I found another article in Business Week about strategy. The name of the article is, "A Bold Management Strategy: Keeping Quiet." Kathy Cloninger is CEO of Girl Scouts of USA. Cloninger has a vocal ailment, one of her two vocal cords have become paralyzed. She has trouble talking over a whisper. This has changed her management style significantly. She gives three vital lessons in the article: 1. A greater understanding of the stigma 2. Giving the spotlight to subordinates 3. Listen first, speak last.
Her explanation of lesson one is that her struggles with her voice have given her an even deeper appreciation of young people who find themselves set apart from the crowd. She ties this lesson into how the customer thinks. For example, the message for managers everywhere: There is no better way to conduct customer research than to actually experience what the customer does.
"Giving the spotlight to subordinates," lesson two, Cloninger talks about how her ailment has helped her let other speak more. She states in the article, "I've too often let myself be the organization's spokesperson...Because I lead very well verbally, I haven't really given others the chance to play this role."
Lesson three, "listen first, speak last," explains how her struggles to speak have helped her listen better. To be a leader, she adds, "you don't have to have an opinion on everything."
Nevertheless she continues to manage the Girl Scouts differently from the way she once did. "I still lean on others more than before," she says, "and I am much more conscious about giving others a chance … versus just jumping in and taking charge."
Personally, I wish my manager would shut her mouth once in a while and just let me do my job!!! I am sure you can all agree with this on some level.
Another good find Joe. I think managers should utilize this style more often as well. It's not about solving problems for people, that's inefficient. I like when she states that you don't have to have an opinion on everything, part of being a manager is letting someone figure it out and do it themselves. That goes back to that type of management style of letting people work and simply stepping in when you may need to reprimand or praise their work. There's nothing wrong with setting some goals, but when you start stepping on peoples toes it gets to be too much.
ReplyDeleteIt's better to listen is a good point. You don't know what problem someone has or how someone feels if you don't listen to them. Plus, you learn more overall from listening than from speaking.
Nice job, Joe. I really liked the part when she says that the best way to conduct customer research is to actually experience what the customer does. That is so relevant in the workplace. We are so quick to judge people and the ways they do their jobs, but we don't fully understand the effort/time/skill that it takes for someone to do that specific job. I know my department gets a lot of criticism, because we have a huge load of responsibility, yet a small amount of authority, so it is difficult to get stuff done. Plus, we are extremely overworked and overwhelmed, so it is a challenge to manage everything. But no one understands the true difficulty until they have actually been in that position before. So I thought that was a very cool remark for her to point out.
ReplyDeleteI have a few years of management experience with the military. I have been a one on one supervisor for one of my subordinates as well as leading a private organization (PO)in fundraising, establishing, coordinating, and executing squadron picnics, family days, and holiday parties. In both cases I have found that I have much better success allowing my fellow PO members the freedom to take on and execute tasks without my input. As well as interfering as infrequently as possible allowing him the freedom to take charge of his own work day and trusting in the fact he is trained and able to do his work unsupervised.
ReplyDeleteI experience situations like this weekly but it is more of a trickle down effect from one manager to another. My immediate manager would usually listen to improvements his employees had up until recently we had a new Operations manager come in. He rarely listens to what others suggest and really ties everyone hands. It is frustrating because we end up wasting a lot of time because someone wanted it done his way.
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