Management Success - Do Soft Skills Work
A few weeks ago I was asked to give a talk about wether management success was about soft skills or process. Though intuitively I knew the answer. The audience was rather high brow so I thought I better do some research and get the facts.
I was reflecting on one section of research about taking action. Elton Mayo and Fredrick Taylor are two management gurus. Ever heard of them? Perhaps not, though they were amazing with their insights at the time.
I thought you might be interested in what these guys are famous for and how far we have actually come, or have we? Oh and for those of us that like facts and data. It gives some real evidence that the softer side of management really does have a major place.
On to the story. Well Fred Taylor died nearly hundred years ago. 1917 to be exact.
Never the less his theories at the time where an absolute breakthrough. He was said to be the grandfather of scientific management.
He was actually an American inventor and engineer. He enabled industry, at the time to become more prosperous and efficient. His management theory was based on his extensive research that concluded:
1. Increasing specialisation and division of labour will make a process more efficient.
2. Systematically analyze the relationship between the worker and task and redesign processes to ensure maximum efficiency e.g. use a bigger shovel so more grain can be lifted with each action
3. Have written procedures for each task and ensure they are followed by supervision and quality
control.
4. Get maximum prosperity for employer and employee alike by linking pay and other rewards directly to work output.
5. Select workers with the right skills and abilities for the specific task and thoroughly train them to follow the procedures.
6. Management and workers equally responsible for achievement of goals.
Interesting don't you think. I know a number of us moan and groan when it comes to process and oh how useful it is when you are managing sales people. So tell me which of the above do you do with your team?
Never mind lets move on to a much more enlightened soul. Elton Mayo came along a few years later.
He was an Aussie. Mayo's key work was carried out quite a few years later than Fred in the early 1900's. Elton was interested in employee motivation and commitment and importantly for us as sales managers, how it all actually worked together. So Elton came up with his Human Relationship theory.
His best known work was the Hawthorne Study in the Western Electrical Company in the USA, and the development of the "human relations" approach to management.
In the Western Electrical Company study, Elton Mayo observed that worker productivity depended less on lighting conditions in the work area than on the workers perception that management were interested in them.
Elton proposed that higher productivity could be gained by good communication and emotional connection between workers and management. This was a quite a change from Fred Taylor's work, where management's role was to meet organisational goals.
Time and motion studies and piecework pay would increase productivity to a point, however further increases could only be gained by meeting the individual worker's needs.
Satisfaction comes from recognition and security. Elton Mayo believed that work satisfaction was based on recognition, security, and being part of a team, over and above monetary rewards.
He raised awareness of the need for management to be more involved with workers at an individual emotional level. This change in thinking gave birth to the "human relations" approach to management.
Whilst at an intellectual level we might think we know this? Implementation and, knowing how to create these emotional connections is another matter.
So often connections between individuals and sales managers happens, at best sporadically. In our experience, as consultants this is where we are often brought in to "fix" the problem.
So it is interesting that these "ideas" and "best practise concepts" where brought to our attention over 100 years ago. Yet we are still struggling to get it right with our sales teams.
So what can you take away from this? Having a high performing team is about both scientific management and human relations.
Human beings are interesting creatures. We function best with both structure and attention. The best sales managers have a knack of combining both so well. It's a skill to learn as soon as possible.
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