Perhaps nothing has changed as drastically in the past ten years as the role of management. As companies have enhanced their capabilities for in-process problem-solving and decision-making, they have shed many layers of middle management. With products and processes becoming more complex, and the workforce becoming increasingly knowledge-based, traditional roles of authority and hierarchy are rapidly being replaced by methods of shared responsibility and collaboration. Today's educated and motivated work force does not follow blindly or idolize its leaders. Instead, people demand meaningful participation in the success of their companies. They willingly take greater responsibility -- and they expect leaders to add direct value to those efforts. They expect leaders to teach and facilitate, not to command and control or to micro-manage.
Many managers are frustrated in their efforts to learn and adopt these new organizational competencies. They must learn new ways to add value to their knowledge-based organizations. They need help to fully understand and trust new approaches, and they need education, coaching and reinforcement to migrate from old methods to new roles as mentors and facilitators. Conard Associates uses Applied Behavior Management methods to pinpoint leadership behaviors that need to change, and to coach and reinforce individuals as they acquire new skills and learn to share leadership responsibility.
And it's not just that traditional managers need to change their behaviors -- we know that competitive process performance requires fast, capable problem-solving and decision-making -- by the people who are actually performing the process. Leadership behavior can be learned, and it can be demonstrated by individuals and teams on a situational basis.
As an ongoing part of our engagement with our clients, we frequently provide individual coaching and counseling to individuals and teams. Individual and team growth is a typical and valuable by-product of our Performance Excellence programs.
Revised:
April 06, 2009.
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