If you are striving to be a better manager – which, as a self-respecting
manager you undoubtedly are – you may find it helpful (even if it seems
slightly odd) to start with a little etymology.
You see the word ‘manage’ is derived from the Latin ‘maneggiare’ meaning to
handle and comes from the root word ‘manus’ or hand. As such it has a great
deal in common with the word ‘manufacture’ (literally to make by hand) and
‘manipulate’ (literally to fill the hands) and all conveying the need to
handle, or operate the hands. This has some pretty profound implications when
it comes to people.
Throughout history and right through the Industrial Age, human labour has
been “hired.” One consequence of this was the phrase “hired hands” which broadly
characterised the relationship between employer and employee. It was this
concept which gave employers the right to hire and fire people at their
discretion.
Today, however, we have moved beyond this narrow need. Since the start of
the Information Age we have talked widely and openly about “knowledge workers,”
thus implicitly recognising the need to move beyond the historic limits
conveyed by the traditional terminology. Even if you haven’t consciously recognised
this, you have already intuited it, hence your efforts to develop initiatives “to win the minds of your people.” Yet
even that is not enough.
The fact is that to obtain the calibre of employees you need, you have to
secure the services of the total person. Thus you need to win the heads, hearts
and hands of your people. That is why employee engagement has become such a hot
topic recently. It is the manifestation (another word with the ‘manus’ root;
literally to strike with the hand) of the enlightened recognition of the need
to win hearts, as well as heads and hands!
Nor is it coincidence that we are increasingly discussing the need for
leadership rather than management. The same forces are trying to compel you
think beyond the constraints of traditional, command-and-control management.
And this week, I came across the most succinct statement from my friend Steve
Roesler that spells out precisely what you need to do to achieve this. He said,
“When you tell people how to do their
jobs, you take away their identity.”
In a nutshell, his advice is to tell people what needs
to be done and leave them to figure out the how. That, I can tell you from
personal experience, is sound advice. Indeed it is the secret of much of the
success I have had during my career. In fact it is what has underpinned all my
efforts to design and develop my employee ownership model. If you as a manager
are scared about empowering employees and losing control what better way can
you think of to ensure a common purpose that wins the hearts, heads and hands
and so drives the kind of behaviours that you need, than to make employees
owners with the same proportional stake in the business that you have? By making your people owners, you are not only
giving them a job; you are putting them in charge of their own business and
giving them a proud new identity as business owner.