Change management 8, managers views

This event was hosted by Janka Stoker, the only female professor in this series.

Even thought the conference room not being suitable for interactive seminars, Janka Stoker, our lecturer for this evening, got it done to make it an interactive session. She hopped on and of the podium with a microphone on a long stick, she called a fishing rod, to get answers and responses from the attendees to her questions and propositions as a result of which a discussion unfolded. Janka showed us two short but interesting pieces of film.

Theme of the day was, in fact, the perception of managers about themselves and their peers and the perception of people around them (employees) on their behavior. It became clear from research that these view are completely different. In fact an appeal to do 360 degrees research regularly.
The phenomenon of ‘coaching’ was the main topic of this seminar.

Almost all managers still think of themselves as coaches, even when they are responsible for 50 people whom are spread across several work locations.
Furthermore they think it’s more than all right to impose decisions to change ‘from above’ (top down).
Some cherish the aureole of coach, because it wouldn’t be accepted by their peers and employees if it was otherwise. Then the employees are seduced to tell them they agree with the directives or the manager just presumes that the employees agree. Afterwards it will be apparent that the BOHICA principle (bend over here it comes again) has come in play. But frequently then it is too late….

This view of managers of themselves are not knocked on with all other realities. Janka confirmed this, with a number of research outcomes and study.

Beside of the affirmation of the insights I got from the other presenters in the previous seminars, it made me conclude that a manager must ensure that he/she gets regularly feedback on his/hers work and attitude. To keep them humble and aware