Becoming a more successful manager

"Organisation is reorganisation, and that's all there is" - Edward Land, founder of Polaroid, once said.

Today's constant is change. In this environment, senior and mid-level managers know well that "everyone is self-employed". Managers and executives are constantly challenged to demonstrate, document, and communicate the contribution they make to the success and bottom line of their organisation.

The fading expectation that a manager gradually develops through a hierarchy of increased responsibility within a single organisation or business over 10 to 20 years appears less likely for most in today's dynamic business environment. The competitiveness of a global market place, constant mergers and acquisitions, the reduction of supply tiers, and expanded technological capabilities all foreshadow a more diverse future.

Today's manager must become his or her own pathfinder in this complexity, positioned for the next assignment with their current employer or the next.

Today's managers need to have diverse skills and capabilities necessary to serve a variety of organisations or assignments. Tomorrow's managers will be akin to internal consultants, who will survive and flourish in a project-driven world. Success will be defined as a value-based contribution to one's current assignment.

Creating an Individual Development Plan

In the impermanence of today's market place, the successful manager understands that he is primarily responsible for building a career plan which will not necessarily be fulfilled in any one organisation or completed in any uniform career ladder.

The Individual Development Plan (IDP) is an effort to truly understand and develop a mix of skills and abilities that one brings to any work assignment, which can be transferred to another organisation or even a different industry, as needed.

An IDP also serves to provide today's manager with an anchor for individual success, which is not based solely in their immediate job circumstances or with their current employer.

An IDP includes three elements: personal leadership development; professional leadership development; public leadership development.

Recent research on executive derailment strongly indicates that executive leaders and senior managers do not derail from a deficit in professional skills, but from the lack of full development of the personal and public sides of their lives. Individuals whose self-worth is totally dependent on success at the workplace are the most likely candidates for failure.

Stephen Covey, in his popular book Seven Habits of Highly Effective Leaders, gives evidence to the need for meaningful personal contributions in life, which include family, friends and community. Setting goals and establishing priorities for this dimension of life is a critical component of an IDP.

It is obvious that professional development activities within and beyond one's immediate workplace are critical components of an IDP. Building your resumé outside the organisation through involvement in professional associations, professional training, and virtual study programmes are fundamental elements of building your IDP. It is important for today's manager not to wait for his or her boss or HR executive to suggest ways to develop as a professional. Proactively identifying these opportunities is the responsibility of each and every manager.

The versatility of managers to serve in a variety of settings is often enhanced by public service. An IDP should include opportunities to share one's management skills and expertise in community service with other business and civic leaders on boards and committees. This public leadership provides critical contacts for the future and sharpens the ability to understand and work with diverse organisations and individuals.

Assess your skills and gaps proactively, before others do

Many managers and executives wait to hear about their skill gaps through performance assessments, customer evaluations, or the feedback of direct subordinates in 360° assessment processes. It is often too late when you wait for others to identify the gaps in your skills before taking action to improve yourself and understand one's own inherent blind sides in leading and managing. We all have them!

Seek diverse rotational assignments

Tomorrow's manager will understand how the entire organisation works. It is critical for one's own career development to understand the complete picture of an organisation and how one's contribution adds value. The best way to assure one's understanding of the entire business is to constantly seek diverse rotational assignments within the organisation.

This knowledge of internal customers and functions is vital. Proactive managers seek opportunities to work in diverse line or staff roles for short periods of time They seek specific project assignments that give them the opportunity to understand or learn a new part of the business in which they haven't been involved. For example, a production manager may seek the opportunity to be on a marketing team for a new venture to understand and contribute to the whole business.

Build your team and develop potential successors

Many managers in today's dynamic marketplace live in fear that by sharing their knowledge or communicating their intellectual capital, they will become easy targets for replacement. In fact, the opposite is almost always true. Building the capacity of your team and willingly sharing your corporate memory and intellectual capital with your subordinates is a critical component to future success.

Rather than being identified as unnecessary in your current role, it is far more likely that you will be identified as a potential candidate for new opportunities that may emerge as your organisation or business grows. Building the capacity of your direct reports to enhance your goals, learn your responsibilities, and become self-directed will build the value of your current assignment and demonstrate your competencies for higher levels of leadership in the future.

Seek out a coach or mentor

Many large organisations have established coaching and mentoring processes. The ability to sit confidently with a senior person and understand their wisdom and success stories are valuable assets to minimising mistakes and accelerating one's learning curve as a manager or executive.

If formal coaching or mentoring programmes are not available at your workplace, a number of consulting firms have established such a niche in working with mid-level and senior managers to help them prepare for the future. Proactively seeking a coach or mentor could be an invaluable means of validating one's current skills, identifying gaps for improvement in leadership competencies, and building one's political astuteness to add value to future organisational assignments.

It is evident from these strategies that tomorrow's manager will become more valuable by becoming a pathfinder for his or her own career. Emphasising self-direction and versatility in one's career development often increases the opportunities to add value to your current assignment and expands your capacity for innovation in future assignments.

At a minimum, it may shorten or eliminate the painful cycle of transition between jobs or companies in the future. Today's manager will become tomorrow's leader by becoming a versatile pathfinder for the many circumstances and assignments yet to come.

Emanuel Farrugia, MIM, M.Inst CM (Dip.) UK, Dip. Mgt, Dip.Trib.Eccl.Melit., is a Full Member of the Institute of Professional Managers of the UK.