A study finds that bosses can be useful but also sneaky
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Re: A study finds that bosses can be useful but also sneaky
#2People often talk about the extemes. Managers or no managers.
Why can't we have something in-between?
Like, instead of a manager, we have a team assistant. Someone who does burocracy and orga, but hasn't any power and the power is exercied in some way by all of the team members.
This would remove the "if all do it no one does it" problem and still prevent single people decisions.
Re: A study finds that bosses can be useful but also sneaky
#3Re: A study finds that bosses can be useful but also sneaky
#4People often talk about the extemes. Managers or no managers. Why can't we have something in-between? Like, instead of a manager, we have a team assistant. Someone who does burocracy and orga, but hasn't any power and the power is exercied in some way by all of the team members. This would remove the "if all do it no one does it" problem and still prevent single people decisions.
> Someone who does burocracy and orga, but hasn't any power
They are even less useful without power.
Problem is most of the managers are junior in their position. They don't have leadership experience. Often just got a promotion and come up from a different background and only have a few years of experience on management position. Or, they have some experience at different scale. So when they start on a bigger organisation, they are just like junior employees in my opinion.
Proper leadership requires lots of experience and skills.
The way it works best in my experience is the team helping them to work efficiently. If they (managers) are not informed enough, they start micromanaging everyone and everything around them because they feel nothing is aligned or everything is out of control.
Same story when they are misinformed. If the information is negative they panic and start direct communication with every team member. And when it is just false positives, they may look very unaccountable or impulsive.
The best is to inform them before they seek for information and updates. And use their powers to solve team problems. They have power to provide the support or remove impediments.
Re: A study finds that bosses can be useful but also sneaky
#5Most companies could chop an entire layer of middle management, perhaps many layers, and get an instant boost in productivity and happiness. I wonder if there’s any mechanism for workers and senior management to make this happen and share the rewards.
Re: A study finds that bosses can be useful but also sneaky
#6People often talk about the extemes. Managers or no managers. Why can't we have something in-between? Like, instead of a manager, we have a team assistant. Someone who does burocracy and orga, but hasn't any power and the power is exercied in some way by all of the team members. This would remove the "if all do it no one does it" problem and still prevent single people decisions.
I've had a few really good managers over the years and in all cases I wouldn't have wanted their jobs - yes they had power over me, but they always communicated clearly and asked for my input when appropriate, set clear goals and (most importantly) acted as a political shield while the rest of us were doing our jobs of getting stuff done.
Mind you - have had awful managers as well - but fortunately not very many and not for a long time.
Edit: I should also add that I've certainly been an awful manager at times....
Re: A study finds that bosses can be useful but also sneaky
#7People often talk about the extemes. Managers or no managers. Why can't we have something in-between? Like, instead of a manager, we have a team assistant. Someone who does burocracy and orga, but hasn't any power and the power is exercied in some way by all of the team members. This would remove the "if all do it no one does it" problem and still prevent single people decisions.
> Someone who does burocracy and orga, but hasn't any power They are even less useful without power. Problem is most of the managers are junior in their position. They don't have leadership experience. Often just got a promotion and come up from a different background and only have a few years of experience on management position. Or, they have some experience at different scale. So when they start on a bigger organi…
> They are even less useful without power.
If managers are getting things done by wielding their authority from the org chart, odds are they aren't great leaders to begin with.
In most organizations, leaders arise naturally, and they don't always match the org chart. Wise managers let those people shine, and help them succeed. Then the informal leaders help the team succeed, and the manager gets what they want because they did the cliche of hiring smart people and then letting them do what they do best.
In such a scenario, managers may ask what they are doing... because the team is doing it all without much help. But that is a good thing. The manager did their job, of building an effective team.
Re: A study finds that bosses can be useful but also sneaky
#8"... when it is difficult to measure what managers do, it can be tricky to design incentives to reward them."
Why would it be difficult to measure what managers do? Measure the total output of their team. That's it.
Re: A study finds that bosses can be useful but also sneaky
#9"... when it is difficult to measure what managers do, it can be tricky to design incentives to reward them." Why would it be difficult to measure what managers do? Measure the total output of their team. That's it.
A lot of teams would say that their output is in spite of their manager, not because of it. What if the manager's contribution is net negative?
Re: A study finds that bosses can be useful but also sneaky
#10Calling this a study of managers is quite a stretch... it's an arbitrarily designed game theory problem in which some people are labeled "managers" and others "workers" with no real relationship to those titles in the real world.
But yeah, managers can be useful and/or sneaky. They can also be sleepy, hungry, boring, sociopathic and all of the other things humans can be.