The Managerless Company
Jacob Morgan
Keynote Speaker, Professionally Trained Futurist, & 5x Author. Founder of "Future Of Work Leaders" (Global CHRO Community). Focused on Leadership, The Future of Work, & Employee Experience
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Will companies of the future have managers?
The concept of a managerless company has been floating around for years, and companies like Morningstar Farms, Medium, and Valve did away with traditional manager titles and roles.
Managers aren’t always leaders, and they often get stuck in the daily task and people management instead of fulfilling other important roles of a leader like setting the vision and inspiring people. As managerless companies flatten their organizational structure, they empower employees, remove red tape, and allow leaders to truly lead and guide their people.
In a managerless company, employees are empowered to choose their projects instead of being assigned. Employees don’t climb the corporate ladder but are guided by coaches and mentors to create their own paths. The company’s progress is driven by employees instead of mandated by executives. Even things like pay raises are decided by employees, and promotions don’t exist because titles don’t matter.
Not every company can become a managerless company, but many are moving in that direction. Empowering employees with a strong experience and great growth opportunities, giving them a voice within the company, and prioritizing performance over titles helps move companies towards the future and create an environment where people want, not need, to show up to work.
What do you think--is the future managerless?
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Student at Merchant Taylors' Schools, Crosby
2 年Brillant concept to talk about, I am sure it will get more attention as we explore this deeper. Thank you for sharing it with us. But I would like to make a comment that most of advantages do seem work very well but some not so much. So I will be looking forward to see if we can do a mixture of it!
WordPress Web Designer
2 年Concept is very interesting, but in my opinion it will need the companies to take more bolder and pragmatic steps to accept such change...
Aspiring HR Manager | Aspiring Project Manager | Aspiring Business Researcher
2 年Amazing post. I will be sure to further study this topic.
A Builder - of products, ideas, strategy, business and wealth.
2 年This seems like conceptual communism, fantastic is practice, but how do you reward, motivate, drive employees to step above, work harder, create those special contributions? This may work for small profit sharing businesses, but some employees want to 9 to 5 and some want to be the next president, both are fine. One size fits does not allow for the unique characteristics from employees businesses require to be successful.
Dedicated Travel Entrepreneur Committed to Promoting Growth and Innovation within the Industry
2 年Interesting!