The Manager is Dead Long Live the Leader

There has been a massive cultural change in British commerce during the past five years. Probably the most dramatic has been how employees have been valued. British management is at long last going into the 21st century with an attitude of mind that clearly demonstrates people being an organisation’s greatest asset.

With no real likelihood of the job market softening finding the right staff is perhaps the biggest misery and indeed pressure that managers experience. Therefore if one is fortunate in having good staff it really must make sense to keep them.

Now we come to another cultural change – from management to leadership and from manipulation to motivation. Within the big corporations, - whether it’s called re-engineering, downsizing or some other weird and wonderful jargon! – tiers of management have been removed as the modern workforce requires less management and more leadership. And so it is for the smaller enterprise.

The owner or manager must lead and must fully differentiate the difference of manipulation and motivation. The Institute of Manpower Studies has claimed that the word ‘motivation’ is among the six most used words in company documents. It goes on to say that just because it is used, it doesn’t mean to say that it is understood.

In a survey carried out by The Grass Routes plc. Which included 500 of the top 1,000 businesses in the UK, it was found that 95% of those companies that responded felt their staff could be more motivated.

I believe to motivate others is the most important of management tasks. It comprises the abilities to communicate, to set an example, to challenge, to encourage, to obtain feedback, to involve, to delegate, to develop and train, to inform, to brief and to provide a just reward.

That is all very well, but in order to motivate others it really ahs to start with oneself! Like all management functions, it is really impossible to carry out unless one first manages oneself.

Let us begin by distinguishing the difference from a management viewpoint between motivation and manipulation.

Manipulation, in my simplistic view, seems to be getting someone to do something because you want them to do something, whereas motivation is getting someone to do something because they want to do it. An there lies the difference. If you understand what motivates people you have at your command the most powerful tool for dealing with them, and when I say power that is exactly what I mean. Hidden in that word motivation lies tremendous power. Every success story of human endeavour in the history of mankind has, as a foundation, the major ingredient of motivation.

November 2003 – Richard Denny. Best selling author of ‘Selling to Win, Succeed for Yourself, Motivate to Win, Speak for Yourself and Communicate to Win. Inspirational Speaker, Business Consultant and Executive Coach – website: www.denny.co.uk