With the word wars and various social media fires started by Musk’s recent tweet on managers needing to know how to do the work of their people … I am bracing for a resurgence of related firefights like leader vs. manager, are managers needed in agile organizations, and are managers even needed (e.g., Holacracy themes)!
Organization and role designs vary widely, and the statements about what “managers” should be/do … or not be/do … will also vary widely in relevance to your situation.
For instance, for any given role/job, who does – or provides – the following? The same person or different roles/people? (somewhere in the bowels of my computer I have a list I made sometime ago but it is resisting search, so these are some recollections 😉
- Hiring/selection (find someone to do the job)
- “what to do” (results desired, including any quality parameters or values adherence)
- “how/when/where/etc. to do” (how to achieve results)
- Development/training as needed (increase ability to achieve results)
- Resources, tools, etc. to help do the work
- Feedback about desired results vs. actual results
- Performance management, if done in the organization
- Compensation decisions/input
- Removal if necessary
These also assume that *someone* has set the overall organizational context of purpose/mission/”why”, vision, and so on.
What would you add to the list?
What impact do items on the list have on pro/con views of Musk’s statement?
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