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A handful of professors and researchers at the London Business School got together to author Business trends to watch in 2023 (link). Comments made by Dr. Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice in Organisational Behaviour, got me thinking. From her forecast, those who are managed may find gainful insights; similarly, those who do the managing may find new appreciation for their reports' experiences.
The Missing Topic
There are seemingly infinite resources about four workplace topics:
Starting a new job.
Doing the (technical) work.
Management, and
Leadership.
Setting yourself up for success. Getting certified and best practices. Be a better boss. How to lead. The difference between management and leadership. And the list goes on.
What about being managed? (There's also being led, but followership is altogether a different topic.)
Practical Advice
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Gratton made a few points that in my mind may be less prescient than they are practical. I'll cherrypick a few and categorize them to make a point.
Growth: "...workers have to both upskill and reskill to whole [a] new set of (often digital) skills."
Operate: "...the need for personal autonomy – through flexibility and choice. This is something that many people want..."
Cooperate: "...bring the generations together to support each other..."
Adaptability: "It’s a year to build resilience – in healthy and engaged employees..."[1]
Being managed means growing, operating and cooperating (see my article on Systems vs. Teams), and being adaptable to dutifully continue the other three.
What May Be Learned
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Likely for those in management, Gratton effectively challenged her readers in 2023 to "...support people to exercise the autonomy they need to make the most of this coming year."
The onus isn't just on the manager.
Available in that article are points for staff awareness and action. Staff members have reasonable expectations both of themselves and by the organization to grow, participate and adjust to the markets' influences. Another way of putting it is that the managed have groundwork laid to improve as an employee.
The managers can make their lives easier through open conversations about these practical matters, a baseline, if you will, for general expectations of their staff members. Parameters are the skeletons upon which managers execute the body of their work. Break a parameter and the rest of the system can fall to pieces.
Above all, knowledge of being managed is a healthy beginning to the manager-managed relationship. There are less-than-subtle undertones of empathy, compassion, experience, humility and personal ambition.
[1] Birkinshaw, Julian, et al. “Business Trends to Watch in 2023.” London Business School, 6 Jan. 2023, https://www.london.edu/think/business-trends-to-watch-in-2023. Accessed 9 Jan 2023.