Managing in the Age of Uncertainty
Your Process
Stop. Don’t assume I mean “process” in the traditional sense.
Instead, I’m talking about your process for getting things done as a manager. Every manager is unique as a person — and, as a result, every manager has their own approach, even when using common processes like Agile or Six Sigma.
My research into the future of managing showed that people want to work for a manager who shares the way they get things done. Boomer managers were encouraged to keep secrets; “information is power” was a common refrain. The best people in the next generation of talent don’t have time for secrets, especially when it comes to planning their careers and opportunities on your team.
In the age of uncertainty, there’s no predictable set of steps to get ahead for millennials and gen-z — not in the way boomers could see a clear path forward on the corporate ladder. That’s why millennials and gen-z are looking for managers who can clearly connect the dots between a role on a team and how it advances a career.
The best people want to work for a manager who is consistent in the way they prioritize budgets and rewards — a manager’s “operating model,” if you will. Budgets and rewards are where the rubber meets the road for job roles and individual performance.
This issue of Managing in the Age of Uncertainty is focused on your process as a manager as one of the Six Drivers of Consistency.
Think about the way you manage your team each fiscal or calendar year. How do you set goals? How are budgets allocated? How is performance evaluated? How do you gather information? Are you a good listener?
Why Your Process Matters to People
The best people know every manager has their own behaviors. All managers do things in an idiosyncratic way when running a team, which is what I mean by a manager’s “operating model.”
Every manager takes a series of steps to set priorities and goals, and manage team performance. Because team performance sets the stage for rewards and recognition, your people care deeply about your unique approach to planning and operating the team.
Let me be specific: What you value in the way you organize a team for execution is what people want to know.
Only you can share what you value. I’m a manager who always favors making bets on the future and how to change the game. My planning processes are always built around big ideas versus incrementalism. As a result, my priorities, goals and metrics tended to favor game-changing approaches. At the same time, I’ve been managed by people who were obsessed with operational efficiencies and lowering the cost of doing business. Neither is better.
What matters is this: as a manager, you are accountable for a body of work and you have your own discipline to finish top 10 percent. Every manager does. Do your people know yours?
What Expectations People Have for a Manager
The team can only follow your lead if you share your process, or approach to managing the team’s work.
The simplest way to do this is to start with the calendar. Every organization or person uses some kind of calendar-based milestone (calendar/fiscal year) to plan revenue and expense goals. Inside revenue and expense goals are individual job roles.
I’m encouraging today’s managers to be the anti-”information is power.”
To attract and keep the best talent, your people want to know how their job roles and performance are affected by the way you answer these three questions:
1. How are goals set?
How is planning and target-setting accomplished?
What meetings or conversations?
Who is sitting at the table to set goals?
On what calendar?
How is data gathered to inform planning?
2. How are budgets allocated?
Who determines what budgets are required to achieve goals?
Are budgets allocated by function?
Are budgets allocated by profit drivers?
Are budgets allocated by sales results?
3. How is performance evaluated?
In what forums do leaders and managers judge results against goals?
Who is in the room when results are evaluated?
What’s the cadence of review?
How Your Process Helps Connect Career Dots in the Age of Uncertainty
When people know the process you use to run the team, it reduces concerns about capricious outcomes and encourages people to double down on your goals. The best people don’t want to be surprised. I was recently told how much millennials and gen-z despise the “inner circle” concept that characterized the way boomers managed.
In the end, telling the team your method to managing the team and its performance will encourage people to focus on being successful within the process — and maybe even help you make the process better.
At the same time, the way you determine your priorities, goals and metrics is a once-in-a-planning cycle opportunity to understand how optimized your team is for execution:
Do you have all the right roles and the right people in those roles?
Are the people in those roles playing to their strengths?
Do you have too many people doing the same thing?
Do you have too many people doing the same thing for too long?
Manager Thought of the Week
“Process is not a four-letter word.”
What Cisco Co-President Gary Moore told me when I asked him to describe the biggest challenge facing Cisco. I’ve told Gary this personally but I’d like the world to know how much I appreciate him for giving me the chance to run one of the largest sales enablement teams at Cisco. He took a risk on me, and I’m only able to write this newsletter because of the 8 years I spent managing more than $500 million of Cisco’s money and all the amazing people on my team.
In Summary: Principles of Managing in the Age of Uncertainty
I left Cisco to answer this question with research and evidence: What does the manager of the future look like? What are millennials and gen-z seeking in a manager? Which behaviors, tactics, skills or processes matter? What’s it going to take to attract and keep the best people over the next decade?
Based on this research, the core philosophy of this newsletter is rooted in one idea: successful managers in this moment in time, for this generation of talent, need to be “career dot-connectors.” The next-gen doesn’t expect to spend their entire career on your team — that’s an idea boomers grew up with. A job on your team is like a chapter in a career story to the current generation. If you want the best people on your team, you have to connect the dots between roles on the team and the career opportunities of the people working on the team.
What is the“Age of Uncertainty”? If the industrial age was about taking predictable steps up the ladder, the age of uncertainty is about finding or discovering the path of a career without any predictable steps, without an obvious ladder — it’s why being a career dot-connector will differentiate you as a manager.
How to be a Great Manager in the Age of Uncertainty: Be a Career Dot Connector is available on Amazon.
What kind of manager are you? Take my free self-assessment and learn about yourself.
A lot of good ideas Ron. Thank you.