The way the managers behave and treat their teams / subordinates is one of the most important determinants on the performance of teams and the companies in general. Those managers who manage their teams properly by giving them the right support, right targets that stretch their abilities and right confidence, lead their teams to success. On the other hand those managers who does not support their teams properly and create a toxic environment face the failure and lose their team members.
2 articles that I read recently support this idea very much.
I don’t know whether you have heard about Pygmalion effect.
It simply refers to self-fulfilling prophecy. If a teacher believes a child is a
slow learner the child will believe too and will become a slow learner. The opposite
is also true. If a teacher thinks that the students have potential and communicates them accordingly, the students try to show that potential and learns more and faster.
J. Sterling Livingston talks about Pygmalion effect in his article
that was published in January 2003 in Harvard Business Review. He claims that Pygmalion effect is also
applicable in the work environment. According to Livingston: “If Managers’
expectations are high, productivity is likely to be excellent. If their
expectations are low (towards a group of employees) productivity is likely to
be poor. It is as though there were a law that caused subordinates’ performance
to rice or fall to meet managers` expectations”
Livingston continues:
- “What managers expect of subordinates and the way they treat them largely determine their performance and career progress”
- “A unique characteristic of superior managers is the ability to create high performance expectations that subordinates fulfil.”
- “Less effective managers fail to develop similar expectations and as a consequence the productivity of their subordinates suffer”
- “Subordinates more often than not appear to do what they believe they are expected to do.”
According to Livingston: “Managers are more effective in
communicating low expectations to their subordinates… it usually is astonishingly
difficult for them to recognize the clarity with which they transmit negative
feelings… Positive feelings, on the other hand, often are not communicated
clearly enough…” But on the other hand when communicating the expectations
and positive results, the managers should be realistic and make the
subordinates believe the results that they are expected to deliver. The
unattainable goals will cause the employees to give up.
Marcel Schwantes in an article published in Inc talks about the toxic bosses. Schwantes tells 5 things toxic bosses do in the organizations to make their employees uncomfortable and leave the "job":
- “Narcissism: Narcissists … are likely to engage in manipulation to advance themselves at the cost of others and are socially skillful with aggressive underpinning motives..”
- “Micromanagement: … They have a hard time letting go and trusting their team members to perform their work…”
- “Setting unrealistic expectations: … can sabotage the workplace by setting goals so high and expectations so unrealistic, it may often be impossible to complete the task, leaving employees disengaged and hopeless…”
- “Rudeness: In meetings toxic bosses may cut off their employees as they present a view or and idea that does not align to their own….”
- “Incompetence: Many toxic bosses were recent individual contributors promoted to management without having the competencies to lead human beings…”
As a summary, for a boss, being successful is not about applying the
latest technology or knowing all about the smallest technical details of the job
done but it is all about managing the people properly with respect and trusting
them to do their works.
For those who want to read the full articles, I am adding the
web addresses of the articles I mentioned.
https://hbr.org/2003/01/pygmalion-in-management
https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/toxic-boss-signs.html
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