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There are two kinds of managers. The many who come to work each day, carry out their duties, occasionally seething but mostly just going through the motions, and the few who bring passion and commitment with them everyday. These are the folks who go to heroic lengths if that’s what it takes, engage deeply with the issues, and have flashes of insight that can lead to valuable innovations. These are the ones who have made an emotional commitment to their jobs.
That kind of commitment is worth more than financial, intellectual, and physical commitment combined. It’s what solves unsolvable problems, creates energy when all energy has been expended, and ignites commitment in others. If you’ve ever witnessed people who are emotionally committed to a cause—working like they’re being paid a million when they’re not—you know how valuable it can be. Any legendary organizational performance is the result of emotionally committed managers. The question is, how can companies get more of them?
The key neurobiological source of emotional commitment is the ability to live your own deepest values in a relationship or environment. Sounds simple, but gets complicated: “manager” can be a great job, but embedded in the job description is often the requirement to regularly subordinate personal values in favor of company priorities. What the company wants done and how it wants it done must take precedence over a manager’s own deep preferences. This, however, is the equation for emotional detachment. Whenever there is a deep divide between who people are as human beings and who they have to be as managers, all hope for emotional commitment is lost.
Experts in human behavior will tell you that if you want an emotionally committed relationship then the people in that relationship must be allowed to be true to who they are. If a company wants the best of what human beings can offer, it has to allow them the freedom to give it. That means that managers must be free to pursue their own values within the company. This is not licensing chaos; it is ensuring control. There is no more reliable way for the company to become the cause than by not always being the cause.
Can companies trust their managers to remain committed to the enterprise if they’re free to live their values at work? They can if they allow managers to pursue true fulfillment and to realize deep connectivity and purpose.
This is the system that managers will protect. This is the system managers dream about.
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McKinsey's Lenny Mendonca discusses on Big Think, a global online forum, how companies can learn from the current economic crisis and build better businesses for the future.
Dear evaluator Chief executive officer is the first person in indian context explicitly coperative but at times of dynamic decisions and creative decisions prefers to be more conservative. systematic observations found risk averse implicitly. submitted modestly nookala rambabu
Posted 15 April 2010, 10:58 by prof.nookalarambabu
I believe the key to finding, keeping and developing great managers is to use the culture of a company (as embodied by the values of the board and CEO) as a template for identifying existing or incoming executives whose values and personalities are aligned. Those of us who have been lucky enough to have worked with kindred managers know what it’s like. They exercise the same value judgement in making decisions, they treat others as you would, they don’t wait to be told or asked, they just do, which you as CEO enable (set free) because you know they will do as well as or better than you would or could. CEO’s need to demonstrate and live their own values and be prepared for the multiplicity of similar efforts. It’s exciting, liberating and explosive.
Posted 14 April 2010, 02:52 by Mark Southall
100% agree with you on this topic. Great article!
Posted 12 December 2009, 11:46 by John Taibi
I couldn’t agree more. most employers though do not have the guts to create this kind of environment. There needs to be a paradigm shift from the top and smart trust should be the outcome. Trust your managers, give them enough operating space and watch them take your company to a whole new level. Innovation will thrive in an environment like that.
I know you must be wondering, will they not abuse the trust? Some will but the majority will do their best to make sure trust levels are as high as possible. For those who do, it will not be long before they exit on their own
Posted 1 October 2009, 05:17 by Ben
There are all kinds of people.
And no one’s life long dream is to be a manager of someone else’s business. Or is it?
So If this will enable managers to live a life of fufillment. I think you are right on.
We need that.
But companies need to reward their managers and employees more often.
And it doesn’t always have to be something with a price tag attached.
For You, from a friend,
http://www.mayyoubeblessedmovie.com/
Caroline
Posted 24 March 2009, 01:59 by Caroline Schukraft
Hello Stan, I so appreciate you talking about values. In a business world mostly obsessed with exteriors (tangibles), it is refreshing to see someone value the interiors (intangibles), as we will need both interiors and exteriors to formulate truly comprehensive management strategies for the future.
When you write: “Can companies trust their managers to remain committed to the enterprise if they’re free to live their values at work?” I would answer: emphatically yes, without a doubt they can. Where it looks like you and I part ways is when you then fill in what those values should be: “They can if they allow managers to pursue true fulfillment and to realize deep connectivity and purpose.”
I disagree with you because I believe in level-wise development of values. Developmental scholars, many at Harvard, (Kegan, Cook-Greuter, Kohlberg, Gilligan, Graves, etc.) have shown that the human mind evolves toward greater complexity. It is not about accumulating knowledge, or what you think, but a fundamental shift in how you think: each time you evolve toward a higher mental altitude you have a broader, more inclusive view and can thus account for more of reality.
This shift toward a progressively more inclusive view has a direct impact on what an individual values… the correlations could not be more clear. What that means is that people operating at different levels value different things. This research highlights the fact that there is no one set of monolithic values in our people, rather there is a kaleidoscopic diversity of values, and if we want to empower our people to live their values at work, we absolutely must account for these well-researched levels of development.
Thanks for the thought-provoking post and good luck with your book on emotional commitment among managers!
Posted 5 March 2009, 15:49 by Annie McQuade
I tend to disagree to the views presented here. Chaos is required but with some order.
I am not against having chaos in the organisation, however, chaos needs to be “created” within the defined boundaries (read value system) of the organisation
I strongly believe that we can make managers deliver more if we allow them to operate with sufficient decision making room within the defined value system of the organisation.
One way to achieve this is to work towards the self organising mechanism ; eliminate rigidity in the structure, reward people on sharing internal and external bad news, and finally define a clear value system of the organisation which acts as a referencing point for employees every time they need to take decisions.
Posted 5 March 2009, 08:17 by Amit Dakshini
I am convinced with your point of concern.Its really hard to organizations to consider emotional quotient of managers, who are in large number.We know one can’t define qualities and values.
Posted 3 March 2009, 23:21 by Raghu Ram