Do Business Well

An increasing number of CEOs are relying on teams of subordinates to share corporate decision making, according to a Conference Board study. The report finds a trend in “the CEO’s utter dependence on a strong executive group. It is underscored by the increasing delegation of authority and a new emphasis on leadership rather than traditional professional management.”

For middle managers, this change is significant. Major shifts that start at the top filter down, and the manager who can adapt early will be in a good position when the trend becomes widespread. Even if participative management is not yet evident in your company, there are good reasons to try this management style in your work group:

• Building a strong team of managers can help you respond more effectively to change.
• A team approach helps you meet the challenge of increasing specialization in many business areas by encouraging brainstorming among members with different areas of expertise.

Participative management feeds your best employees’ ambitions and helps you groom successors so you can move up.

Here are some ways to start putting a team together:

• Adjust your own thinking to leading rather than managing. That means setting the climate, providing support and inspiration and being the interface between the group and others outside of it. You can work toward this new concept of your role if you have a group of competent people with whom you can share the traditional management functions of control, direction and administration.
• Analyze subordinates’ strengths. Look at the people who work for you (and with you) with a fresh eye, as though you were about to promote them to more responsible positions. Consider how energetic, imaginative, skilled, knowledgeable, experienced and ambitious each employee really is—and what more he or she might be able to contribute to leading the group.
• Use individual talents. As opportunities arise, bring qualified managers in at the inception of a project. Pick those who demonstrate the best potential to deal with a particular area of responsibility, and give them the authority to show what they are able to do in specific situations.
• Make the most of staff meetings. If your staff meetings have become perfunctory reporting sessions, try to broaden their focus. Use them to air your concerns and as a vehicle for including the staff in the planning process. Occasionally, encourage project leaders to run segments or entire meetings.
• Broaden your own horizon. The more effective the team you develop, the freer you will be to expand your scope of activities. You can start considering the larger organizational or competitive issues of your company and examining ways to make yourself more valuable to it.

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