Business has changed: We have moved from business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) to Consumer to Consumer(C2C) model. 20 years ago C2C was pretty much limited to a swap meets.
I believe that the face of management has also changed. There is a move from the pure hierarchical model where top-down rules to a more social form of leadership where the followers get to choose who they want to follow.
To me, there is a new social era of management where leadership plays a much larger role than before. This is especially important when working with Millennials.
Here are some key elements:
- put your followers first
- if you put yourself first, they will follow your lead
- listen to your followers
- feedback from your followers is important – listen to it!
- grow your followers
- provide feedback consistantly
- trust your followers
- share information with your followers
- step out of the way and allow your followers to step into the vacuum – enabling you to move into something else
I came across this blog post yesterday; it is by F. John Reh and titled Hire Talent, Not Just Skills – http://management.about.com/b/2009/07/06/hire-talent-not-just-skills.htm.
It got me thinking about how hiring the right person can solve both the short term and also the long term challenges that the business is facing. Even the most talented candidate will require time to acclimatize before they can work on meeting the business needs.
However even with someone with immense talent, in addition to time, it takes an investment from the manager to provide the candidate with regular coaching sessions and also ensure that the opportunities are provided for the candidate.
I have seen managers totally ignore this responsibility and as a result not only does the company lose because it takes longer for their investment in the talented candidate to mature. The candidate also loses because their career does not progress as they expected, which often creates a negative perception about that company.
The candidate is not without responsibility in this equation. The candidate needs to evaluate both the managers and the company culture on growth. After the candidate has joined, they now need to manage their growth and totally embrace the opportunities presented.
Over the years I have had many discussions around setting career goals. Many of these discussions centered around people not knowing what they want to do when they grow up.
Here are some suggestions that have helped folks in the past.
- Identify some roles that sound interesting and go and speak with the folks who are already in those roles. In most cases they are willing to discuss it and share what it takes to fulfill the role. If things still sound interesting then take it to the next level and see if you can shadow the person for a day or two.
- Often it is easier to start with what you do not like. Create a list of roles that are not attractive at all. Analyze those positions to determine what it is that is distasteful to you. Convert the dislike list to a like list and simply use it to identify possible roles that meet those criteria. Evaluate the roles as per the previous point.
- If your company has a website that lists open positions. Find some positions that you find interesting and would like to have in the future. Go the the hiring manager for those positions; explain to the hiring manager that although you know that you are not currently qualified but you would like to understand what they are looking for in a person to fulfill that role. After a couple of these discussions, you have a clear understanding of what the hiring managers are looking for. Now do a self assessment and create a GAP analysis between where you are today and what you need to be.
Hopefully by following some of these suggestions and merging them with your own ideas, you will have worked out what it is that you want to do or where you want to be.
To build the action plan:
- Write down the end goal
- Working backwards from the end goal write down steps along the way back to the present
- These steps are your roadmap to that goal
- It is much easier to determine what it will take to achieve the steps along the way
Review the roadmap and discuss it with your mentors, coach or boss to gather feedback. To take this to the next level, put dates to each step.
Work at each step and do not forget to hold yourself accountable.