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Every manager must be sure that he or she will develop the competence and knowledge of those they supervise. Every employee has a potential for personal and professional development, and a good manager should discover and develop this potential. We will start with the idea that each person wants to know more. When a young employee comes to the company he has a lot of theoretical knowledge, personal ideas and visions. He has read a lot of books and articles, but he is still asking himself a lot of different questions. In that moment he needs someone to teach him how to become successful.
When you are a small child your parents teach you how to walk, and when you make your first steps in your career you also need a “parent” to teach, to give support, to empower and whatever else necessary. The effective manager is always ready to become such a “parent”. He is always open to his employees and colleagues, he shares his knowledge, and he inspires others with his own experience and example. During the process of teaching he always remains patient and supports everyone in every step of the way. And of course leaders take the time to thank employees for a job well done.
But teaching doesn’t mean only sharing manager’s knowledge with someone; it also means that the manager takes a role of mentor. The term "mentor" has been used quite often in recent years. Jacqueline D. Heads, academic advisor for the Rutgers University College of Pharmacy in New Jersey defines this term as the following “A true mentor motivates you and impels you to move to the next level, mobilizes you by advising you on how to get there, and finally, like a guide, a mentor informally monitors your progress to make sure you are moving in the right direction,"[30]
But why should we pay so much attention to teaching role of manager or his mentoring role? The answer is obvious: teaching is a core competency the effective manger should have. The idea of effectiveness changed the vision of teaching and today more authors speak not only about teaching or mentoring but about a developmental manager.[31] That means that instead of taskmasters and evaluators, managers are most effective as coaches, motivators, symphony conductors and employee developers”[32] We will pay more attention to this idea.
Developing happened not at home but mostly at the work place during the work itself or during the special classes. That is why it will be useful for each manager to create and to follow a development plan to avoid pointless talks and wasting of time. The idea of “A+ employees takes A+ managers”[33] seems to our group to be a very interesting and future oriented idea of cooperation between manager and employees. According to this idea you should follow these rules while developing people:
Appreciate uniqueness of the people
Assess capability of their team members
Anticipate the future (leads others in the future)
Align aspirations (create win/win partnerships built on trust and loyalty)
Accelerate learning
But in practice the theory is always confronted with reality. One of the main problems of teaching or developing people is that a lot of managers are afraid of teaching other people. The main reason for such an attitude is idea, that if you as a manager will teach someone everything you know and after that he may become better and smarter then you, and take your place. Of course it can happen. But then manager should turn back to his main values and decide what is most important to him: his own career or his company’s success.
At the same time, if you are going to share your knowledge with someone, to teach, to develop and to become a mentor you must broaden your own knowledge. The individual becomes a manager because he was chosen to get results and to use his knowledge, not because he won a popularity contest. Employees are not going to listen to a person who has no knowledge in what he is talking about or gives out false information. People need to believe that a manager has the proper skills and abilities to carry out what he claims to be experienced in. Only then a manager will earn a respect and employees will become his like-minded team. How will you be able to do this?
Реферат опубликован: 16/05/2006