Where Have All the Good Managers Gone?
"No job is more vital to our society than that of the
manager. It is the manager who determines whether our social institutions serve
us well or whether they squander our talents and resources." - Henry
Mintzberg
Nobody aspires to be a good manager these days. Much attention
and resources are devoted to leadership development as everyone wants to be a
great leader, yet all leaders have to manage people. The separation of
management from leadership is dangerous. Leading without good management results
in a failure to execute.
According to traditional management theory, managers are supposed to plan,
organize, coordinate, and control. The truth is, pressures of reacting to urgent
matters supplant most reflection and planning. Managers respond to the urgencies
of each day, take on too much work, operate with continual interruptions, and
make instant decisions. There is no time to step back and consider bigger
issues. This leads to acting with superficial and fragmented information.
The way through the press of urgent requirements and impossible work loads comes
not from hiring an army of new employees, but from effectively harnessing the
people you already have. "Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much
increase is by the strength of the ox." Proverbs 14:4
Good managers will create order from chaos in much the same way as God created
the present day Earth: He took an Earth void and without form and reshaped what
He had already created into a highly ordered world with well defined boundaries
and responsibilities. As the Earth's natural inter-relating systems work
together to sustain each other so must the various departments of a ministry.
"And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having
nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God."
Colossians 2:19
As organizations grow, managers must demonstrate higher levels of interpersonal
and communication skills, emotional intelligence and strong collaborative
abilities. Increase comes from managers executing the vision of leadership by
organizing the various parts of the church body and clearly defining the duties
of each part. When managers band together and exercise teamwork God is free to
prosper the organization.
Measuring the Activities of Managers
Effective management requires reflective systematic planning. Research shows
that managers work at an unrelenting pace and their activities are short,
varied, and discontinuous. They are biased towards action, and spend little time
reflecting.
In one study, half the activities engaged in by executives lasted less than nine
minutes. A study of 56 foremen in the U.S. found they averaged 583 activities
per 8-hour shift, an average of 1 every 48 seconds. Executives meet a steady
stream of callers and mail all day long. Many managers leave their doors open to
encourage the free flow of information, but also thereby encourage
interruptions. There is little time for reflection or planning.
Managers are constantly being told to delegate more, but most managers end up
doing work alongside others. Many times managers engage in routine duties to
fill staff vacancies. Other times they habitually deal with important or
difficult tasks that they should train others to do for them. Managers who do
this limit their potential growth because they spend their time performing the
task instead of recruiting new volunteers from the church body and training them
to perform the function. Ministry managers must remember that it is not their
job to do the job; it is their job to get the job done.
From Empowerment to Self-Managing Teams
A truly collaborative mind-set does not involve managing people so much as
managing the relationships among people, teams and projects across divisions and
alliances. Getting into a truly collaborative mind-set means moving beyond
empowerment. In fact, the word empowerment implies that the people
who know the work best must somehow receive power from their managers to do it.
The truth is that God has invested talent and wisdom in managers and He intends
for them to do what they have been equipped to do. Leaders must recognize the
manger's gift and give them freedom to do what only they can do best. Yes, there
is a God ordained hierarchy, but the leaders up the food chain are entrusted
with authority so that they can facilitate putting the right people in the right
positions. Leaders are established to serve. That is why they are called
ministers.
A collaborative mind-set means getting away from the heroic style of managing
and moving into a more engaging style. It provides a way for people to manage
themselves.
Engaging managers listen more than they talk; they get out of their offices to
see and feel more than they remain in them to sit and figure. They foster
collaboration among others. They do less controlling, allowing other people to
be in greater control of their own work.
Great managers don't make things get done. Rather, they help establish
the structures, conditions, and attitudes by which things get done. This
requires active collaboration. To be collaborative means to be inside, be
involved, and to distribute management beyond managers, so that responsibility
flows to whomever can take initiative and pull things together. This style of
managing is really about creating self-managing teams.
Nurturing Success
Ministries that wish to retain top managers with the crucial skills and
extraordinary talents so necessary to sustaining results will have to look upon
their managers as important resources - and nurture them accordingly. Leadership
must remember that the managers God has given them will have a personal Judgment
Seat. Therefore, leadership must free managers to reach their potential and do
all they can to receive their full reward. When managers understand that they
can be more productive with the team than without the team, they will stay,
contribute, and prosper.
The manager is looked upon as the single biggest factor for retaining employees
in the business environment (Gallup Organization). Therefore, nurturing good
managers is even more crucial for building great companies. The same can be said
for church and ministry organizations. Without strong managers exercising their
spiritual gift of government in behalf of the church or ministry, visionary
leaders will fail to achieve what God has called them to do.
One of the best ways to nurture good people is to provide them with development
opportunities. Having a coach or mentor is a good way to develop stronger
managerial skills and build resilience in a manager. Companies that provide
coaching to their managers see results in performance, not only in the manager
but also in the manager's people.
This principle also applies to the ministry. "Through desire a man, having
separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom." Proverbs 18:1
Wise leaders will capitalize upon the numerous seminars and training
opportunities available to ministry managers. While it may cost a good deal of
money to send managers to seminars, subscribe them to ministry publications, and
purchase books for them to read, in the long run the investment returns much
more than it costs. Help your managers "intermeddle" with those who have
successfully done what you need them to do and you will accelerate the growth of
your ministry.
Jeff Wade, DBS
BibleLeader.com
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