The CEO sent all managers home for a week — what happened?

Many years ago, I read an article that told a story that I remember very well and often tell when I´m doing Executive Coaching or Leadership training.

The story was about a manufacturing company whose operations were not going well enough.

• There were way too many mistakes made on the production line, with associated costs.
• There were way too many late deliveries of orders, with associated costs.
• Job satisfaction was low and employee turnover was high, with associated costs.

The CEO, who I think I remember was also the owner, had tried everything he could to make things better, but nothing worked.

A consultant hired — was that wise?

So, he decided to hire a consultant, who he believed could help him turn things around for the better.

After several conversations and analysis meetings between the CEO and the consultant, the consultant decided to take a good time to walk around the workplace and observe the daily activities, and how things were really going.

A few days later, at a meeting between the consultant and the CEO, the consultant suggested that all line managers be sent home for a week off.

The CEO thought that now he had made a mistake by hiring this consultant, the situation would probably get even worse if the line managers would not be there for a whole week, and therefore he did not take kindly to the consultant’s idea.

The consultant was very firm about this and asked the CEO to him, which he tentatively agreed to do.

What happened when all the line managers were away?

While the line managers were away, the consultant was there and continued to walk around the workplace and observe the daily activities and how things were going in the absence of the line managers.

In some units and teams, everything was going very well and as if nothing had changed. In other units and teams, everything went wrong.

After this week, the consultant suggested:

1. that the managers who oversaw the units and teams where everything went well would keep their jobs
2. that the managers who oversaw the units and teams where everything went wrong would not keep their jobs as managers unless they changed how they were doing their jobs.

The CEO thought this was a bit strange, there must have been more need for those managers in group number 2 since everything went wrong in their units and teams, they were in his mind clearly making sure that things were moving on and done in the best way by being around and managing their people.

The consultant convinced the CEO that it was just the opposite.

What is good management?

The best managers, in the consultant´s opinion, were those who had already helped people to know and understand what was expected of them, and what the goals were, empowered them with encouraging and supportive feedback to make decisions as needed, and to use their knowledge and experience to handle everything that may arise.

While managers who always had to be on-site so things could go well were actually bottlenecks in the operation. With all the necessary information, policies, and rules in their own heads. Leading to insecure and disgruntled employees. In fact, they were to a point an operational risk.

Good managers read both the needs of the business and the needs and expectations of the employees or workforce.

Good managers are future literate and see what is changing and how management needs to change along with other changes, be it technological changes, social changes, or others.

Methods and approaches that once worked well do not necessarily work well in the future.

A new approach to management — or coaching, for increased productivity

This story came to my mind a little while ago when I read a recent article on Fortune’s website .

The article tells the story of a company that asked all new hires what they thought they needed from a manager. Most of the answers were in the line of them needing , help with goal setting, opportunities to develop professionally and personally, and at work.

When this company saw these answers the company replaced managers with coaches, and #productivity increased by 20% and as well the #jobsatisfaction

This company has one coach for every six employees, and the coaches’ only job is to help employees increase their productivity.

When something comes up, employees now talk with their coach and not a manager. The difference is that the coach works to support and empower the employees to find their way forward, while the managers tend to manage people top-down. This new approach creates a #workplaceculture where everyone works to become better at what they are doing.

In this company, employees also get a monthly amount that they can use to buy courses and books, often based on tips from the coaches. In addition, there is all kinds of in-house training available, on topics that the coaches have seen to be useful to employees.

With this focus on productivity, employees are helped to connect or align their daily work with the mission of the workplace.

With this change, productivity and #engagement went up, not least because when employees feel that they are trusted and supported, engagement and commitment increase. In addition, the number of sick days went down, as well as #employeeturnover

Of course, this example here represents a fairly radical change, and not all workplaces are ready to go as far as what is described here.

But I would still encourage all workplaces to constantly review and develop their approach to people management.

Part of that could be a new approach to leadership training, helping managers examine their own skills, mindsets, and behaviors and how well they support success and satisfaction in the workplace.

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Herdis Pala is an experienced leader, with 20+ years in management positions, there of 13 years in C-Suite positions. Her responsibilities have mainly been within HR but also in Operations, Marketing, Service, Facilities Management, and more.

She is also a highly appreciated Speaker, Lecturer at Universities, Corporate Trainer, Executive Coach, and Management Consultant.

- Her most requested speaking and training topics are:

• Future of Work, Workplaces, Workforce, and Labor Market
• Unlocking success, empowering and preparing managers/employees for the future
• Self-Leadership and changes
• How to be a better co-worker
• Importance of healthy workplace culture and how to nudge it
• Employee Experience and Employee Journey
• 360° Success, in work and life, based on the principles of Self-Leadership
• How to Be Somebody´s “Best Manager I´ve Ever Had”
• How to Be a Better Manager — and Have a Better Life, At The Same Time.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.