The Psychology of Traditional vs High-Performance Management

People join companies but quit their bosses.

First, a few eye-openers.

·?????? Over 50% of employees?quit their job because of their managers .

·?????? Over 50% of global companies have difficulty addressing employee retention.

·?????? 92% of employees said that they would stay with their jobs if their bosses showed more empathy.

·?????? A global survey of employee attitudes suggests that a whopping 82% of people?don’t trust their boss .

·?????? Highly engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave their companies.

Two fundamentally different Management Styles

Today there exist two fundamentally different management styles: - 1. Traditional Management styles (Autocratic, Transactional and Commanding) and 2. High-Performance Leadership Styles (High-Performance and Transformational).

Traditional Management

Traditional management styles are typically structured like this: A senior executive or board holds all the power; they are in command and use their power and influence to lead. They appear at the top of the organisation chart. Below them are senior managers, then middle managers, with employees at the bottom. We call this an organisational hierarchy. The Traditional management styles are the most pervasive, they are still in use in the majority of the world’s organizations.

Because the Traditional organization has many layers of management, many people need time to weigh up and coordinate issues, it takes a long time to make decisions, therefore many managers may feel their opinions are being ignored.

In terms of interpersonal communication, senior management messages easily get distorted as directives move through the Traditional hierarchy. This is because each manger may interpret the words in different ways, by the time the message reaches employees, the message may be different from the original intention.?

Traditional managers embrace process, seek stability, and control, and instinctively try to resolve problems quickly – sometimes before they fully understand a problem’s significance.

Traditional managers set expectations for the employees below them who need to meet certain goals, but the manager receives the reward for achieving those goals.

Authority is assigned to the position rather than the individual.

Traditional is about control, rules, regulations, boundaries and the source of all new business and ways of working.

Traditional managers are influential because it is in the best interest of subordinates to do what the manager wants.

Traditional pays most of its attention to a company’s goals and objectives, emphasising increasing sales or profits to please the shareholders, which can lead the company to neglect social responsibilities and business sustainable development.?

A Traditional personality can deter people from bringing you the brutal facts.

Traditional managers can be blind to work and employment issues and slow to react to change. Regrettably, employees have learned that the way their managers act is what the path to success looks like, so they model it.

Traditional does not individualize the needs of subordinates or focus on their personal development. Traditional managers exchange things of value with subordinates to advance their own and their subordinates’ agendas.

Traditional Management Behaviours

Planning.

Responding to the direction set from above.

Establishing purpose.

Setting goals, objectives, and strategies.

Executing plans, improving the present.

Establishing a budget.

Managing around constraints.

Organizing.

Exercising control through authority and formal influence.

Establishing or changing team activities.

Making decisions.

Solving problems.

Scheduling.

Designing the organization.

Staffing.

Organizing and recruiting staff, providing structure.

Controlling subordinates, directing, and coordinating.

Managing discipline.

Setting roles and responsibilities.

Obtaining, allocating or releasing resources to deliver objectives (People, equipment, facilities).

Performance management and appraisals.

Succession planning.

Leading.

Focusing on things, looking inward.

Doing things right, managing change.

Using authority, avoiding conflict, and acting responsibly.

Reactive, minimizes risk, maintains stability.

Maintains the status quo.

Time management.

Delegates.

Controlling.

Collecting, analysing, and reporting performance information.

Identifying issues and taking corrective actions.

Designing controls.

Establishing procedures.

High-Performance Management

High-performance styles are around 30 years old and are viewed as being new and progressive.

High-performance develops flat, self-managing, self-organizing, high-performance teams.

These teams attend to the five functions of Traditional management: planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling leaving the High-Performance manager free to concentrate on strategic matters.

High-performance managers are generally more?emotionally intelligent , which enables them to stay calm under pressure and have better people skills. Conversely,?narcissistic leaders ?are more prone to behaving in unethical ways, which is likely to harm their teams.

High-performance leaders are described as being Level 5 (by Jim Collins in Good to Great) as they set up their successors to succeed, have a workman-like diligence and attribute successes to others.

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High-performance managers get the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus, and then figure out where to drive it. (Who comes before what.) They know that people are not your most important asset - the right people are.

They make rigorous people decisions, and when in doubt they don’t hire – they keep looking and they know to put their best people on their biggest opportunities.

Their management teams debate vigorously in search of the best answers, and they confront the brutal facts of their current reality.

High-performance managers create a culture wherein people have a tremendous opportunity to be heard and, ultimately, for the truth to be heard. They create a climate where truth is heard which involves four basic practices:

Lead with questions, not answers.

Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion.

Conduct autopsies, without blame.

Build reg flag mechanisms that turn information into information that cannot be ignored.

They understand that spending time and energy trying to motivate people is a waste of effort and if you have the right people – then they are self-motivated.

Progressive Management style.

Has a High-Performance or Transformational leadership style.

Builds self-organising, high-performance teams

Knows about managing upwards, downwards, and sideways.

Has people leadership skills. Is fair and reasonable, open, and honest, has charisma, uses emotional intelligence and is a good influencer.

Is consistent, and creates a culture of clear accountability with no public criticism of individual team member mistakes.

Is part psychologist, is collaborative, and gets team members to do more than they originally intended by delegating work based on team member strengths.

The High-Performance manager promotes active listening and shared leadership. They make a point of speaking last, encouraging team members to discuss and resolve issues and to make decisions as a team.

High-performance managers encourage autonomy and empowerment in all team members making team members feel strongly that their work is esteemed and self-congruent. Team members are usually self-motivated, intellectually stimulated and constantly challenged to be open-minded.

High performance is all about creating a safe workplace to have conversations and freely voice ideas. It is a process that changes and transforms individuals. In other words, it is the ability to get people to want to change, improve, and be led. It involves assessing team members' motives and strengths, satisfying their needs, and valuing them. It places team members; first, it creates high levels of mutual trust, accountability, and collaboration. Open communication is a crucial feature, as is the concept of shared leadership. Creativity is encouraged with no room for public criticism of individual team members' mistakes. High-performance leaders pay special attention to everyone's needs for achievement and growth, and their behaviour demonstrates acceptance of individual differences.

High performance supports agile environments, especially where failure carries a higher risk. You want the development of a product to be error-free, but you don't want that to hold back the progress and growth of future improvements. High-performance maintains a consistent development process, while high-performance leadership facilitates creativity and innovation, leaving people free to come up with new ideas.

High-performance is where a leader works with their team to identify change, and create a direction to guide the change through a shared vision. High-performance leadership behaviours influence team members and inspire them to perform beyond their perceived capabilities and to achieve unexpected or remarkable results. It gives team members autonomy over specific jobs, as well as the authority to make decisions. This induces a positive change in team members' attitudes and the organisation, transforming team members' expectations, aspirations, perceptions, and values into something better.

High-performance managers are focused on their people; they are role models who set high targets and expectations. Team members look to this style for strong values, courage, and a sense of ethics. To succeed with this style, a manager needs to be emotionally mature - not going off the handle, being erratic or inconsistent.

High-performance managers encourage their team members to innovate and create change that will help grow and shape the organisation's future success. This is accomplished by setting an example at the top through a strong sense of corporate culture, team member ownership and independence in the workplace. They do this without micromanaging - they trust trained team members to assume authority over their decisions in their jobs. Team members are given more room to be creative, look to the future and find new solutions to old problems. Team members on the leadership track will also be prepared to become high-performance managers and leaders themselves through mentorship and training.

High-performance management enhances the commitment, involvement, loyalty, and performance of team members who exert extra effort to show their support; they emulate their leader to emotionally identify with them and maintain obedience without losing any sense of self-esteem. High-performance managers are strong in adapting to different situations, sharing a collective consciousness and being inspirational while leading a group of highly motivated team members.

High-performance managers set challenging expectations and typically achieve higher performance outcomes as a result. They manage team members as valuable individuals, identifying and developing their talents. They are supportive, encouraging, and motivational. The High-Performance leadership style also positively influences the behaviours of Traditional managers to be more open, collaborative, and far more considerate towards the needs and development of their team members.?

High-performance managers delegate tasks as a means of developing team members. Delegated tasks are monitored to see if the team members need additional direction or support and to assess progress. High-performance leaders expect higher performance outcomes from their team members by giving them stretched goals and setting more challenging expectations outside of a team member's normal comfort zone. They create a culture of clear accountability.

High-Performance Leadership Behaviours

Has organizational awareness.

Understands and interprets the purpose of the business.

Knows who the customers are.

Knows the stakeholders.

Understands and develops various, different relationships.

Is a chosen field subject matter expert.

People management skills.

Understands that the right employees are the greatest asset.

Introduces Psychological Safety.

Introduces team member Engagement.

Leads team members by example.

Inspires, supports, and motivates.

Shows commitment and passion.

Is accountable.

Sets individual performance goals.

Empower team members so that they can achieve their goals.

Mentors for professional development.

Provides feedback and always gives a reason why.

Has honesty and integrity.

Exudes positivity.

Knows how to effectively delegate based on a team member's strength.

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