I just read Dr. Lynda Gratton's column posted in Harvard Business Review, 'The End of the Middle Manager'. In her column, she encourages middle managers to take action to adapt the trend's changes. Based on my work experience, her points look realistic. Before I took current work, Architect, I've been working as IT development manager. During my work, I felt the similar impression from my team as well as across organizations. Even though not all of my team members are generation Y, they showed the same tendency. They wanted to get practical value from my guidance and comments that can be used in real world situation. They were looking for mentor and master as Dr. Gratton mentioned in her column. In IT division, the corporate has pushed employees for better performance. They need efficient and effective ways to produce output in faster, quicker, and better ways but it's really hard to find right level of training opportunity in current workplace.
Meantime, diversified sourcing models, outsourcing, insourcing, and in between, added them another burden for their job security. This is another reason that non generation Y employees showed similar tendency as younger generation. They want to sharpen and dust off their legacy skill set but bells and rings of current technology looks steep hill in their first sight. Without having map and direction, it'll surely be maze to them. Since they know the fact, they're looking for mentorship from me.
In my personal experience, Dr. Gratton's points are clear and there are lots of demands from current workforce. Middle Mangers are good position to help their team with enormous experiences as well as insights for the corporate. The managers can split their time and spend more on mentoring their team. However, is it possible for managers to split their time on mentoring in today's corporate environment? It's not practical until corporate gives break to managers. I hope Dr. Gratton's point doesn't add more work to current managers.
AS an owner of an IT company, it is really helpful and interesting to read about the opinions of topics such as these from other experienced workers like yourself. I enjoyed reading this a lot. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteThe two investments that Dr. Gratton is asking for is understandable. Not only does polishing your skill set and having that "signature" secure your place in a managerial position within the company, it also earns respect from employees. However it is not without asking, "To what point do the middle managers have to arm themselves with these skill sets?" There is a breaking point for many people and to constantly strive for these "signatures" and extra skill sets outside of your working life is just adding more to the workload and stress. Unless there are opportunities that the company offers for those in managerial positions to polish their skills and to possibly study adjacent proficiencies (such as seminars, helping with education, frequent bonuses, etc) there really is no payoff. Being a middle manager is truly a difficult position and despite the fact that Dr. Gratton says, " If you’re a middle manager now, you aren’t doomed to early retirement", it's risky. With more and more competition from the new workforce in generation Y (with more accreditations but less experience) it's unfortunate. Maybe instead of any company outings, the company should spend more of that time to allow the managers to mentor their employees as you've stated. That way it secures a bond between the managers and the employees but also keeps the employees' skill set up-to-date thus helping with, "efficient and effective ways to produce output in faster, quicker, and better ways"
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