Some companies still are discussing if they should manage or lead, while front-runner companies are already leaving leaders out of the equation by implementing self-organizing teams. What are the leadership trends that will disrupt the 2020 decade?
I have attended several courses and webinars about leadership trends, and almost all of them would dare to talk about how to manage vs how to lead, the differences and why you should choose either of them, or both at the same time. The manager plans, while the leader provides direction, the manager controls while the leader motivates, and so on. And still, leaders come back from those courses repeating the same behaviors at work, following the same routines. Nothing changes, while statistics show that only two in ten employees strongly agree that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work as per a Gallup research.
Introducing self-organizing teams
However, there are companies that have decided to permanently eliminate leadership roles, forming multidisciplinary and self-organizing teams. These teams have no leaders or middle managers. In general, each team is dedicated to a specific customer or product, and has all the specialists it needs to be able to develop the product from start to finish. From sales, to production, development and engineering, every department is within the same team. The structure is flat and hierarchies are almost non-existent. Each employee makes their own decisions, if they have questions they meet with the team and decisions are made by consensus. Strategic tasks and decisions or tasks being carried out by a leader, these tasks are distributed among team members. Examples of this type of organization are Buurtzorg with 7,000 employees, FAVI with 500, Morning Star with 2400 employees, and Patagonia, also American with 1350 employees.
The question is why are these self-organized team practices not known worldwide? Is it a new trend that companies will target in the future or is it a practice in decline?
The future of self-organizing teams
While these companies have proved successful, few companies have tried and implemented the system in the long term. AES for example, an energy generation and distribution company, worked for more than 10 years with self-directed teams, transforming a company of 2 people to one of 40,000 employees. But after the 2001 crisis, the committee decided to change the management style to the traditional one.
Google, with more than 100,000 employees and 100,000 employees tried to work with teams of engineers without leaders, they called it a “dis-org”. But after a year they returned to traditional teams, only that they defined a new rule, the “rule of seven”. In all the cases, managers were allowed a minimum of seven direct reports (an average of 12 to 20) which forces a flatter structure and prevents managers to micro-manage.
These experiments show that at least in the near future, leaders will not disappear completely, but for sure, something will need to change, maybe not so drastically. We can get the best of both worlds, and it is to develop the members of the teams so that they can become more autonomous, and at the same time train the leaders so that their role is more agile, like a pivoting coach.
Diving into 2020 trends
The new generations of younger employees, Millennials and Gen Z are super diverse and continue looking for more freedom and life balance, impact in decision making and involvement. Millennials who reach leadership positions by their side, do not want to spend 14 hours of their day at work, but are willing to work more hours from home, or from their phones, if they love what they do, have fewer meetings and more efficient, and be able to take vacations more frequently than their Generation X peers.
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Customers look for a more personalized experience that requires more employee engagement. The competition global, fast-changing and innovative, so the offer of products and services is ginormous. Some look for more affordable options, while others expect more sustainable options no matter the price. Tesla cars for example, just like cell phones, are updated online, you don’t need a new car to get the latest technologies. This has shortened the development times of a product from 2-3 years to a few months, or even days.
New practices to explore
I love watching sports like basketball or soccer, where team captains may leave the field, and take out the captain armband and give it to the next in line. That’s how leadership should work in real life. The leader should be:
- ready to leave the position when needed. Leaders should step up to that position because the team chooses them, not because they are the best specialists. So they should be ready to leave when the team needs someone else or when their help is needed somewhere else. This is very common in companies where work is organized by projects, so employees move from project to project, sometimes as leaders sometimes as specialists.
- not indispensable. A good leader is not someone who can do everybody’s job (or able to micro-manage effectively) but someone who can train their team members to become autonomous, self-confident and psychologically safe to speak up. Employees should be able to make most of the decisions without the leaders’ approval.
- constantly training new leaders. To make sure they are ready to leave when needed, and they are not indispensable, leaders should train new leaders in their teams. Either to replace them or just to take the lead temporary when the circumstances arise. Secrecy is one of the top behaviors promoted when assigned to leadership roles, and it is the first one that should be banned. Transparency should now be key. Information should be shared as much as possible within the team, to allow everyone to have the same possibilities to make decisions that allow them to grow and work at their best. Overprotecting team members instead of setting them free only keep leaders busier while preventing team members to project themselves.
Agile leadership
Becoming a leader should not be considered a promotion, simply a good fit for the employee’s strengths and capabilities. It should be a facilitation role within the team, just as important as the other operational roles. The leader should be trained on the right skills when getting the position or earlier. Leaders should be trained to be agile enough to move around as needed. How soon are leaders trained in your organization?
Lu Paulise
luciana@biztorming.com
@lupaulise
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