The role of managers has deeply evolved. The complexity of the situation – both at organizational and human levels – comes on top of the difficulties caused by the successive BPR processes. This will make it hard for them to rely on the management techniques they have learnt. Rather, they will have to resort to their own creativity and originality in order to quickly address multiple needs in a relevant manner. This is where “Differentiated Management” comes in.
By Liliane Held-Khawam, author of the book “Management by Coaching: Coping with Complexity in a Changing World”.
Differentiated management may be defined as the ability to address every situation in a quick and adequate way by integrating the company’s orientations, rather than by using predefined action patterns (instructions, standardized responses…). In this philosophy, people (customers, employees…) lie at the center of the manager’s reflection. Managers themselves represent an essential piece of the “puzzle”.
The success criteria of a “Differentiated Management” approach
Differentiated managers will aim to be both autonomous and efficient. The definition of these terms and the components that make them up are given below. A few measurable criteria that allow for the assessment of these dimensions are indicated in the following table:
The core skills required for a “Differentiated Management” approach
| Key-axes | Components | Measurable criteria |
| I. Autonomy | Judgment | Initiative |
| Realism | ||
| Risk-taking | ||
| Individual responsibility | Independence | |
| Motivation/enthusiasm | ||
| Openness and self-expression | Innovation/creativity | |
| Communication/listening | ||
| II. Performance | Corporate goals (general direction) | Global vision |
| and goals of the customers | Strategic sense | |
| Sense of results | ||
| Team spirit | ||
| Mobilizing and developing | Leadership | |
| one’s teams | Persuasion | |
| Coaching |
The manager’s autonomy
We have seen that managers find themselves increasingly alone when they have to make decisions and in their relation to their team. We regard three different axes as essential in order for them to feel comfortable with their new environment:
- Judgment
- Individual responsibility
- Openness and self-expression
Judgment
Judgment reflects one’s ability to assess the situation and react in the most appropriate manner. To do so, one would gain from:
- Developing a good self-knowledge: Knowing one’s strengths, weaknesses, motivations and reference values. This will allow for an assessment of one’s level of competence in relation to some given problem and for an awareness of the limits that should not be crossed. This knowledge provides a referential within the boundaries of which it is possible to evolve without fear.
- Being centered: Being sufficiently self-aware to not take problems for oneself. The more centered one is, the less one will be troubled by outside storms. This allows to keep a distance from problems. It will make it easier to keep one’s calm, to apprehend the environment in a more global way. This contributes to the development of a visionary approach based on facts.
- Looking at the environment and problems with objectivity and being able to relativize them: This consists in apprehending the environment in a realistic and well-balanced way. Being able to assess the needs of one’s function, hierarchy, employees and customers will be useful to succeed. In this respect, managers can set themselves goals both in terms of quantity and of quality.
Individual responsibility
In this environment, every person has to take responsibility for her own life. “How can I contribute to the solving of a difficulty or conflict” becomes the key issue. To do so, one should:
- Dare to make decisions: so as not to jeopardize the company’s chances of success nor hinder the activity of others.
- Assume one’s decisions: with all the risks that go with it. Risks may range from success to unpopularity, and even complete failure.
- Making one’s employees responsible and autonomous: the best manager is the one who trusts his/her team members and gives them the means they need to achieve their goals. They share the responsibility of their activities – and even their power (empowerment) – with them.
Openness and self-expression
This consists in taking the reality and the needs of the environment into account, in order to be able to address them. This criterion will become more and more decisive for the successfulness of one’s management:
- Openness: consists in taking others (i.e. workforce, customers, superiors, suppliers, competitors, colleagues…) into account. This involves listening, which has been neglected for a long time and lies at the root of the frequent difficulties in the communication and exchanges of views between the Direction and the basis of the organization. This openness contributes to the understanding and integration of this plethora of diversified – and possibly heterogeneous – activities. It also helps adjusting to the accelerated pace of change of the market and technologies and, in some cases, contributes to the improvement of one’s ability to anticipate.
- Self-expression: consists not only in addressing other people’s needs, but also in creating positive dynamics around oneself. This involves acknowledging the contributions of others, encouraging and stimulating them. Managers have been trying for so long to hide their feelings and favor rationality. Yet, feelings are an integral part of one’s personality. And feelings of anger, deception, … are expressed anyway. So why not express one’s positive feelings? The love for one’s work, company, customers and team certainly contribute to the successfulness of managers. They spend so much time on their professional life, so why should they not find some enjoyment in it, so as to give a meaning to all the sacrifices they make.
Openness stimulates exchanges of views with others and creativity. One should however not lose sight of the goals of one’s function.
The manager’s efficiency
Performance is an indisputable and necessary element of the system in which we evolve. Managers have to integrate this data very quickly and deal with this issue on two levels:
- Taking the company’s goals into account: This consists in taking the company’s actual mission, its performances and key-competencies into account. It is essential for efficient managers to “believe” in the company, its products and management in spite the difficulties they encounter, to adhere to its guidelines, to seek the total and sustainable satisfaction of all its customers, to build up constructive relations with its suppliers and to maintain a global vision by keeping some distance from events.
- Mobilizing and developing the workforce: Believing in one’s employees and trusting them becomes a decisive element for the successfulness of one’s sector of activity. Managers know the true competencies of their team members and build up a team by valorizing their strengths and using the complementarity of individuals. It is just as important to take into account the doubts, sorrows, uncertainties and even fears that represent hindrances for one’s employees. The successfulness of managers is more than ever linked to their team.
As a consequence, managers should:
- set up guidelines with their team
- know their strengths and limits in terms of competencies
- set up an action plan and tools in order to develop them
- make them responsible and autonomous in order to achieve their goals
- listen to them and offer them a differentiated response, depending on the employee’s profile and needs.
- lead them to believe in their activities and in the company
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