Have our managers lost their X Factor?
I read an article. That’s how these things often begin. I was perusing Training Journal and came across the next in the long line of articles demonstrating the crisis of UK management. One in two employees aren’t motivated by their managers, one in four don’t like their managers…it’s not exactly optimistic. Indeed, I’m beginning to view it as a pantomime…
…look at him as he creeps from the shadows – The Manager!
*the audience boos and hisses*
He’s vile, he’s despicable, he’s the reason you quake in your boots whenever Appraisal Day rolls round…oh who can save us from this ghastly plight? Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage - The Leader!
*rapturous applause*
The hero of business, on he strides clad in superhero attire, mobbed by excited followers desperate to hear his latest nugget of inspiration, hanging on his every word…
I exaggerate (as usual) but I’m starting to feel that it has become all too easy to vilify our managers, while glorifying the concept of leadership. There have been many theorists (e.g. Zaleznik, 1977) who have argued that management and leadership are irreconcilable, their traits are so psychologically distinct that it would be impossible for one person to be both. Leaders create while managers maintain; leaders are intuitive while managers lack empathy; leaders are independent and active while managers are passive and dependent on their organisation – see what I mean about the pantomime?
Leadership has become this grandiose aspiration, leaders are born rather than created, and their qualities are difficult to pin down, as reflected by the sheer volume of theories (situational, trait, etc.) trying to work out what makes a leader a leader.
In theory, leadership and management may be different concepts; however in practise managers are expected not only to manage, but to lead. Despite Zaleznik’s assertions, countless others have suggested that a leader and a manager can be the same person. Leadership is a quality of management, it is what makes management effective, the ‘X Factor’ if you will.
Maybe the problem in today’s society is that managers have lost their X Factor. Maybe some never had it in the first place, but that cannot be the case for the majority, otherwise we’re in a worse situation than I thought. As a card carrying manager who has been tempted (on more than one occasion) to shut herself in the supply cupboard and adopt the foetal position it seems to me that something is going very wrong.
Martin Baker suggests that some managers are promoted because they happen to be there – good at what they’re doing but with no experience or training in managing others – and are left to sink or swim. We all have the right to expect more from our managers, poor management can have a hugely negative impact on employee motivation, productivity and ultimately turnover; but our managers are getting sandwiched between employee expectations, and employers’ unwillingness to invest in training and support. Such pressure from all directions does not a leader make.
I’m not suggesting we consult Simon Cowell here, but if UK managers have lost their X Factor then it is a very real problem that requires a real training and development solution.
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