In recent years, leadership has been making the headlines and is a prerequisite for managing a team. It is necessary to show leadership, to act as a leader in order to be a “good manager”. We often get confused because a manager is supposed to take care of the day-2-day when the leader is more connected to strategy and long term vision. Fortunately, a new expression has appeared in recent years in business: the manager-leader.
It is a man or a woman who will occupy the 2 roles. And what style of leadership does a manager/leader use ? One could say that there are as many leadership styles as there are leaders. If each leader has a very particular way of managing his teams, motivating them. There are many different leadership styles that are related to the types of people in front of us and to the situation we find ourselves in.
Whether you are a Manager, a Coordinator or a Teamleader, you all face the same challenge when it comes to managing a team: bringing a diverse and varied group of people together to achieve one or more goals by working together. The problem is that you don’t necessarily choose your team. Your challenge will therefore always be to get everyone on your team to work together to achieve a common goal. But X doesn’t like Y and refuses to talk to Z… and of course you don’t have a magic wand that will make all the problems disappear! What can you do?
The moment you disagree with someone, disagreements or even conflicts arise. Especially in companies where power plays, the official or unofficial hierarchy is at the top of the list. As the saying goes, order is born out of chaos. We would therefore need conflict to move things forward, to question obsolete processes or to denounce iniquitous laws. Conflict is something healthy, something positive.
It allows everyone to express their opinion, their doubts or their deep disagreement. Too good to be true? Indeed, there are also latent conflicts that are just waiting for a spark to explode, or those that oppose parties are determined not to let go. Faced with this type of conflict, what can we do? How to manage conflicts in companies?
We address the issue of performance management at a collective level. What does “performance management” mean at this collective level?
This is in fact the answer to the question of how, as a team or as an organization, we make sure that we are moving in the right direction, that of the vision that we have developed together? Are we winning or losing? Managing performance means making sure, on a very regular basis, that every action we take brings us closer to what we want to achieve or deliver.
Before any operational change, getting a clear understanding (qualitative or quantitative) of what works well or what works less well in an organization or team is a key step. The performance diagnosis is the key element that will answer this question by allowing us to really take stock of what the organization is delivering in relation to what is expected from the different actors in the organization. It is a process that also allows the actors of the organization to take ownership of this diagnosis.
One of the great challenges faced by every leader at any level of an organization is to create an engaging and motivating vision for his or her team. This vision, in order to be implemented, will need to be in line with that of his unit and his company and will contribute to the creation of value for all stakeholders (including shareholders). This vision will also be translated at the level of each leader’s team to help them take ownership of the vision and stay motivated every day.