At the start of the Industrial Revolution, Frederick Taylor helped business owners understand how effective management of workers impacted productivity and profitability. Taylor showed that workers would perform better if they were shown the most efficient processes to follow. As a result, the ratio of managers to workers grew in most industries until World War II.
Peter Drucker defined management in the 1960s as getting the right things done through other people. However, the ratio of managers to workers has been steadily declining since he printed that statement. Today, not many people have a role that is purely managerial. Most managers have individual contributor roles and perform their managerial duties in their ‘spare’ time. For example, a sales manager might have a personal sales quota that is 70-80% of what her sales reps have. This means that she spends the majority of her time cultivating her own sales pipeline rather than helping her team be more effective.
One unintended consequence of the evolution of management into the 21st century is that companies promote people based on their technical knowledge. This makes sense when you consider that managers are spending most of their time performing technical – not managerial – work. This form of technical promotions has contributed to increased job dissatisfaction and decreased levels of engagement from workers who want more feedback and better interactions with their ‘technician’ bosses.
The economic realities of this trend are not likely to change. Few companies can afford managers whose only responsibilities are to plan and monitor the work of others, like Taylor recommended. Companies shouldn’t forget the benefits of effective management and the costs that go along with devalued management skills.
The answer is not necessarily investing in more management. The answer is investing in BETTER management. Helping those technical experts become better managers through training and coaching is one way. The benefits of effective management are the same as they were in Taylor’s day – workers will perform better and the firm will be more profitable if workers have effective managers. The trick is figuring out HOW to equip managers to be effective within the realities of modern time constraints. This requires a realignment of their rewards to include managerial excellence in addition to individual contributor excellence.
Call the Davidson Group at 336-294-5053 for effective managerial training that is created specifically for your organization.
