BOOK SUMMARY 125 Manager 3.0
·
Summary written by: Matt Tod
"With the blurring of work and life,
millennials are bringing a more casual way of dressing, writing, communicating,
and managing to the workplace."
- Manager 3.0, page 54
Finally!
A management book written specifically FOR millennials!
Millennials
are emerging more and more into management and leadership positions,Manager
3.0 illustrates how this generation (born between 1982 and 2000) is
rewriting the rules and disrupting the traditional way that companies view and
do managemen1t.
With a
straight-forward, well researched examples and relatable stories, this is a
book that provides the reader with insight, perspective and tangible actions
around how to be a better manager, a more effective leader, and ultimately,
help contribute more to your company or organization—as well as your career!
Very
early in the book, Karsh tells a story of how Millennials are often referred to
as the “leaderless generation”. With more and more millennials starting to
enter management and leadership positions, this book helps the reader navigate
the sometimes choppy waters of adapting your management style to situations and
work demands, as opposed to generations or people.
The Golden Egg
From individual contributor to manager
"You
must start to think more in terms of what can I do for my team and my company
instead of what can the company do for me?"1- Manager 3.0, page 39
The
transition from a front-line employee to a manager isn’t an easy one. It’s
shown to be particularly challenging for the millennial generation. Why? Part
of the reason, the authors suggest, may be because of the significant change
that we go through from being an individual contributor – someone who is really
only truly responsible for their own actions, contributions and results – to a
manager – now responsible for the actions, contributions and results of those
they manage and lead. Factor in that millennial managers are often managing
their peers, and you’ve got yourself a pretty significant challenge.
This
book provides actionable advice and strategies around how to navigate that.
We’re talking everything from how to establish expectations with new staff as a
manager (do it right at the start, set clear boundaries, provide direction, and
set goals to achieve along the way) to the types of feedback you want to
provide and what’s involved in each. Here’s what I mean:
1. Day-to-day Feedback –
This is the kind of feedback that you give immediately. The moment you see your
staff doing something right or there’s an opportunity to course correct. This
is the best kind of feedback when it comes to encouraging or discouraging a
particular behaviour.
2. Informal, regularly scheduled – Regular feedback is one of the best ways to get your
team to high performance. The focus is on the direct report and how they are
doing at work.
3. Formal – The
most important thing to do is not to wait until an annual review to provide
feedback. Think of these as an investment in your people. It’s going to take
time and lots of preparation to provide them with a clear picture of their
performance. Oh, and it should always be documented. Always. If not you could
put yourself (and your company) in a pretty sticky legal situation. On the
lighter side, documenting these formal reviews provides your staff with a guide
that they can refer back to over time to make sure they’re on the right
performance path.
The
first few years of becoming a manager are really about focusing on learning,
growing and developing. Millennial managers are characterized as having a
management style that is collaborative, flexible, transparent, casual, and
balanced.
Knowing
how to manage your peers, manage, grow and develop others in an
intergenerational workforce, and how to bring your strengths to the job are all
key to developing in a successful career yourself.
Gem #1
Engage and empower
"It’s
all about building a team culture that is rewarding, inspiring, and inviting.
You want people to want to do an amazing job!"- Manager 3.0, page 173
The
terms “employee engagement” and “empowerment” are thrown around so much now
that they’ve seemingly lost their meaning. What does it truly mean to engage
and empower our workforce now?
It’s
easy to mistake engagement for employee happiness or employee satisfaction. But
is that really what it is? Not according to the authors.
Karsh
and Templin suggest that the definition of engagement goes much deeper than
that. In fact, it’s been shown that the cost of hiring and training a new
employee varies anywhere between 25 and 200% of their annual compensation!
I’ll
let that sink in for a second.
Turnover
costs can be so high, that it’s in any companies’ best interest to do everything
they can to keep their teams and employees engaged.
When
it comes to engaging millennials, what’s being found is that most leave because
they’re bored, disengaged and ready for something new. If you want to
understand what engages your millennial workforce, ask them. Find ways to keep
them engaged: provide stretch projects, job-shadowing opportunities, help find
them a mentor or offer them training that will help them get to the next level
in their career.
When
we make the time to engage our staff more intentionally, what is found is that
engaged employees produce more, they are stronger team players, and the culture
of the organization is more enjoyable. #winning
Gem #2
Adjust your approach
"A
good team has diverse people who have different ways of thinking and operating;
you need to understand these idiosyncrasies to get the most out of your
team."- Manager 3.0, page 137
There’s
an outdated belief that employees should adjust themselves to the management or
leadership style of their manager or leader. That might have worked at one
point in time, but that’s not going to fly with the millennial workforce.
As was
mentioned above, one of the best ways to engage your employees is to get to
know them. Take the time to know them and to understand their preferred style
of being managed. Not everyone appreciates being told exactly what to do when –
but some do. Just like not all people appreciate being given little direction
and boatloads of autonomy (early in their careers). The point is, as managers,
we need to better understand those we managed and lead and adapt to that. It’s
imperative to achieving the results we’ve set out to produce.
To
start, Karsh and Templin provide some great questions that you can ask your
team at your next meeting or during fun team-building events. Questions like
“would you prefer to do 15 things adequately or 9 things perfectly?” or “Do you
talk more than you listen? Or do you prefer to ask questions?”
By
taking the time to have these kinds of conversations, you’re not only getting
to know your employees so you can do your job better, you’re showing them that
you value them as individuals and as a team. It provides valuable insight into
how they work and how they view work.
Though
the intended audience for this book seems to be millennials who are coming into
management and leadership positions, I feel as though anyone who works with
millennial and wants to better understand them as a generation would benefit
from this book. It provides great analogies, stories and insightful
perspectives that encourage the reader to re-think how we are managed and
manage others. The world of work is changing and the millennial generation is
quickly becoming the largest generation in the workforce. We may find
that Manager 3.0 becomes a foundational management book for
all managers and leaders.
No comments:
Post a Comment