ability to manage people -- they’re the naturals -- and 2 out 10 employees can manage people if there’s an ongoing investment in those people, he said.
“The brutal reality is this: companies miss in 82 percent of managerial hires."
He explained that the problem stems from companies’ tendency to hire for production. In other words, those who are able to produce are put on the fast track to becoming a manager of people. But, managing people has nothing to do with production.
Then he walked the audience through the evolution of the modern manager through the lens of three well-known managers: Henry Ford, Don Draper and Ari Gold.
The Henry Ford Era
In Henry Ford’s day, there was a focus on the production line, said Dunn. “Managers had a direct line to tell their employees what was expected of them, what they needed to be doing, what was expected out of them.”
Managing people in a production line is like managing a machine. As long as each piece is producing what it needs to be producing the process is successful. Today’s managers have a difficult time managing people because they’re still viewing their people as part of a production line. They’re stuck in outdated methods from the Henry Ford era.
The Don Draper Era
Once work started to become more complex, and creativity began to become an element of getting the job done, it threw a cog into the system, said Dunn. And management had to change its methods for managing people.
Don Draper, the fictional advertising executive from the TV series “Mad Men” represents the management mentality during the 1950’s and 1960’s. During this era of American business, ideas and intellectual property became the most important currency, explained Dunn. But, at the same time there was still a respect for hierarchy within the organization. In other words, Draper could say, “do this because I said so” and the employee would do it.
As time went on, there was a shift in the methods of production from “outsourcing, offshoring, production moving to China,” said Dunn. This shift eventually lead to a decrease in the number of employees it takes to increase corporate profitability.
The result? Employees stopped trusting their employers.
The Ari Gold Era
Ari Gold, the movie agent and lead character from the TV series “Entourage” represents a different type of manager – he’s a career agent; a modern manager, said Dunn. “Managers of people need to become career agents.”
Gold gets paid to maximize careers and the better his employees do, the better he does, explained Dunn. Gold understands that modern people managers need to understand relationships and the different ways they need to engage and structure conversations with their employees.To help your managers meet the needs and demands of the modern day workforce, you must develop career agents within your organization, concluded Dunn.Need help developing your company's leaders into career agents? Consider Success Labs executive coaching.Success Labs is a full-service, strategic organizational and leadership development company located in Baton Rouge, La. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.
