Monday Morning Manager

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Today, I'm going to share my prime concern which ultimately, must upend the lives of many jobbing managers as we now know them.  The outcome is uncertain, and in the end a choice for each individual

• Will they simply look backwards and become outcasts, lost in a future wilderness they are not equipped for.

• Or, alternatively, will they become what can only be described as a management revolutionary in today's terms.

Management as we have known it has undoubtedly been one of humankind’s greatest inventions. It gave us a model of the world which helped us organise human labour (primarily physical effort), and build unprecedented economic progress, with its structures and process, over the last 100 years.

Now, 'the quickening' caused by the pandemic, has suddenly taken that model of the world beyond its maturity.  What management  is, what management does, and how management does it.  Like any mature fruit, it must allowed to fall to ground and be replaced with a newer fresher version filled with the new resources now available

The signs are everywhere: 

• The rates of improvement in productivity have been stalled for years. 

• Balance and health of societies are both under strain

• The cycles.of economic recession grow more rapid and serious as the old fixes to correct them, hold good for less time,  

• There are growing supply chain problems,

• Inflation is back.  The long term value of incomes is falling for the first time in 50 years

• We have the 'Great Resignation', 'Quiet Quitting' and too many dissatisfied people feeling poorer by the minute

• Work is losing it meaning for too many!

• There are already signs of regression to old really harmful fixes - war for example...

• You can undoubtedly continue with you own list ...

The late and great Bill Harris of the CentrePointe Institute in Canada talked about this a lot.  I paraphrase:

"It's stressful when your old model of the world collapses.  You do not have in it, what you need to deal with and benefit from your new reality. 

You only have two choices - You can resist by hanging on to your old internal model of the world, whilst your old world collapses around you, your new realities and possibilities unrecognised.

Or, you can intentionally let go of your old model of the world, let it collapse and fall away.  This enables you to build a new model of the world, fit and effective to benefit from the new future you inhabit."

What does this mean for us as managers?

I've been a manager for all my working life.  I've loved every second of it.  But I was lucky, I was already a renegade. 

I was trained as a professional change agent.  I was trained to surface dissatisfactions with the present state, and then help people move beyond them. This is the first step in the change process. I've had the great fortune to work with, listen to, and learn from, tens of thousands of people.

I heard about a lot of manager's challenges and frustrations, and more importantly how they overcame them. Gathering all the best information together enabled me to begin I showing managers easier, simpler ways to mobilise and motivate their people.  Consequently, these mangers freed up  more of their own time for what really mattered to them and their organisations.

Even so, I was still shocked by the quickening created by the pandemic.  My response is to share all I have learned with as many managers as possible. 

Right now, I am inviting you to subscibe to this blog - Monday Morning Manager.

Here, I promise to share every actionable strategy I know.  You'll receive one per week on a Monday Morning.  This gives you the opportunity to put each strategy to use in the week ahead. 

Please be active in commenting and adding to what I've sent.  If you have further questions please DM me on linkedIn.  The more we work together the faster we will make progress.

Action Steps for Your Revolution?

You could start by getting clear answers to these 3 questions:

• How does what you do contribute to the wider goals of the organisation (and how does that help the world?

• How does what you do sit alongside what other people do to contribute to those wider goals?

• How does what you (as a manager) do help people at the sharp end do their jobs better?

We all need to begin the search for meaning in our work.

That's all for today,

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See you again next week.

Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Monday Morning Manager - Newsletter. Receive a weekly micro strategy to increase your contribution and value.  Click Here

2. The Regenesis Operating System for yourself as manager – better results in less time. Click here.

3. If you would like coaching for yourself as manager, executive, director or board member, or if you would like  professional facilitation for developing your team, top team, board and wider organisation. Click here.